New immigration rules just issued by the Trump Administration make it significantly more difficult for people with disabilities from other countries to become permanent residents. These rules are, of course, being challenged by lawsuits. But even if they are shot down, the squatter currently occupying the White House can take heart: The buzz his proposal has generated will still reinforce the grand old American myth of self-sufficiency that brutalizes people with disabilities.
The new rules greatly expand the criteria that can be used to bar non-citizens from obtaining green cards that allow them to enter the United States because they might become a “public charge.” A public charge is defined in the rules as “an alien who receives one or more designated public benefits for more than 12 months in the aggregate within any 36-month period.”
The key word here is “designated” because everybody uses a public benefit every day, such as streets and sidewalks and public schools. So in order to validate the libertarian nonsense that anybody is self-sufficient, we must characterize certain public benefits as a right and certain other public benefits as mooching.
In order to validate the libertarian nonsense that anybody is self-sufficient we must characterize certain public benefits as a right and certain other public benefits as mooching.
Under the new policy, set to take effect in October, green cards can be denied to anyone deemed likely to at some point need such designated taboo public benefits as food stamps, most forms of Medicaid, Section 8 public housing assistance, and certain other forms of subsidized housing.
It’s difficult to live with a disability in the United States without needing help from at least one of those programs, unless you’re very wealthy. I lived for ten years in public housing. The wages of the crew of people who assist me in my home each day are paid by a Medicaid-funded state program.
When Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, discussed the rules at a White House press briefing, he said, “We certainly expect people of any income to be able to stand on their own two feet.”
With one slick twist of a metaphor, he equated having a disability with being a likely societal burden.
In a statement vehemently opposing the new rules, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund said, “Cuccinelli’s ableist metaphor and the sentiments expressed by the Trump Administration speak volumes.” The statement says, “The Trump administration is saying, in essence, if you are poor, have a disability, are older, may need help with medical care or food or housing for a period, or come from a place where you can’t survive, you are a lost cause.”
The statement goes on to say, “People with disabilities know what it is like to be counted out. We know the exclusion built into the ‘bootstrap’ mentality that they evoke all too well. The disability community, whether citizens or not, also understands that the Trump administration is preying on fear, and peddling a century’s old lie designed to divide and conquer.”
So the squatter can now add people who, literally and figuratively, can’t stand on their own two feet to the endless list of those he wants everyone to believe are threatening to undermine good old American values. Since this is how he fuels the advancement of his warped agenda, it serves him well.
Editor's note: The original published version of this column incorrectly stated that the new rules will affect the ability of immigrants to become U.S. citizens. That reference has been removed. The rule affects only their ability to obtain green cards.