AMNA NAWAZ: Now let's return to immigration and a debate that's heating up once again.
Last week, the Trump administration proposed a major change in the way immigration officials
decide who gets to come to and who gets to stay in this country.
The proposal, which has been rumored for over a year-and-a-half, is now fielding public
comments and could take effect as soon as early next year.
Special correspondent and "Washington Post" columnist Catherine Rampell has the story
for our weekly series Making Sense.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Maria -- she doesn't want her face shown or last name used -- came to
Northern California from Mexico seven years ago, following a man she'd met back home.
MARIA, Mexican Immigrant: It wasn't love.
I was thinking it was right time to get married, have kids, to start a family.
That's why I came here.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: She did marry, but by the time her first child, now 5, was born, the
marriage was crumbling, and she was having trouble feeding her baby.
Her only support with the lactation consultant at WIC, the federally funded nutrition program
for low-income women, infants and children.
MARIA: I was alone, no family, no friends.
So, to receive that call every week and tell me, just keep trying, you can do this, if
you have another question, you can call us, it was a lot of help.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: As were other federal programs to which her U.S. citizen child was entitled.
MARIA: I took food stamps and I took Medi-Cal for my daughter.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.
MARIA: They are great programs.
They support a lot.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: By now, you may be wondering if Maria wants her identity hidden because
she is undocumented.
She's not.
She's here legally, now remarried to a U.S. citizen who sponsored her for a green card.
Plus, she's a doctor.
And though her Mexican credentials don't let her practice medicine in the U.S., she plans
to train for a new health care job in the future, just the kind of highly skilled immigrant
the Trump administration says it prefers.
Nonetheless, she fears deportation, because the administration is now going after legal
immigrants like her.
They want to reinterpret a vague bit of immigration law that's supposed to screen whether immigrants
are likely to be self-supporting or end up on the dole.
It's called the public charge rule.
FRANCIS CISSNA, Director, U.S. States Citizenship and Immigration Services: Like it or not,
that's been on the books -- for since the 1880s.
It was one of the three bases upon which people's admission was adjudicated when they showed
up at Ellis Island.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Francis Cissna is the director of U.S. citizenship and immigration services.
He declined an interview, but has spoken publicly about the rule.
FRANCIS CISSNA: We're not saying that they can't receive public benefits.
We're just saying that there comes a point when someone has become so dependent or reliant
on public benefits that we now deem them to be a public charge and, accordingly, inadmissible.
That's something that has to be done.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Right now, cash welfare benefits are a strike against a green card
application, but says Marielena Hincapie, head of the National Immigration Law Center,
the administration wants to greatly expand the list of potential no-nos.
MARIELENA HINCAPIE, National Immigration Law Center: Programs like food down, housing assistance,
like housing Section 8 vouchers.
It also includes the low-income subsidy for Medicare Part D.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: And it includes Medicaid, earning below 125 percent of the poverty line,
and failing to work if authorized to do so.
MARIELENA HINCAPIE: The Trump administration is sending a message to people, to the world
that the United States is only open for wealthy people.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Or at least wealthy enough, says Francis Cissna.
FRANCIS CISSNA: Federal law generally requires that the foreign national seeking to come
to or remain in the United States be able to support themselves financially and not
be dependent on the public to meet their needs.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: So is the administration simply looking out for U.S. taxpayers?
Well, according to a report from the National Academy Of Sciences, federal taxpayers are
already coming out ahead.
U.C.
Davis economist Giovanni Peri:
GIOVANNI PERI, U.C.
Davis: All the recent estimates show that, in net, immigrants are fiscal surplus plus
for the U.S.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Meaning what?
GIOVANNI PERI: Meaning that they pay more taxes into the system than they receive in
terms of public spending, welfare and benefit.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Of course, the more educated and highly skilled the immigrant, like Professor
Peri himself...
GIOVANNI PERI: I am Italian.
I'm from Italy.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: ... the larger the fiscal surplus.
And immigrants can be a drain on state and local budgets, primarily due to the cost of
educating their kids.
