By Trudy Taylor Smith
They prove it time and again: officials in the Trump administration don’t care how many lives they destroy and how many communities they devastate in their persecution of immigrant families.
The president made that clear during the State of the Union address when he attacked immigrants as a threat to public safety, deploying lies and hateful rhetoric designed to dehumanize entire communities and to justify violence from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that has separated families, locked up children and killed dozens of people since he took office, including U.S. citizens.
While Trump railed against the imagined threat of “terrorists” and “murderers,” the truth is that immigrants are dramatically less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens, the vast majority of people detained by ICE have no criminal record, and thousands of those locked up by ICE are children.
The truth is that immigrants pay more in taxes each year than they receive in public benefits, and undocumented immigrants actually subsidize health care for other U.S. residents.
The truth is that immigrants are neighbors, parents, students, friends. They are human beings who deserve dignity and care.
In this dark moment, youth advocates like me and my colleagues at Children’s Defense Fund-Texas are heartened to see members of Congress such as Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso protecting immigrants and their families.
In December, she and other Texas members of Congress signed onto a letter opposing the Trump administration’s proposed changes to “public charge.” This proposal, which could take effect later this year, would have a devastating impact in immigrant and mixed-status families in Texas.
The public charge test considers whether a person applying for lawful permanent resident status – a “green card” – is likely at any time to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence. If they are, their green card application will be denied.
The current public charge test doesn’t apply to all immigrants, and when it comes to public benefit use, immigration officials can only consider past receipt of cash assistance for income maintenance or long-term institutionalization at government expense in making their determination.
However, the Trump administration’s proposal would dramatically change this policy, rescinding protections against arbitrary or biased green card decisions based on lawfully present immigrants’ use of health or social services for which they legally qualify. The proposal openly contemplates the possibility of denying green card applications based on a person’s use of “any type of public benefits,” or even because an applicant’s qualifying U.S. citizen child used a safety net program.
The lack of clarity and accountability could generate fear and confusion that create a chilling effect on access to healthcare, nutrition support, and other critical services for children in immigrant families in Texas who need and qualify for these programs. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) predicts that “U.S. citizens who are members of mixed-status households” will “disenroll from or forgo future enrollment” in public benefits programs because of the proposal.
This has happened before. Similar policy changes adopted during the first Trump administration deterred about half of people in mixed-status families who needed support during the pandemic from applying. Moreover, the nonpartisan Urban Institute found that the Trump policy led to millions foregoing safety net services.
Policies targeting immigrant families threaten U.S. citizen children on a massive scale – especially in Texas, where more than 11 percent of U.S. citizen children live with at least one undocumented parent, and more than a third of all children in Texas have at least one foreign-born parent.
Faced with this wholesale attack on the wellbeing of millions, many members of Congress did nothing. But Rep. Escobar took action, writing to oppose this dangerous proposal and urging DHS to withdraw it.
We commend their leadership protecting Texas children from this reckless attack, especially after the President’s State of the Union address demonstrated continuing disregard and cruelty toward immigrants and their families.
As anti-immigrant policies such as escalating ICE raids, expanding immigration detention, and mass deportations without due process continue to stoke fear, separate families, and cut off access to vital services, we ask our representatives to continue taking action to protect Texas children.
Trudy Taylor Smith is senior administrator of policy and advocacy for Children’s Defense Fund-Texas. She lives in Austin.
The post Opinion: Congress should oppose public charge changes that could devastate immigrant families in Texas appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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