White House ‘Czar’ Will Punish Legal Immigrants Seeking Citizenship

White House ‘Czar’ Will Punish Legal Immigrants Seeking Citizenship

Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.

 

Not content with ruining the lives of undocumented Americans and children fleeing violence, the Trump administration has now set its sights on legal immigrants who work hard, yet struggle to make ends meet.

According to a new report from NBC News, the Trump administration is about to roll out a proposal that will make it much more difficult for legal immigrants to obtain green cards, and for legal permanent residents to become citizens.

The proposed rule changes would not need the approval of Congress.

And the changes would specifically punish legal immigrants who have made legal use of safety net programs, including Obamacare, due to legitimate financial need.

“Immigration lawyers and advocates and public health researchers say it would be the biggest change to the legal immigration system in decades and estimate that more than 20 million immigrants could be affected,” NBC reports.

Many of these immigrants are like Louis Charles, a Haitian green-card holder NBC interviewed who works up to 80 hours a week as a nursing assistant, but still has to use public programs to support his disabled adult daughter.

“I did everything they asked me to,” Charles said. NBC reported that his citizenship appeal could face a higher chance of rejection based on the proposed changes.

The plan is the brainchild of Trump senior adviser and white supremacist Stephen Miller, who is so viciously anti-immigrant that he once attacked the Statue of Liberty on national television.

Miller has been a disastrous spokesman for the Trump administration who routinely embarrasses himself in public.

Weeks after Trump’s inauguration, Miller flatly declared that Trump’s “power will not be questioned.” A year later, he had another interview cut off because he was being so obsequious to Trump.

But behind the scenes, Miller has been a powerful driver of the Trump administration’s most racist actions.

It was Miller who orchestrated the brutal policies that ripped thousands of children away from their parents — many of whom remain separated despite a federal judge’s order to reunite them.

Miller was also a major architect, along with now-former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon, of Trump’s racist Muslim ban.

And Miller has explicitly admitted that Trump’s racist immigration policies are a political strategy to aid Republicans in the 2018 midterms.

Miller’s latest effort is particularly evil. Not only does it target people who are already in America with legal documentation, it also targets the most vulnerable among them for “crimes” like seeking access to health care.

What’s more, if Miller is successful, the new policy will advance a long-running Republican strategy to suppress the vote of minority groups.

Legal immigrants cannot vote until they become citizens. By denying citizenship to hard-working aspiring Americans — especially immigrants of color who are struggling to make ends meet — the Trump administration is also trying to deny them a voice in the democratic process.

Trump and Miller may have succeeded in appealing to the racist Republican base. But decent Americans reject Trump’s racist immigration policies, and they will surely reject this one too.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

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