The Public Charge Rule
You may not be aware or forgotten the basis for what follows.
In the latest effort to “remove barriers” to immigration, the Biden administration recently changed and codified the ‘public charge rule.’
The change upends Congressional intent, decades of precedent, and the core American value of self-reliance by re-interpreting the long-standing rule.
That rule was initially, officially stated in 1882 legislation when Congress barred the immigration of “any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge.”
In 1996, 114 years later, Congress enacted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. That legislation confirmed that aliens within the United States should not be reliant on public resources, lest those public benefits become an incentive for immigrants. In other words, immigrants were expected to be self-sufficient and not be on the public dole for anything.
With an affidavit filed by a friend or relative promising to support the immigrant without means the self-sufficiency rule could be waved. Those contracts were rarely strictly enforced. But now such contracts are not required at all. In the past immigrants knew – or were made aware – of the rule and few immigrants expected anything else. The immigrant laws we have now were all based on the rule being enforced. Mass immigration was not considered likely, almost impossible to envision.
Under the new rule by this administration, officially issued by DHS, only the receipt of cash benefits or long-term institutional care would trigger a public charge finding. While illegal immigrants already receive a cell phone, transportation, and education benefits, this new rule would extend health benefits. Like the other current benefits, it would also not involve handing out cash to them and therefore be within the wording of the new rule.
So how to we feel about this new rule?
First of all, those immigrants crossing our southern border ‘jump the line’ of those using our legal system and rules for immigration.
Second, they are ‘illegal.” You can call them undocumented immigrants if that makes you feel better, but it doesn’t change our laws.
The law does allow the legal immigration of “refugees” which is the loophole this and other administrations have used to justify allowing more immigration than our laws intend. But we all know that 2+ million immigrants now walking across the border annually – the vast majority from Central and South America – cannot possibly be refugees although they say they are to get entry.
That’s because ‘refugee’ under our law is defined as a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her home country because of a “well-founded fear of persecution” due to race, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, religion, or national origin.
Immigrants using the refugee word to gain entry are supposed to be given a court date where and when the refugee claim is reviewed, and immigrants provided the opportunity to be given that legal status. That’s a joke because many of the ‘refugee’ immigrants never show up on their court date and the sheer number of them has the immigrant courts overwhelmed.
In addition to immigrants flooding the border crossings, there remains thousands/month who ‘sneak’ in without entering through one of the many checkpoints. Border patrol personnel have little time to ‘patrol’ and have become pencil pushers trying to keep up with processing the paperwork requirements.
Further, the influx of illegal drugs, especially fentanyl, is staggering. The Mexican drug cartels have little fear of being caught smuggling those drugs because border patrol is busy doing other things. Add the human smuggling, often in horrific transport conditions, to the mix and we have crisis upon crisis at the border.
Yet, the President Biden and his staff continue to proclaim the southern border is secure. Anyone who believes that just awoke from a two-year coma.
The biggest question when looking at the immigrant situation is simply “Why is President Biden doing this?”
There are a number of speculative answers to the question, but for the most part the mainstream media isn’t asking the question much less getting an answer. So, you and I can indicate any opinion on the question we like without confirmation from the administration.
We all know this 2M+/year immigrants cannot be sustained without a major reaction by the citizenry.
At this point all any of us can say is that it must stop and hope somebody, especially Congress, does something to make that happen.
The United States of America has never been faced with this swamping influx of immigrants. No country in the world would even consider doing what’s happening here. The influx challenges the concept of a sovereign country, not to mention covering the cost to the taxpayers in following this open border policy, especially now as the administration attempts to redefine the ‘public charge rule’ and make it even more costly.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
SPIDER Bites
Tropical storm Ian is expected become a hurricane by Wednesday before hitting west Florida and Paradise.
NASA scrapped its Tuesday launch of its Artemis I mission around the moon – because of Ian.
The government of Germany bought Uniper SE last week. The private German company supplied most of the country’s natural gas but was incurring substantial losses after Germany’s government slashed the amount of gas it would allow from Russia. Nationalizing the company will show that the government will do a much better job. Right? I mean, look at how well it worked in Venezuela.
BTW, Venezuela apparently is emptying its prisons and sending former inmates to the US southern border. Why not? We officially celebrate diversity with immigration.
President Biden’s WH staff spent the week trying to walk back his announcement on CBS last Sunday that the pandemic was over. But, if the President now recognizes the public health emergency is over, he should not be able to exercise powers granted under that cover – like forgiving student loans. What does a student loan have to do with fighting COVID? BTW, the bulk of the population knew the pandemic was over a long time ago.
Biden also commented that inflation had only gone up an “inch” in August. I guess he had seen a chart somewhere and measured it. That’s the way “new WH economists” measure inflation. I presume the Federal Reserve Bank and Labor Dept. got the message and will from now on report inflation numbers by inches. It makes it so simple, doesn’t it? – now everybody will understand what’s happening to their food and energy bills – and their retirement nest eggs. The stock market is not only in bear territory, but also in a bloodbath mode. But we’ve gotten poorer by only ten inches so far.
Mortgage rates hit 6% last week for the first time since 2008. The Fed raised interest rates three-quarters of a percent again Wednesday which will raise mortgage rates even more. In addition, it will add over an estimated $130B to the national debt as the borrowing costs of government will increase as well. The Fed stated its intent to raise rates another 1½% by 2023. The conundrum it’s facing is trying to slow inflation in an economy that’s also slowing down – and will slow down even more now. To keep the economy going the Fed should be lowering interest rates. Pick your poison – all brought on – not by the normal business cycle – but by our government’s energy policies and out-of-control spending.
Speaking of spending, for political reasons Congress can’t help itself and appears set to pass a string of bills to fund police depts and spend billions and billions more. Since when is it the federal government’s responsibility to fund local police operations?
NY’s Attorney General filed a civil lawsuit for $250M against Donald Trump and three Trump children for allegedly fraudulently inflating net worth to obtain favorable loans and insurance rates. Apparently, the loans – for the 2011-2021 period – have all been paid. Note she did not bring any criminal charges because evidently there were no crimes committed. Trump immediately filed a counter suit. It’s almost unheard of for an attorney general of a state to file a civil lawsuit against a private citizen.
