Immigration

tor of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told reporters at a White House briefing that his agenc y is moving to more clearly define a long-standing element of U.S. immigration law.

“President Trump’s administration is reinforcing the ideals of self-sufficienc y and personal responsibility, ensuring that immigrants are able to support themselves and become successful here in America,” Cuccinelli said.

The Los Angeles-based National Immigration Law Center said it would file a lawsuit, calling the new rules an attempt to redefine the legal immigration system “in order to disenfranchise communities of color and favor the wealthy.”

And David Skorton, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges said, “The consequences of this action will be to potentially exacerbate illnesses and increase the costs of care when their condition becomes too severe to ignore,”

“This change will worsen existing health inequities and disparities, cause further harm to many underserved and vulnerable populations and increase costs to the health care system overall, which will affect all patients,” he said in a statement.

The move comes as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to build new bureauc ratic obstacles to the U.S. immigration system, at the same time that the president seeks to put physical barriers on the Mexico border. The administration has reduced the number of refugees admitted to the United States, tightened access to the asylum system and expanded the power of the government to detain and deport those lacking legal status.

Analysts say the latest change could dramatically reduce family-based legal immigration to the United States, particularly from Mexico, Central America and Africa, where economies have been suffering and incomes are lower.

The rule effectively circumvents earlier, failed efforts by the administration to build support in Congress for a similar “merit-based” overhaul to the immigrant visa system, and fulfills a longtime goal of senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller and others who have long sought new bureaucratic tools to reduce immigration levels.

The new rule — from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security — focuses on the definition of what it means to be a “public charge,” or someone dependent of U.S. government benefits, and who is “likely” to become one.

Likeliness of becoming a public charge already is grounds to be denied a green card or the opportunity to become a U.S. citizen.

The Trump administration will broaden the public charge definition to encompass not just those primarily dependent on public assistance programs, but anyone who uses a public benefit, including publicly funded health care programs including Medicaid, food stamps, other nutrition-related programs, or housing assistance.

The New York mayor’s office and immigration think tanks say just the anticipation of that provision already has caused large numbers of legal immigrants to abstain from seeking help through such programs — despite being legally entitled to do so — because they are afraid it will hinder their ability to become citizens or remain in the United States.

But the new rule stands to have its most dramatic impact on the numbers and demographics of those permitted to immigrate to the United States through a vast array of new criteria to assess whether an individual is “likely” to someday become a public charge.

Factors that can count against a green card applicant include having “a medical condition” that will interfere with work or school; not having enough money to cover “any reasonably foreseeable medical costs” related to such a medical condition; having “financial liabilities;” having been approved to receive a public benefit, even if the individual has not actually received the benefit; having a low credit score; the absence of private health insurance; the absence of a college degree; not having the English language skills “sufficient to enter the job market;” or having a sponsor who is “unlikely” to provide financial support.

“With one regulation, they are attempting to scratch two itches: one is penalizing immigrants for using public benefits that they are legally entitled to, and the other is cutting legal immigration in half,” said Doug Rand, a former Obama administration official and an immigration consultant. “And the way you cut legal immigration in half is by kicking the doors out from the definition of ‘likely to become a public charge.’”

Trump has on multiple occasions alluded to the types of people that he would like to keep from coming to the United States (Africans, Haitians, Muslims, Central Americans, etc.), and those he would like to see more of (Norwegians), drawing frequent allegations of overt racism from Democrats and some Republicans.