2/24/20
The "public charge" rule change which took effect Monday to block poor or disabled immigrants from seeking better lives in the United States is quintessentially Trumpian -- and quintessentially un-American. It's the latest example of this President's arrogance and cruelty when it comes to how we treat our fellow human beings -- the "tired," "poor," "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," as Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus" explains in her timeless tribute on the Statue of Liberty. That statue in New York's harbor has greeted millions of newcomers to our country who came with little more than the clothes on their backs, yet parlayed their dreams and their hard work into better lives for families and a stronger, bigger economy for all of us. It's an integral part of our nation's history that President Trump seems determined to ignore, as he continues to use immigrants as scapegoats for whatever ails our economy and our society. The "public charge" rule, a sweeping effort to restrict legal immigration and turn America's back on our neighbors -- lets officials refuse green cards to any immigrant who currently uses, or may likely need, any form of public-benefit assistance. In other words, if any immigrant may ever need Medicare, food stamps, housing vouchers, or is "likely to become a public charge at any time," they could be disqualified from permanent legal status.
Public charge rules were used to exclude tens of thousands of German Jews who were trying to flee Nazi oppression. Sadly, when the Supreme Court ruled January 27 to clear the way for President Trump's rule to take effect, it did so on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yet this cruelty isn't a by-product of policy; this cruelty is the policy. This is being done in America's name and we now must decide what kind of nation we want to be. Immigrants are not "burdens" upon the American public as the Trump administration wants you to believe. In fact, our economy likely would suffer without the immigrants this rule could bar from living in the US. Despite the President's relentless effort to restrict legal immigration, America is stronger because of immigrants' hard work and contributions in every generation. We need comprehensive immigration reform that accounts for this, not punitive and short-sighted reactionism like this public charge rule. President Ronald Reagan had it right in his 1989 farewell address to the nation, when he referenced John Winthrop and spoke of his vision of America as the "shining city on a hill." "(I)n my mind, it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace -- a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity," Reagan said. "And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here." The will and the heart -- not the cold, hard cash. We are better than that.
