The Trump administration will soon introduce a new proposal making it more difficult for documented immigrants to obtain citizenship or permanent residency if they or members of their household ever used public welfare programs, NBC News reported.
The mastermind behind the plan is White House senior adviser and white nationalist Stephen Miller, whose greatest hits include crafting the administration's controversial travel ban, wanting to cut legal immigration in half, and actually enjoying seeing pictures of migrant families being torn apart at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this summer.
Per the administration's proposal, people who immigrate legally could be denied citizenship or a green card if they or members of their household ever used the the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare; supplemental nutrition assistance, better known as SNAP; children’s health insurance (CHIP); or other social programs. (We should note here that not signing up for Obamacare and being without healthcare would have resulted in a penalty for these immigrants.)
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According to NBC News, more than 20 million immigrants could be impacted by the plan. Advocates estimated that the proposal could affect even immigrant households that earn as much as 250% of the poverty level.
Legal immigration has already gone down under Trump. According to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), there will be a 20% decline in green cards granted to immigrants and a 10% decrease in the number of naturalized citizens by the end of this fiscal year compared to fiscal year 2016, the last one under the Obama administration.
Though President Trump loves to make a show out of calling for Congress to "fix" the immigration system, the new proposal doesn't need congressional approval.
Defenders of the Trump administration's dog whistling and cruel immigration agenda — banning domestic violence survivors from seeking asylum, separating families at the border, deporting undocumented folks with no criminal record — justify these actions by saying it's all part of enforcing the law.
It's not about keeping people from "shithole countries" out of the U.S. based on their race and ethnicity or to keep the nation white, they argue. It's about making sure immigrants do things "the right way."
Taking into account this new proposal, we call bullshit.