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OPINION Published July 28, 2023 6:00am EDT

Biden lets in immigrants and

taxpayers get stuck with the bill
Public charge rule is so riddled with exceptions that it’s like using chicken wire as a mosquito net

By Simon Hankinson | Fox News

Harris County judge suggests illegal immigrants could receive universal basic income
Progressive Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo claimed during a hearing that the universal basic income program she supports could apply to illegal
immigrants.

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For centuries, immigrants came to America to make their fortunes through hard work.
While they often relied on existing ethnic or faith communities for help finding housing and
jobs, they had no expectation that the federal government would provide them with the
basics of life.

Itwent against the grain of American values that anyone newly arrived would immediately
depend on the state for their needs. Now, with the growth of a tremendously expensive
welfare state, it’s financially foolish to open our nation’s doors to people lacking the means
to support themselves.

That’s why our immigration law sensibly provides that any person who looks like they
would be a "public charge" – i.e. need handouts from the get-go – would be ineligible for a
visa.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland
Security, on Capitol Hill on May 4, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Today, however, the public charge rule is practically worthless watered down through ,

regulation. The law says that "any alien who… at the time of application for a visa, or… for
admission or adjustment of status, is likely at any time to become a public charge is
inadmissible."

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That’s pretty clear: if a visa applicant looks to be a certain drain on U.S. public funds, into
which they’ve never paid a dime, they don’t get a visa.

However, in 2022, the Department of Homeland Security defined "likely at any time to
become a public charge" as "likely at any time to become primarily dependent on the
government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash
assistance for income maintenance or long-term institutionalization at government
expense."

This means that immigrants can still take a raft of federal, state and local benefits yet not
be judged ineligible for a visa. I’ve processed thousands of immigrant visas and almost
none were refused under the public charge ineligibility.

Moreover, the public charge rule has become so riddled with exceptions that it’s like using
chicken wire as a mosquito net.

Here are some of the immigrants that are exempt from the public charge rule when they
apply for visas to enter the U.S. or to change their immigration status:

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"Asylees and refugees; Amerasians; Afghans and Iraqis employed by or on behalf of the
U.S. government, Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and other Central Americans who are
adjusting status to permanent residence (getting their ‘green card’); religious minorities
from the former Soviet Union; special immigrant juveniles; illegal immigrants who’ve been
living here since 1972 and are ‘of good moral character’;

"Applicants seeking Temporary Protected Status; surviving spouses, children, or parents of

military members; American Indians born in Canada; members of the Texas Band of
Kickapoo Indians; certain nationals of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos; Polish and
Hungarian Parolees; certain Syrian nationals; and applicants adjusting under the Liberian
Refugee Immigration Fairness (LRIF) law."

We’re still not done, though. Even though they must still submit an affidavit of support
(which are as worthless as a Confederate dollar) the following are also exempt from
public charge:

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"Aliens who have a pending application for a victims of human trafficking (T) or victims of
qualifying crime (U) visa), whether or not the claim has any merit); aliens who self-petition
under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA); and aliens who claim they have been
"battered or subjected to extreme cruelty by a family member in the United States" (again,
whether or not that turns out to be true).

Oh – and there’s one more category excluded from the public charge rule intended to
protect U.S. taxpayers from unlimited liability: every single one of the inadmissible aliens
that the Biden administration has let into the country since January 2021. That exception
is important, as we’re talking millions of illegal immigrants here, and they’re still coming
(just ask Mayor Adams in New York, or Mayor Johnson in Chicago).

The parallel immigration system of Biden parole-based programs, which bring in illegal
aliens on the pretext that they are asylum applicants, does not require anything of those it
brings in, and does not reject anyone on the basis that they will require significant taxpayer
support, perhaps for life.

Assuming these parolees ever apply for asylum at all, which many don’t, there is no fee
charged for the entire process. Being dependent on city, state or federal handouts is never
an impediment. This is also true for people released pending deportation hearings, who
might be in that limbo for over a decade before a decision (which in around 85% of cases,
is a rejection of their claim for asylum) is handed down.

Biden’s open borders are a blank check written on the backs of the already-groaning
taxpayer. One wonders how many more straws that camel can take.

CLICK HERE TO READ FOR MORE FROM SIMON HANKINSON

British-born Simon Hankinson is a senior research fellow in the Border Security and Immigration
Center at The Heritage Foundation. From 1999–2023, he was a foreign service officer serving in India,
Fiji, Ghana, Slovakia, Togo, Washington, D.C., Marseille, and Nairobi. Prior to entering the State
Department, Hankinson worked as a lawyer in London, and then taught history, English, and drama at
a private school in Miami.

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