Senior Advisor to the President Stephen Miller has just won a major battle against immigrants in the United States – legal immigrants. After tremendous pressure on the Department of Homeland Security, Miller is advancing his agenda of not just blocking migrants from entering the country illegally, but making life in the U.S. so unbearable for legal immigrants that they leave the country.
The AP calls it one of the Trump administration’s “most aggressive efforts to restrict legal immigration.”
Under a new rule the Dept. of Homeland Security will begin in October to deny green cards to immigrants who have ever used taxpayer-funded assistance, such as food stamps, Medicaid, health care, prescription drug subsidies, or Section 8 housing vouchers. Additionally, the rule allows DHS to deny green cards to any immigrant who cannot prove in the future they would not access government benefits, as NBC News reports.
Miller, who has been credibly called a white nationalist, pressured DHS to pass the new rule – called a “public charge” regulation – and do it quickly. The new rule would allow the Trump administration to reinterpret a 1999 law to specify what government assistance programs can or can not be used by immigrants.
Politico earlier this month published a report after having obtained emails that “shed new light on how aggressively Miller has pressured the Department of Homeland Security to move faster on regulations to limit immigration. Critics say the new rule will be used to shore up Trump’s political base in the coming election year, and that it’s an illegitimate tool to reduce legal immigration.”
Miller wrote in April that the “timeline on public charge is unacceptable.”
“The public charge reg has been in the works for a year and a half. This is time we don’t have. I don’t care what you need to do to finish it on time. You run an agency of 20,000 people.”
“It’s an embarrassment that we’ve been here for 18 months and USCIS hasn’t published a single major reg,” Miller barked.
Studies show some immigrants who do not fully understand the new rule will choose to un-enroll from vital government assistance programs in the hope of protecting their immigration status. That means taking food, health care, and housing away from families, including those with young children.
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