{"id":21892,"date":"2019-09-05T14:59:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T18:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=21892"},"modified":"2019-09-06T11:20:59","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T15:20:59","slug":"public-charge-california-dependency-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/09\/05\/public-charge-california-dependency-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"As Immigrants Drop Food Stamps, California Counties Sue Over Public-Charge Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the months since the Trump administration announced rules pertaining to immigrants who are likely to become, or who are, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/greencard\/public-charge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">\u201cpublic charges,\u201d<\/a> two Northern California counties recorded notable declines in benefit enrollments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/public-charge-rule-immigrants-are-dropping-essential-benefits-california-counties-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">San Francisco and Santa Clara counties<\/a> reported that use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) by immigrant households declined 12.8 percent and 20 percent respectively. San Francisco also said Medicaid participation by immigrant households dropped 13.5 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The counties cited the statistics in a <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1aNpaY_rBUFE2kP2vPqngSYkBZZqLv-ZG\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">U.S. District Court filing<\/a> as evidence of \u201cirreparable harm\u201d from pending public-charge rules. Seeking to block the rules, local officials called them \u201carbitrary,\u201d \u201ccapricious,\u201d \u201cirrational\u201d and other nasty things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such\nhyperbole is over the top. Despite claims that the administration is pursuing a\n\u201cradical expansion\u201d of the definition of a public charge, the new rules fully exempt\nasylum-seekers and refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, the rules are consistent with the spirit and letter of long-standing public-charge laws. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/10\/11\/surprise-theres-nothing-new-about-the-new-public-charge-requirements\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">FAIR points out<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Bans on immigrants likely to become a public charge date back to\nthe days of colonial Massachusetts, and were first enacted into U.S.\nimmigration law in 1882.&nbsp; Restrictions were reinforced in the 1952\nImmigration and Nationality Act, the current basis of the nation\u2019s immigration\nlaws.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>In 1996, Congress reiterated its desire to bar those likely to\nbecome a public charge, noting that immigrants should arrive self-sufficient. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, however, nearly half of\nall immigrant-led households are on some form of public assistance (versus 30\npercent of native households). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead\ncelebrating immigrants\u2019 strides toward self-support, Bay Area bureaucrats are\nclamoring to keep caseloads up. Americans are rightfully concerned about a\npublic-assistance system that fosters dependency on handouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nan area where one in three residents is foreign-born, San Francisco and Santa\nClara officials say they will &#8220;have to\nspend extra resources on outreach and education so people will not stop\naccessing services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s a choice localities can make at their own\nexpense. It\u2019s Washington\u2019s job to ensure and enforce sensible immigration\npolicies for this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To accurately identify those who are, or would become, a public\ncharge, the administration\u2019s new rules reasonably require immigration\ncaseworkers to consider non-cash benefits such as government housing, food and\nhealth care (including diagnosed conditions that require extensive medical\ntreatment). Income levels and language skills are also factored in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an age of ever-growing government\nentitlements, Americans are entitled to government policies that responsibly\ndetermine the ultimate reward: U.S. green cards and citizenship. It seems that\nsome Bay Area immigrants got the message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the months since the Trump administration announced rules pertaining to immigrants who are likely to become, or who are, \u201cpublic charges,\u201d two Northern California counties recorded notable declines in benefit enrollments. San Francisco and Santa Clara counties reported that use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) by immigrant households declined 12.8 percent<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/09\/05\/public-charge-california-dependency-immigrationreform-com\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9673,"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":[14],"tags":[100,1524,1909,1908],"yst_prominent_words":[2122,5969,6490,1974,6491,6492,6488,1983,3086,6489,1980,1963,2528,1975,1971,2231,2168,4851,6487,1939],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21892"}],"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=21892"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21898,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21892\/revisions\/21898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21892"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}