But when it comes to federal budgeting, immigrants both legal and undocumented compare favorite
probably to similar native-born Americans, because they're less likely to be eligible
for benefits and more likely to work.
GIOVANNI PERI: So if they are low-educated immigrants that work at rate of 70, 75 percent
vs. low-educated native that work of 50, 55 percent.
But, also, there's a little bit of a stigma in applying for welfare, because they have
come here to work, to support to their families.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: And if immigrants were reluctant to apply for benefits before the
rule change, they're terrified now.
You have a baby girl now.
MARIA: Yes, she's 2 months old.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Did you think about enrolling in WIC again?
MARIA: At the beginning, I didn't have a lot of milk.
I couldn't breast-feed him.
So the doctor told me that it will be great if I get WIC, because they will be providing
me with formula.
But we decide we didn't want to try because it will be a problem for my residency.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Even though WIC is not even targeted in the proposed rule.
MARIA: Since everything is changing, and this year, it's OK, but maybe next year is not
OK, I don't feel really safe taking the programs anymore.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Her fear seems reasonable.
Even before the Trump administration officially proposed the rule change this month, multiple
evolving drafts of it had leaked and were widely covered by foreign-language media.
SHERRY HIROTA, CEO, Asian Health Services: The rule is so massive and confusing that
it's going to make people fearful across the country.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Sherry Hirota is CEO of Asian Health Services, a Bay Area network
of clinics.
SHERRY HIROTA: We have patients that have asked to be taken off of our electronic health
records.
We have people who are afraid to sign up for food stamps.
Legal immigrants are now at the crosshairs.
MARIELENA HINCAPIE: This is about people who are legally entitled to these benefit programs,
but now are being told, if you use them, you will be denied a green card.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Millions of immigrant receive benefits targeted by the rule, though some,
like refugees, are exempted.
They may choose to forego aid anyway.
It's happened before.
HILARY HOYNES, U.C.
Berkeley: The closest analogue we have to what might happen from this proposed rule
is what happened after the welfare reform of the 1990s, with changes in immigrant eligibility
for many elements of the social safety net.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: U.C.
Berkeley economist Hilary Hoynes says the chilling effects are large, due to this information
and fear.
HILARY HOYNES: So a policy change, food stamps, we see people dropping out of WIC, for example.
So that's dimension one.
Dimension number two is that there are groups who are unaffected by the policy change, for
example, citizen children, who nonetheless dropped out of participation in programs that
were affected.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: But what's the big deal if fewer immigrants or their families claim
benefits?
For one thing, says Asian Health Services' Dr. Kimberly Chang, if immigrants are afraid
to get health care, that could pose a public health risk.
DR.
KIMBERLY CHANG, Asian Health Services: If you think about infectious disease, if you
think about the flu season that's coming up, if you think about measles, if people don't
come in and get those vaccines, they put the American population at risk.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: More broadly, pushing immigrants off benefits might save taxpayers money in
the short run, but it could cost money in the long run.
HILARY HOYNES: Those kids who get more access to Medicaid or food stamps have higher earnings
and are more economically self-sufficient in adulthood.
And so they're essentially coming to the labor market as more productive workers, generating
more taxes and generating more income for their families in adulthood.
MARIELENA HINCAPIE: All of these different programs are anti-poverty programs for a reason.
They're actually helping people make ends meet when times are hard.
My own personal story is that I'm the youngest of 10.
We immigrated from Colombia in the 1970s.
We used food stamps when my father and my mother were in between jobs when they were
laid off from their factory jobs.
And, today, my nine brothers and sisters and I are all professionals.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Meanwhile, even though no one in her family receives any benefits
now, Maria is still at risk of losing her right to stay here, because, as a new mom,
she's not currently working.
Plus, her American husband's low-income level might raise a red flag.
MARIA: Who is going to raise my kids, right?
That is hard to think.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: What are you going to do if Maria can't get a permanent green card?
MAN: I would good go with her, actually.
I guess we would be immigrants in Mexico.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Some irony to that, I guess.
MAN: Yes.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Catherine Rampell reporting from California.