Trump’s ‘public Charge’ on Immigrants Diminishes the American Spirit

The United States is built on the backs and dreams of immigrants, people who left strife-filled homelands in the hope of a better life. It is the moral rationale that declares our collective claim to an American exceptionalism that has existed since the nation’s founding, despite periods when our actions have failed to align with our ideals.Sadly, the Trump administration now has chosen to hurl a firebomb into a hay barn with a callous interpretation of longstanding immigration rules that prevents immigrants from gaining admission, renewing visas or obtaining green cards if they are, “likely at any time to become a public charge.” Until now, the interpretation of "public charge" in the Immigration and Nationality Act has leaned toward the spirit of the “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses” inscription on the Statue of Liberty. It welcomed legal immigrants with the implicit understanding that most would seize a chance to prosper in a new land, as many previous generations of newcomers had.The Trump administration’s interpretation is, instead, a harsh and misguided broadside assault on legal immigration in the guise of curbing illegal immigration. It seeks to use regulations to mount an end run around Congressional authority. Taken as a whole, it is rife with legal challenges and spells economic trouble for a nation that needs migrant labor.  Continue reading...