JusticeAlert: September 27, 2018

There are three items in this notice: 
1) GOOD NEWS! Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a spending bill after removing a cruel amendment that would have kept children and families in jail-like detention centers for months or even years. Now it’s on its way to the president’s desk and ready for his signature. 
2) Immigration Statement from LCWR (click on blue “statement in the second paragraph);
3) a prayer service for the Feast of St. Francis, “Who is My Neighbor in a Climate Threatened World?” 

Last weekend the Trump administration issued a new proposed rule that would penalize immigrant families, forcing parents to choose between accessing medicine, housing, and food for their children and risking their eligibility for possible legal permanent residency. The much-anticipated proposed rule change was released by DHS on Saturday, but it has not yet been published in the Federal Register or opened for public comment. 

LCWR issued a statement opposing this latest attempt by President Trump to restrict immigration and punish immigrant families. 

In brief, the proposed rule would: 
• change the way US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will weigh various factors to determine immigrant inadmissibility for public charge 
• expand the number and type of public benefits received that could lead USCIS to find an immigrant inadmissible when applying for lawful permanent residence 
• apply a similar public charge evaluation to change of status and extension of status applications 
• set the standards for the collection of public charge bonds 
• would not be retroactive 

There is some good news in this latest proposal. The proposed rule does not consider receipt of public benefits by family members, including U.S. citizen children, as was included in earlier drafts of the rule. This may well indicate that opposition to earlier drafts succeeded. 

More information about the proposed changes to the public charge rule is available from CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.) at https://cliniclegal.org/public-charge