The Immigration and Nationality Act contains a provision which says that a person is admissible to the United States if they are likely to become a public charge. This is a complicated and nuanced area of law, but essentially it is saying that a person is not eligible for their green card if they are going to accept public benefits in the future, such as welfare or food stamps.
This provision has been part of the law for a significant period of time, but the policy and our interpretation of it was drastically changed under President Trump. While president, Trump introduced what many people referred to as a “wealth test” in order to get a green card. Under his policy, those applying for permanent resident status (green cards) could much more easily have their applications be denied on the basis of this “public charge” rule. One of the major differences under Trump was that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or the U.S. Embassy could deny an application solely based on the prior receipt of public benefits, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, and government housing.
Critics of Trump’s policy acknowledged that the “public charge” rule had been in existence for decades, and they recognized that it did serve a valuable purpose. However, they viewed the new policy as a discriminatory, classist policy that was a thinly veiled attempt to exclude many migrants from ever obtaining a green card.
There is a separate conversation to be had about how responsible the Trump era is for evoking years of unfavorable sentiments toward migrants which have stained the American republic. There are many people who believe that discriminatory and unfair such as the “wealth test” have revealed just how difficult and popularized it has become to deny migrants true integration into American society. After all, the aforementioned policy left many immigrants in fear of having their green cards and visas rejected.
Nevertheless, the Biden administration has now cultivated a strategy to do away with Trump’s version of the public charge rule. Initially announced at the beginning of the year, Biden’s new policy seeks to restore criteria that was set in place years prior to Trump’s candidacy. This is in hopes of enacting a fairer and more reasonable policy, granting migrants more access to necessary resources, as well as making the process of obtaining green cards and visas more seamless.
