With stricter laws, the U.S. wants to prevent government, and that immigrants who might need state assistance, to U.S. citizens. Experts criticise the new rules as unfair.
Also, the US border wall is to reduce immigration – and now further measures are planned
On the way to U.S. citizenship, there will soon be a new hurdle for immigrants. The Trump Administration has announced that, from 15. October will be the “Public Charge”rule. To prevent immigrants, who could later possibly be the state on the bag, get a Green Card. The Green Card is a permanent residence permit. Immigrants who want to live permanently in the United States and plan to apply for U.S. citizenship, you must first have a Green Card.
The current interim chief of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Ken Cuccinelli, has summarized the change in the law with catchy words. He composed the message that is read on a plaque at the statue of liberty. In the original poem, Lady Liberty immigrants from all over the world receives with the words “Give me your Tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
From the poem in the statue of liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, …“
Cuccinelli to fit these words in an Interview with a radio station in the view of the U.S. government: “Give me your Tired and your poor, the stand on their own legs and not be a burden for the General public.”
Low income as the reason for the rejection
“Public Charge” (about “public burden”) are the rules in the immigration bill a long time ago. But now, the U.S. government fleshed out and tightened up the rules. Green Card applicants will be reviewed on a list of factors that are supposed to show whether the candidate will be instructed at the time of the Review or in the future on state support. Factors also include the age, health status and level of education and the current income of the applicant in addition to knowledge of English.
Objects of desire: the US Green Cards
This is a point Julia Gellat of the independent think tank Migration Policy Institute considers to be particularly problematic. Current income may say to a certain extent, future taxable income previously. But: “immigrants tend to show an increase in income, once you really arrive in the United States,” said the migration expert in the DW-interview. Therefore, the focus is on current income, especially in the case of immigrants makes little sense when it comes to predict whether a Person is in need of in the future support from the state.
“Immigrants have brought US economy to the fore”
With this scheme, the poor immigrants hoping for a Green Card, be at a disadvantage. The Migration Policy Institute says that mainly people from Africa and Latin America are affected, exactly the people the US President Donald Trump is a thorn in the eye. Immigrants from Europe, for example, fell less under the new rule. And it is precisely on the grounds of equality, several of US have now-the Federal States in a lawsuit against the government filed in: California, Maine, Oregon, Pennsylvania and the Federal district of Washington.
Abel Nunez, the Director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), a support organisation for migrants from Central America, criticized the focus on income also. “Immigrants as a group have brought to the economy of the USA forward,” said Nunez of the DW. “They take Jobs at the lower end of society, and work up from there, or allow their children.”
Many of the people who came in the past as an immigrant in the United States, might, under the new rules, no Chance, says Nunez. “You only have to look at the Irish immigrants. These people were Starving, really poor people. But they have had a major impact on this Nation. Today, there is no police station and no fire station in the major cities, which has not been influenced by the Irish Migration.”
The fear is in the air
Another point that will be considered under the new rule into consideration when it comes to who gets a Green Card: Has the candidate ever state support, for example in the Form of food stamps or health program Medicaid? In comparison to the previous law, the new “Public Charge can be designed to” control a significantly longer list of supports, use of immigrants in the application process negative.
Is disqualified, who could be forced to rely on food stamps?
The crux of this: immigrants who are not yet in possession of a Green Card, have to most of these supports anyway not a right. And programs like free school lunch for children from poor families, the immigrants have the right, not on the Negative list. However, immigration regulations, new and old, are so confusing that now the fear of the Green-Card-disqualification attack in order, says migration expert Gellat: “Many people say ‘safe’ and log off from all aid programs.”
It has also observed Nunez in his work at CARECEN already. “An effect is fear,” he says. “You have to think also to the Background against which this new scheme will be introduced. There is another attack, where the immigrant community is exposed to. President Trump has reviled as rapists and robbers and their countries of origin as a filth-holes referred to. Then the asylum laws of [aggravated] were. All of this creates the feeling that we are not welcome here.”