On Monday, the Trump Administration’s “public charge” rule went into effect. Under the new rule, immigration officers are given much more jurisdiction to turn away an individual seeking to enter the U.S., renew a visa or apply for a green card. Under the new system, immigration officers may reject an application if a person is likely to be a public charge — someone who uses public benefits programs like Medicaid.
The test immigration officials use will evaluate an individual based on various factors, including English language proficiency. Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said that the rule effectively establishes a wealth test for immigrants to come to the nation.
“Since coming into office the administration has slashed legal immigration,” Noorani said during an interview with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday. “Now, the question on the table is how much further is this cut going to be because of this public charge rule or in essence a wealth test.”
Noorani said that this is not the first time a public charge rule has been used in recent history, but that the Trump administration’s version of it is more punitive than others, predominantly because of the test’s loose criteria of who can be deemed a potential public charge. Noorani said the rule change could cause a significant disruption to the flow of immigrants and foreign visitors to the U.S.
“What’s going to happen over time is that we’re going to see hundreds of thousands who are here in the U.S. affected and then millions in the future whether they want to come as workers or as tourists having to fill out paperwork and taking a gamble on whether or not they’ll get a visa.”
Noorani is Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. His latest book is “There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration”
