Private prison lobby smacking their lips.. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b5800a7bcc97 Trump administration preparing to close international immigration offices The Trump administration is preparing to shutter all international offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a move that could slow the processing of family visa applications, foreign adoptions and citizenship petitions from members of the military stationed abroad. USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna said in an email to staff Tuesday that he is working to transfer those duties — now performed by employees worldwide — to domestic offices and the State Department’s embassies and consulates. He wrote that if the State Department agrees, the agency would move to close its international field offices in coming months “in an effort to maximize our agency’s finite resources.” “I believe by doing so, we will better leverage our funds to address backlogs in the United States while also leveraging existing Department of State resources at post,” he wrote. “Change can be difficult and can cause consternation. I want to assure you we will work to make this as smooth a transition as possible for each of our USCIS staff while also ensuring that those utilizing our services may continue to do so and our agency operations continue undisrupted.” https://www.politico.com/story/2019...migration-international-offices-close-1218137 U.S. set to close international immigration offices U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to close all its international field offices, according to three people familiar with the decision. The offices — which are located in embassies and consulates around the world — handle everything from immigration applications and fraud detection. In addition, the offices provide expertise to other U.S. government agencies and partner with foreign governments. While President Donald Trump frequently highlights his opposition to illegal immigration, his administration also has taken steps to make the legal immigration process more difficult. The latest move could affect everyone from members of the U.S. military applying for citizenship to foreigners seeking to join their relatives in the U.S., according to those familiar with the plan. USCIS Director Francis Cissna said in an email to staff that the agency was in preliminary discussions to transfer the international workload to domestic offices and the State Department. He said the shift in resources would allow USCIS to focus on clearing immigration backlogs in the U.S. The naturalization application backlog stood at 738,148 cases on September 30, a 16 percent increase over the level just before Trump took office. USCIS spokeswoman Jessica Collins said in a written statement that the agency would work closely with the State Department and the Homeland Security Department “to ensure no interruption … to affected applicants and petitioners.”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/12/politics/legal-immigration-public-charge/index.html Trump admin announces rule that could limit legal immigration Washington (CNN)The Trump administration released a regulation Monday that could dramatically cut the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter and stay in the US by making it easier to reject green card and visa applications. The so-called public charge rule is designed to ensure immigrants can support themselves financially. In doing so, though, it'll likely make it harder for low-income immigrants to come to the US. Under current regulations put in place in 1996, the term is defined as someone who is "primarily dependent" on government assistance, meaning it supplies more than half their income. But it only counted cash benefits, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Supplemental Security Income from Social Security. Officials can take into account an applicant's financial resources, health, education, skills, family status and age. But few people are rejected on these relatively narrow grounds, experts said. Immigrant advocates have argued that the rule, as it was proposed, went far beyond what Congress intended and would discriminate against those from poorer countries, keep families apart and prompt legal residents to forgo needed public aid, which could also impact their US citizen children. They also said it would penalize even hard-working immigrants who only need a small bit of temporary assistance from the government. Among low-income immigrant families, the figure was more than one in five, according to the study, which was based on a December 2018 survey of nearly 2,000 non-elderly adults who are foreign born or live with at least one foreign-born family member. The rule means many green card and visa applicants could be turned down if they have low incomes or little education because they'd be deemed more likely to need government assistance in the future. It would take effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register Tuesday.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-i...acks-down-on-welfare-use-by-legal-immigrants/ New Trump administration rule cracks down on welfare benefits use by legal immigrants Washington — The Trump administration rolled out a key item in its hardline immigration agenda that had been months in the making, issuing a sweeping rule on Monday that targets legal immigrants who use welfare benefits like food stamps and government-subsidized housing. The new regulation — detailed in a more than 800-page document — would dramatically expand the government's definition of the centuries-old term "public charge," effectively making it more difficult for certain low-income immigrants to secure permanent residency or temporary visas. The final and enforceable version of the rule is scheduled to be officially published on the Federal Register Wednesday and slated to go into effect in October. The rule affects most aspects of life for immigrants — from medical care and English language proficiency, to food stamps and other welfare programs. Critics say discussion of the rule's roll-out had already been having a "chilling effect" on many immigrant communities, including households and families who are not directly affected by it on paper. Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency which administers benefits for immigrants, touted the change as a way to promote "self sufficiency" and "success" among immigrant communities. "Through the public charge rule, President Trump's administration is re-enforcing the ideals of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility ensuring immigrants are able to support themselves and become successful here in America," Cuccinelli told reporters at the White House on Monday. What is a public charge? The "public charge" standard was first codified into U.S. immigration law in 1882 — the same year the U.S. enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred the entry of Chinese laborers into America on the premise that immigration from China endangered "the good order of certain localities." The term essentially means being a burden on society. It was also included in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which stipulated that those who were deemed a "public charge" would be subject to deportation or barred from entering the country. In the 1990s, the Clinton administration issued guidance effectively saying that only cash benefits — like the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — could be considered when determining whether an immigrant was a "public charge." What would the new regulation do? Immigration authorities currently ask green card applicants to prove they won't be a burden on