Immigrants’ Progress : Changes in Public Charge Policies Can Promote The Economic Mobility of Immigrants and Their Contribution to the U.S. Economy

The Department of Homeland Security has proposed to replace the Trump administration’s 2019 “public charge” rule which affects the ability of legal immigrants to adjust their status to become lawful permanent residents. The new proposal eliminates many of the worst aspects of the Trump regulation, which not only harmed those seeking to become permanent residents, but also created a massive “chilling effect” of confusion and fear which prevented hundreds of thousands of members of immigrant families, including children, US citizens and those who already had permanent resident status, from receiving assistance while they were eligible and in need. We analyze Census Bureau data that demonstrates immigrants are often poor and in need when they first arrive in the US, but rapidly improve their economic status the longer they remain. Longitudinal analysis further shows that low-income non-citizen immigrants are less than half as likely to receive cash assistance thru Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and less than one-seventh as likely to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) than similar low-income US-born citizens. Morover, their use of benefits drops substantially as they remain in the U.S. longer. These analyses demonstrate how immigration decisions based on past or current use of benefits fails to predict their economic status and use of benefits. Thus, denying residency to immigrants based on their early years in the US can unnecessarily harm their future economic mobility and the contributions that they can make to the United States.To simplify the process, we suggest an alternative, positive pathway that could be used in immigrant adjustment processes that would be easier to understand and create less fear and confusion, which also supports underlying values of employment and education as paths to economic success