Another plan that breaks up families
Another wave of family separations is looming if the Trump administration has its way. This time, hundreds of thousands of marriages could be torn apart.
The Department of Homeland Security recently announced a plan to radically reshape the legal immigration system by expanding its ability to deny permanent residence (commonly known as a “green card”) to anyone suspected of using taxpayer-funded safety net programs.
Economically, this whole approach is nonsensical. Immigrants pay much more in taxes than they receive in public benefits.
But one of the most egregious consequences of this “public charge rule” is deeply personal: Each year it will force nearly 200,000 married couples to either leave the United States or spend their lives apart.
This isn’t hypothetical, nor is it limited to people who actually use public welfare programs. The administration will begin denying green cards to anyone it judges “likely” to use public benefits at any point in the future, shutting the door on hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants who will never touch a safety net in their lives. I’m president of a company, Boundless Immigration, which helps thousands of married couples obtain green cards each year. Our new analysis based on customer data shows the denial policy would effectively shut out more than half of the 400,000 people who receive marriage green cards each year as spouses of either U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
Imagine a couple like Dave and Sarah (actual couple, names changed). Dave is a U.S. citizen, born in Massachusetts. Sarah was born in South Korea and came to the United States to study medicine. They met in college, fell in love and got married. At this early stage in their careers, they don’t make much money. In fact, under the terms of Sarah’s student visa, she’s not allowed to work at all. Dave can sponsor Sarah for a spousal green card as long as he can demonstrate sufficient financial resources to support her — defined by Congress as 125 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (currently $20,575 for most couples without children). That’s an objective standard most couples can meet.
Under the new public charge rule, however, Dave’s income alone won’t be enough to satisfy DHS. For the first time, green card applicants like Sarah will be subject to an entirely new and higher household-income test: as much as 250 percent of the poverty line (currently $41,150 for most couples without children). Remember, Sarah isn’t allowed to work under her student visa. The only way she can achieve a middle-class income is by getting a green card, but the only way she can get a green card is by having a middle-class income.
How many couples will be ensnared by this Catch-22? Boundless Immigration studied customer data and estimated the likely impact of the public-charge rule based on applicants’ current visa status, employment and household income.
This analysis found that some 31 percent of foreign-born spouses are unemployed when they apply for a marriage-based green card. Again, because student visas, visitor visas and other common visas generally do not authorize employment in the United States, these spouses would be in an impossible situation — prevented from legally working yet required by DHS to earn an income.
In addition, some 22 percent of foreignborn spouses hold jobs that would likely not meet the new middle-class income threshold proposed by DHS. This includes everything from cooks and factory workers to tutors and teaching assistants — and, of course, the aspiring doctors who earn little but upon whom our health care system relies.
Therefore, more than half — 53 percent — of foreign-born spouses who are currently eligible for green cards could suddenly find themselves shut out if the DHS public charge rule is ultimately enacted and strictly enforced.
Even if DHS ultimately decides to allow both spouses to pool their income to meet the new threshold, 36 percent of couples could still find themselves unable to qualify for a marriage green card.
These results are in line with recent studies from the Migration Policy Institute, which analyzed census data to conclude that more than half of all family-based green card applicants would be denied under the public charge rule’s unprecedented income requirement. Moreover, this new hurdle would have disproportionate effects based on national origin and ethnicity, blocking 71 percent applicants from Mexico and Central America, 69 percent from Africa and 52 percent from Asia. Only 36 percent from Europe, Canada and Oceania would be blocked.
Let’s be clear: This is an end run around Congress, which more than 20 years ago chose to establish a bright-line income requirement for green card sponsors and last year overwhelmingly rejected a Trump administration plan to slash legal immigration.
By issuing a new regulation that imposes a raft of new income requirements on would-be immigrants, DHS isn’t simply “following the law.” It’s attempting to create new law out of whole cloth, wrenching apart the marriages of some 200,000 Americans and would-be Americans each year.
Make no mistake: This is family separation, plain and simple. Rand is co-founder and president of Boundless Immigration , a technology company that helps families navigate the immigration system. He is a former assistant director for entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.