The Trump administration’s consideration of a plan to penalize legal immigrants for using government benefits such as Medicaid and food stamps, including making it extremely difficult to obtain citizenship, has sparked warnings about the consequences for immigrant families and the nation's healthcare system, NPR reported on Monday.
Although the law has long permitted authorities to reject immigrants if they are likely to become a "public charge," the Trump administration is considering expanding that definition by including programs such as healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, forms of Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit, according to CNN.
The administration has defended the general idea of the proposals as a way to enforce existing immigration law that would protect the American taxpayer from footing the bill for those who come to the country with the intention of living on the dole.
But the National Immigration Law Center said that such dramatic policy changes would force "millions of families to choose between the denial of status and food or healthcare [and] would exacerbate serious problems such as hunger, unmet health needs, child poverty and homelessness, with lasting consequences for families' wellbeing and long-term success and community prosperity," according to NBC News.
Social workers and those in the medical field say many legal immigrants are nervous about signing up for benefits they are entitled to under the law, because they fear it could ruin their chances of obtaining citizenship, NPR reported.
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