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Biden Reopens Legal Immigration for Welfare-Dependents to the U.S.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of President Joe Biden has formally reopened legal immigration to foreign persons who have a history of abusing American taxpayer-funded welfare programs.
The Trump administration approved the “public charge” rule in early 2020, making it less probable for foreign nationals to get green cards to permanently stay in the United States if they have previously utilized welfare programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, or taxpayer-funded housing programs.
Right after assuming office, Biden overturned the Trump administration’s established public charge regulation, opening the way to welfare-dependent legal immigration to the United States, which would eventually be paid for by American taxpayers.
USCIS began enforcing Biden’s public charge rule late last week, which states that foreign people with a history of assistance reliance would not be barred from applying for green cards to permanently resettle in the United States.
“[Department of Homeland Security] will not consider receipt of noncash benefits (for example, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, public housing, school lunch programs, etc.) other than long-term institutionalization at government expense,” the agency said.
When Trump issued the Public Charge regulation for the first time in 2019, surveys revealed that the program was massively popular among Americans. Approximately 6 in 10 Americans favored stopping welfare-dependent legal immigration, including 56% of Hispanics and 71% of black Americans.
The National Academies of Science reported in 2017 that state and local taxpayers are invoiced around $1,600 per immigrant per year to pay for their assistance, and that immigrant households use 33 percent more cash aid than American citizen households.
According to a similar study by the Center for Immigration Studies, approximately 63 percent of noncitizen households get at least one type of public assistance, whereas only around 35 percent of native-born American households receive welfare. Noncitizen families receive roughly twice as much welfare as native-born American households.
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