5/23/2019

ENTITLEMENTS/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump took another step Thursday [5-23-19] to crack down on legal immigration, instructing agencies to enforce a 23-year-old law that requires sponsors of green card holders to reimburse the government for welfare benefits. Trump approved a memorandum Thursday to enforce a pair of provisions signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the White House said. The move comes as Trump has sought to overhaul legal immigration despite congressional resistance. ‘To protect benefits for American citizens, immigrants must be financially self-sufficient,’ Trump said in an announcement of the plan. Critics have said that such moves unfairly punish low-income immigrants, who sometimes need assistance to get started in the U.S. But the White House counters that too many immigrants take advantage of U.S. generosity, pointing out that 58% of all households headed by a non-citizen use at least one welfare program. Immigration advocates Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, and Olivia Golden, executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy, denounced Trump’s ‘brutal, reckless, dangerous, inhumane agenda.’”

John Fritze, Michael Collins and Alan Gomez, “Trump demands legal immigrants reimburse the government for welfare programs,” USA Today, May 23, 2019 8:17 pm