Crowd Cheers as Trump Promises to Ban New Immigrants From Welfare – Even Though It’s Been the Law Since 1996

Calls for ‘New Immigration Rules’

At a campaign-style rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Wednesday night President Donald Trump promised his base he will propose a law banning new immigrants from receiving welfare for their first five years in the U.S. The event was the fifth campaign-style rally Trump has held since becoming president. Each has been held only in states that supported him.

“I believe the time has come for new immigration rules which say that those seeking admission into our country must be able to support themselves financially and should not use welfare for a period of at least five years,” Trump told supporters. “And we’ll be putting in legislation to that effect very shortly.”

The anti-immigrant crowd cheered. 

“We want to get our people off of welfare and back to work,” the campaigner-in-chief insisted. “We also want to preserve our safety net for struggling Americans who truly need help. We want to help them,” he claimed.

And then the president framed the issue as he often does: us vs. them. “But others don’t treat us fairly.”

What the president didn’t tell them: it’s already the law, and has been for 21 years, since 1996.

President Bill Clinton banned immigrants from accessing a wide range of public assistance programs, including federal welfare benefits, health car benefits, and even subsidies for home energy costs, as Bloomberg News reports. The law is known as the the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.

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