There seems to be a need for a fresh new kind of immigrant for Trump to vilify at his rallies. Maybe hatred for Mexicans and Muslims is running out of gas.
Because now the Department of Homeland Security plans to crack down on immigration by people known as “public charges.” A public charge is someone who doesn’t have much money.
Currently, an immigrant can be branded a public charge under federal law if they receive, or are likely to need, certain types of government support. This can be in the form of Social Security Supplemental Income, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or programs that pay for people to stay long term in nursing facilities.
On October 10, DHS proposed in the Federal Register a rule change that would greatly expand the criteria for determining who is a public charge. It would include needing Medicaid (with limited exceptions), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Medicare Part D Low Income Subsidy for purchasing medicine. It also includes those living in rent-subsidized public housing with Section 8 housing vouchers or Section 8 Project Based rental assistance.
Whoa, mama! That’s me! According to this new criteria, I am a public charge! I rely on a Medicaid-funded state program to pay the wages of the crew of people I’ve hired to come to my home and help me get in and out of my wheelchair, do my laundry, etc. I also lived in public housing for ten years. I don’t intend to return to public housing but who knows what life may bring?
So if I wasn’t a citizen and was applying for citizenship or a green card, I would likely be turned down on the basis that I am a dirty, stinkin’, freeloading public charge.
If I was applying for citizenship or a green card, I would likely be turned down on the basis that I am a dirty, stinkin’, freeloading public charge.
But using public programs like these doesn’t necessarily make a person a burden to society. As the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund noted in a statement vehemently opposing the rule change, many people “with chronic conditions, episodic disabilities, and acquired disabilities . . . can and do work when they can but need access to health care to remain productive.”
The statement continued: “It should not be surprising that this administration seeks to extend the dualistic way it treats Americans with disabilities, and non-citizens, by attempting to assess one’s worth based on income, and linking the future potential of every immigrant to how much money they make.”
And you don’t have to be disabled and/or unemployed to be a public charge. If your family income is less than 125 percent of the federal poverty level of $31,375 for a family of four, you might be a public charge under the proposed rule. The proposed rule says, “Food, shelter, and necessary medical treatment are basic necessities of life. A person who needs the public's assistance to provide for these basic necessities is not self-sufficient.” I guess that means you can still be a dirty, stinkin’, freeloading public charge even if you work full-time at Walmart.
DHS will take comments on the proposal until December 10, 2018, and then review them before implementing, revising or withdrawing it. And then Trump will have something to brag about as he campaigns for re-election. He can say maybe he didn’t build that wall, but he did build a bureaucratic barbed wire fence that keeps out the lazy public charges.
That ought to make his rabid devotees gleefully chant, “Lock ‘em up! Lock ‘em up!”