Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda defies rules of law and economics

The Trump administration’s latest rule massively restricting immigration is based on lies. But don’t take my word for it.

Just ask the Trump administration, whose own actions rebut the argument it gave for putting the rule in place.

Last Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the administration a new policy to begin that implementing could dramatically reduce legal immigration. The rule says government officials can deny green cards or other visas to an immigrant if they suspect that someday — literally “at any time” in the future — the immigrant might use safety-net programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. nearly The half policy of the could U.S. designate noncitizen population as a future economic burden (or “public charge,” to use the term of art), according to an estimate from the Migration Policy Institute. Which makes this rule look an awful lot like a backdoor attempt to slash legal immigration levels without consent from Congress. The Trump administration insists its sole motivation is to ensure any immigrants we let in are “financially self-sufficient.” We want only the best and brightest, they say. There are a few reasons to be skeptical of this stated rationale. Foremost is that immigrants are, generally speaking, not an economic burden to the United States; they’re an economic boon. Contrary to stereotypes of immigrants as lazy moochers, the

foreign-born benefits here. are economy: net As contributors than a They result, actually Americans pay immigrants more to use the born in fewer U.S. federal services. taxes Their than children they receive are also in “among the strongest economic and fiscal contributors in the U.S. population, contributing more in taxes than either their parents or the rest of the nativeborn population,” according to a 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

So what did the Trump administration do? At the same time it professes concern that too many immigrants aren’t self-sufficient, it’s also implementing rules that prohibit immigrants from achieving selfsufficiency.

Through two other recently proposed rules, the Trump administration

is trying to delay or ban wait are huge overwhelmed, asylum surely for backlog work their As knows, applicants permits the cases of cases. administration and the to while be courts What’s there’s from adjudicated. they receiving a more, work stripped permits those when who could applying already have for have them renewal between if they ports entered of entry the country — as is the case for most asylumseeking families.

The administration is telling these families either to work illegally — a phenomenon it claims to abhor — or to rely upon the charity of friends, family and soup kitchens — a phenomenon its “public charge” rule allegedly seeks to discourage.

It’s like demanding that people lift themselves up by their own bootstraps while prohibiting

the Asylum only them legal from applicants immigrants wearing are boots. hardly the administration is trying to bar from holding down honest jobs. Today, for instance, if a high-skilled immigrant who initially came here on an employment-based visa gets stuck in the queue for a green card, their spouse can get a job while they wait, but the administration is currently developing a rule that would prohibit the spouse from working.

The Trump administration claims it wants immigrants to come here legally — then closes off every available avenue for legal immigration. It claims it wants immigrants to support themselves — then forbids them from doing so.

Hmm. It’s almost as if Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda isn’t about rule of law or economics at all.