Tuesday, January 28, 2020

SCOTUS ALLOWS TRUMP GREEN CARD BAN

THE GORSUCH KAVANAUGH COURT
US Supreme Court Is Allowing The Trump Administration To Deny Green Cards To Immigrants Who Might Use Public Benefits

The government will now be able to deny permanent residency to immigrants who officials believe are likely to use public benefits, such as food stamps and Medicaid.

Hamed Aleaziz BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on January 27, 2020,

Elliot Spagat / AP
People seeking asylum in the US wait at the border crossing bridge in Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 8.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Trump administration’s request to enforce a sweeping policy that will allow the government to deny permanent residency to immigrants who officials believe are likely to use public benefits, such as food stamps, housing vouchers, and Medicaid.

The five conservative justices voted to allow the Trump administration to implement the “public charge” policy as a legal challenge continues in the federal courts. A federal judge in New York had instituted a nationwide injunction blocking the policy in October, just days after the Trump administration had hoped to roll it out.

“We are happy to see the Supreme Court step in the way they did here,” Ken Cuccinelli, second-in-command at the Department of Homeland Security, said during a call with reporters Monday. “We very much appreciate it.”

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his concurrence on the decision that the policy would be allowed to move forward: “Today the Court (rightly) grants a stay, allowing the government to pursue (for now) its policy everywhere save Illinois,” he wrote, explaining that a separate injunction was in place for the state of Illinois.

Immigration advocates and former officials said the decision would have massive implications.

“This is a fundamental rewrite of our legal immigration system without a single change in the law by Congress,” said Ur Jaddou, a former chief counsel for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Obama administration.

Sarah Pierce, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said the Supreme Court’s decision would allow a policy that will not only “unilaterally” change the face of immigration but “chill millions of immigrants and their US national family members from applying for or staying in enrolled in public benefits programs.”

USCIS will likely implement the policy in the upcoming days after being stopped from doing so in 2019.

The Immigration and Nationality Act has long allowed the government to reject granting permanent residency to immigrants who were determined to be a financial burden on society or a "public charge" — meaning they’re dependent on the government for financial support.

The new rule, however, alters how the government decides if someone is a public charge, allowing officials to deny green cards to those who have used or are determined to be likely to use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP food stamps), Section 8 housing vouchers and assistance, public housing, or most forms of Medicaid.

More than 4 million noncitizens were in families receiving SNAP benefits between 2014 and 2016, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute. More than 39 million people were enrolled in the program in June 2018, according to the Department of Agriculture’s most recent statistics. It did not break out the numbers by immigration status.

"Long-standing federal law requires aliens to rely on their own capabilities and the resources of their families, sponsors, and private organizations in their communities to succeed," Cuccinelli said in October.

But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy analyst at the American Immigration Council, said the public charge rule breaks "the fundamental promise that America is a land of opportunity for all people, rich or poor."

"The United States was built by people with few resources who came to the United States with a strong desire to work hard," he said. "The public charge rule undermines that tradition."
Hamed Aleaziz · Jan. 22, 2020

People on Twitter ask whose ancestors would’ve passed immigrant ‘wealth test’

The Supreme Court on Monday voted 5-4 in favor of Trump’s 
‘public charge’ rule.


Samira Sadeque— Jan 27 at 5:54PM | Last updated Jan 27 at 6:03PM

Samira Sadeque  January 27, 2020

The Supreme Court on Monday voted to allow the government to deny green cards to citizens who might need government assistance programs, according to multiple reports. The move led social media users to ask whose ancestors would have passed the so-called “wealth test.”
The court voted 5-4 with the conservatives leading the vote, lifting a former injunction on the program, which President Donald Trump’s administration said in August it would be reviewing, according to the New York Times. While previous provisions of the “public charge rule” was applicable only to those requiring “substantial and sustained long-term” government assistance, and was instrumental in green-card application being denied to less than 1% of applicants, the new measure will include even those who require occasional and/or minimal government assistance such as Medicaid and food stamps.  
Such strict measures would disqualify many immigrants, and advocates such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) condemned the vote.
“The administration has weaponized [Department of Homeland Security] to make it harder for immigrants to find a home, build a family and participate in our society,” Sam Brooke, SPLC deputy legal director, said in a statement on Monday afternoon. “The rule is just the latest effort in the Trump administration’s relentless attack on nonwhite immigrants in our communities and at the border.”  
Meanwhile, people took to Twitter to express their frustration with the ruling. Many shared their personal stories of how their own family wouldn’t qualify for the green card under the “wealth test” back in the day.
Many asked, with America being a land of immigrants, how many of those involved in the decision-making would likely be here if the wealth test was enforced upon their ancestors.

Many also quoted the “The New Colossus” poem that’s etched on the Statue of Liberty. Lines of the poem—”Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”—have operated as a tool for many advocates to remind the administration of American values.

In August, a Trump official said the “huddled masses” line in the poem was supposedly only about Europeans coming into America, which only lends to many people’s suspicions that the current public charge rule is specifically aimed at Black and brown communities.
Many outright said this is a result of electing Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose nomination initially faced much scrutiny and backlash in 2018.

Samira Sadeque is a New York-based journalist reporting on immigration, sexual violence, and mental health, and will sometimes write about memes and dinosaurs too. Her work also appears in Reuters, NPR, and NBC among other publications. She graduated from Columbia Journalism School, and her work has been nominated for SAJA awards. Follow: @Samideque

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