Chairman Scott Statement on Final “Public Charge” Rule
WASHINGTON – Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security released a final rule to expand grounds for denying legal U.S. residency to immigrants.
“The administration’s final ‘public charge’ rule will inflict severe and unnecessary hardship on immigrant families. The rule will force hundreds of thousands of immigrants to choose between forgoing basic assistance for food, shelter, and health care, or risk being separated from their families. According to the Urban Institute, one in seven families chose not to receive public benefits in 2018 for fear of risking future green card status.
“This rule will have the effect of penalizing families for accessing benefits like SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid. One regrettable result will be that fewer children will have access child nutrition programs, such as free school meals. This comes at a time when the administration is already considering action that could strip automatic eligibility for free school meals from more than 500,000 low-income students.
“There is simply no value-based or evidence-based justification for the administration’s ‘public charge’ rule. It is inconsistent with our principles and it will have terrible consequences for communities across the country.”
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