In what is being critiqued as one avenue of attack against legal immigration, the Trump administration is considering a new policy that would target foreign-born people living in the U.S. who have received, or have U.S. citizen children who have received, public assistance. The policy would allow immigration officials to consider a broad range of public benefits programs as potential disqualifiers for immigrants pursuing legal residency, thus cutting off hundreds of thousands from legal status and even a pathway to citizenship. We want to emphasize that this document is not yet law, but rather a draft proposal of potential new rules.

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