the country, but the new regulation, if enacted, would require caseworkers to consider the use of government housing, food and medical assistance such as the widely-used Section 8 housing vouchers and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The rule would subject immigrant households who fall below certain income thresholds to the "public charge" test — which would also consider how well applicants speak, read and write English. Under the proposed rule, any diagnosed medical condition that requires extensive medical treatment would also "weigh heavily" in evaluations by caseworkers. Asylum seekers and refugees would be exempt from this "public charge" test. What have researchers, doctors and lawmakers been saying? When the 60-day public comment window on the proposed rule closed last December, more than 260,000 comments — nearly all critical of it — were submitted. A study in May by the Urban Institute found that more than 13% of adults in immigrant families said they were not participating in public programs such as food stamps and subsidized housing due to concerns that the so-called "public charge" rule would hinder their ability to obtain green cards. The number of immigrants reporting this fear rose to 20.7% among low-income families. Although the proposed rule would affect immigrants in the U.S. who are not citizens or permanent residents — as well as people seeking to immigrate to the country from abroad — the report by the Urban Institute detailed a "spillover effect" in which both green card holders and U.S. citizens reported avoiding public benefits because of the proposal's expected implementation. Nearly 15% of immigrants in families in which all members had green cards and 9.3% of adults in families comprised of naturalized U.S. citizens said they did not participate in government assistance programs within the past 12 months due to concerns about the proposed rule's impact on their and their family members' ability to qualify for permanent residency. Another study late last year by the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center predicts that as many as 6.8 million U.S. citizen children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) with parents who are non-citizens could be affected by the new regulation. Although the proposal does not include Medicaid and CHIP assistance in its "public charge" considerations, researchers at the Health Policy Center believe immigrant parents, particularly in Latino and Asian American communities, will drop these benefits due to concerns surrounding their immigration status and ability to remain in the U.S. legally with their children. The big picture: Advocates, doctors, civil servants and Democrats fear that the regulation will punish poor immigrants for using essential government benefits and prompt some parents to halt their children's enrollment in nutritional and medical programs — even if the children are U.S. citizens in mixed-status households. Will the rule be challenged in court? As soon as the final rule was unveiled, several groups vowed to file lawsuits to try to block it.
This is MAGA in a nutshell. Return to a system where immigrants add something to the country rather than draw off the teat. Like it was for...oh, forever.
I could get behind this if they would put as much effort into prosecuting employers who hire illegals, especially those in the manufacturing industry. Until that happens this crap looks more like harassment than anything else.
Take the L Donald. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/public...een-cards-and-visas-to-low-income-immigrants/ Courts block Trump rule to deny green cards and visas to low-income immigrants Washington, D.C. — Three federal courtson Friday blocked a sweeping regulation that would've made it easier for the Trump administration to reject green card and visa applications filed by low-income immigrants whom the government determines are or might become a burden on U.S. taxpayers. Judge George Daniels of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan issued a preliminary nationwide injunction prohibiting the administration from enforcing the so-called "public charge" rule just days before it was slated to take effect on Tuesday. A federal judge in Washington state also blocked the regulation nationwide, while a third district court judge in San Francisco said the administration could not enforce the rule within the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The decisions represent yet another defeat in court for the White House and its concerted campaign to dramatically overhaul the nation's legal immigration system. They also signifya major legal triumph for a coalition of advocacy groups and Democratic-led states, counties and cities that challenged the rule through nearly a dozen lawsuits in federal courts across the country.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/us/trump-immigration-health-care-visas.html Judge Blocks Trump’s Plan to Bar Immigrants Who Can’t Pay for Health Care The court ruling is the latest to derail administration initiatives to limit the admission of certain legal immigrants into the United States. A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a policy that would require immigrants to prove they have insurance or the financial resources for medical costs in order to obtain a visa. The ruling, by Judge Michael Simon of the Federal District Court in Portland, Ore., was the latest in a string of court decisions to derail administration initiatives that would limit the admission of certain legal immigrants into the United States. Judge Simon issued a nationwide temporary restraining order preventing the government from carrying out a proclamation by President Trump that would have gone into effect on Sunday. Mr. Trump’s Oct. 4 proclamation ordered consular officers to bar immigrants who could not prove they had health insurance or the ability to pay for medical costs once they become permanent residents of the United States. The president had justified the policy on the grounds that immigrants were more likely to be uninsured, and that “costs associated with this care are passed on to the American people in the form of higher taxes, higher premiums, and higher fees for medical services,” the measure said. Legal immigrants are three times as likely as American citizens to be uninsured, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study. Lawyers from Justice Action Center, Innovation Law Lab and the American Immigration Lawyers Association argued that the policy was “plainly illegal” and that it would cause immediate and irreparable harm. “This new requirement rewrites our immigration and health care laws,” the lawyers wrote in a motion seeking a temporary restraining order. They noted that the policy could effectively bar up to 375,000 “otherwise qualified immigrants each year.” An official at the White House could not be immediately reached for comment. The Department of Justice, through a spokesman, declined to comment on the ruling. Federal judges last month blocked the “public charge” rule, which would have denied green cards to people who use public benefits, such as food stamps and subsidized housing. “We’re glad that the court understands the importance of preventing the health care ban from taking effect tonight, but this is just the first step,” Esther Sung, a senior litigator at the Justice Action Center, said on Saturday. “The impact of this ban is just huge. Hundreds of thousands of people would be affected,” she said. “Two out of three intending immigrants every year might not be able to join their families. It’s outrageous that the Trump administration is trying to slip this by people without them noticing.”