Wednesday, March 11, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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The history of the United States is rich with stories of immigrants who arrived penniless in our nation yet achieved the American dream by working hard, paying their taxes, living a peaceful life among their neighbors, and sending their kids to school in pursuit of even greater opportunities.
But now, President Donald Trump wants to price poor immigrants out of their chance to come here, build a better life for themselves and their families, and make our country a better place in the process. His administration is doing this in two ways:
• Expanding the government’s ability to refuse green cards or visas for legal immigrants who receive food stamps, Medicaid and other forms of public assistance. Although a number of federal judges blocked this “public charge” rule from going into effect, the U.S. Supreme Court in January gave the administration the go-ahead to enforce it.
• Proposing massive increases in administrative fees for immigration applications and processing. If enacted, which appears likely, the proposal would create a $50 charge for asylum seekers applying for legal residency status and $490 for work permits, making the U.S. one of only four countries that impose such fees on asylum seekers. There’s also an 83% increase in the application fee for legal permanent residents who were born elsewhere, raising the charge to a whopping $1,170. Applications for renewal of status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects U.S.-born children of immigrants, would go up 55% to $800, and there would be a staggering increase of 800% for fees attached to appeals of deportation orders. That charge would balloon to $1,000.
Both the public charge rule and the new fees are clearly aimed at closing America’s doors to low-income immigrants, who Trump clearly wants to keep out of the country.
But this is another example of Trump’s racism and xenophobia defiling America’s values and undermining the nation’s best interests. At a time when some industries all over the country desperately need workers, these policies could leave plenty of American-owned businesses without an adequate supply of legal guest workers, or force those businesses to pay the fees, which would also affect their bottom lines.
In other words, the fees fly in the face of sound economic policy.
They’re also unjustified. Contrary to Trump’s disgusting portrayal of immigrants as parasites who suck up welfare and commit crime, a conclusive body of research has shown that newcomers from foreign countries are a net gain for the economy. The work they produce, the goods and services they purchase, the taxes they pay and their charitable giving far outweigh what they accept in social services. And the crime rate among immigrants is low, which stands to reason given that infractions could cost them their chance at citizenship.
Meanwhile, a recent study based on research of millions of immigrants dating to the 1800s showed that low-income immigrants tended to escape poverty faster than their native-born American peers. That study, released last year by a team of economic historians at Princeton, Stanford and the University of California, Davis, showed immigrants often dig themselves out of poverty by the second generation, if not the first.
But Trump is out to make it difficult, if not impossible, for such immigrants to gain a toehold in their pursuit of the American dream. He’s made it clear he wants to limit immigration to wealthy — and largely white — newcomers from such nations as Norway.
That’s simply un-American: Our status as a beacon of freedom and opportunity for people everywhere is a key part of what makes us the strongest and most prosperous nation in the world. In hanging a “Do Not Enter” sign at our borders, Trump diminishes us.
His actions also threaten our economy, given our workforce needs and the contributions made by immigrant workers and their families.
And who knows what enormous talents and skills we’ll be missing out on? Maybe the person being shut out is the next Kirk Kerkorian, who grew up poor in an Armenian immigrant family before becoming one of most influential business and philanthropic leaders in Las Vegas history. Maybe that person is the next Andrew Ly, founder of the $400 million Sugar Bowl Bakery brand, who arrived in San Francisco with $1 to his name in the 1970s after escaping war-torn Vietnam? Maybe that person is the next Shahid Khan, who went from earning $1.20 an hour as a dishwasher to building a multibillion-dollar business and buying the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team.
The list of such immigrant Americans goes on and on.
But to keep the door open to individuals like those and millions of others who make our country great in smaller yet significant ways, Trump has to go.
It’s something for voters to remember this fall.
