On Feb. 24, the Department of Homeland Security got the green light to start reinforcing income-based requirements for visas and green cards. While it does not apply to all applicants, this new requirement, the “public charge” test, will require many to have a stable income and prove they will not be dependent on government benefits. Based on this information, an immigration officer is then able to decide whether the applicant qualifies for admission into the United States.
The law is mainly going to impact those seeking permanent residency. Immigrants who are exempt will include most U visa holders, T visa holders, asylees, refugees, and other categories of people. It also will not affect the naturalization process, “where permanent resident[s] apply to become U.S. citizens.”
This change is supposed to ensure that applicants are able to contribute to America’s economy. The Trump administration claims the new requirements are set in place to encourage immigrants to be “self-sufficient.” The acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, stated they will also promote “hard work, perseverance, and determination.”
But this American Dream, supposed to be for all, excludes certain groups of people. Immigrant advocates say that this barrier “amounts to a wealth test that will revive a discriminatory immigration system that shuts America’s doors to low-income and working-class immigrants from the developing world.” It will affect Latin America, reducing the number of Latinx applicants and giving European populations an advantage.
The Trump administration is trying to find loopholes that will prevent immigrants from entering the country. Rather than helping those in need, America is choosing to make excuses for sneaky methods that close its doors to people of color. The immigration system itself was made to disadvantage foreigners.
Marginalized persons fleeing from their homelands, with nothing in their pockets, won’t be able to meet the income requirements. America should be embracing immigrants with open arms. But instead of being comforted, immigrants find themselves taking hit after hit and facing trials with racist judges that immediately deport them. According to Syracuse University, “One judge in the court rejected 98.8% of asylum requests over a recent five-year period.”
Latin American migrants are constant targets of discrimination and racism in America, and it is amplified by how Trump is explicitly negative toward Mexicans. In 2015, when he was running for president, Trump said: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” He was referring to Mexico.
Last August, a “gunman at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, attempted to shoot as many Latinos as possible before later surrendering to police. He killed 22 people and injured many more. He told police he targeted Mexican immigrants and had produced a manifesto that declared ‘this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.’”
The negative stigma immigrants face in this country worsens with policies such as the “public charge” test. Immigrants are stereotyped as the enemy when that is not the case. What is wrong with someone coming into a country to make a better future for themselves? Since when did America become cruel enough to deny access to clean water, food, and job opportunities on the basis of race and ethnicity?
Instead of helping foreigners, America locks them up in poorly-kept detention centers and deports them to face the dangers they were trying to escape. Immigrants never had a chance in this hate-filled country.
