According to documents obtained by Breitbart News, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has launched a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its rule change letting immigrants into the nation who will be dependent on welfare.
For immigrants, federal immigration law requires a “public-charge” determination, which prevents them from remaining in the country if they are likely to use welfare programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, or government housing assistance.
“The Biden Administration has demonstrated its intent not to enforce the law and to open the borders to illegal aliens who will be dependent upon welfare benefits,” a press release from Paxton’s office obtained by Breitbart News says.
Immigrants must usually present financial proof that they will not drain taxpayer finances. The rule implemented by the Biden administration “prevents consideration of statutorily required elements when deciding whether a foreigner is likely to become a ‘public charge.'”
“The Biden Administration is committed to opening the borders to aliens who lack the ability to take care of themselves. Texans should not have to pay for these costly immigrants, nor should any other American,” Paxton said. “I will continue to defend the rule of law and fight to ensure that the massive costs of illegal immigration don’t further burden taxpayers.”
According to Breitbart News, taxpayers are billed around $1,600 per immigrant per year, and foreigners utilize 33 percent more cash welfare than American natives. Similarly, “about 63 percent of noncitizen households use at least one kind of public welfare, while approximately 35 percent of native-born American households are on welfare.”
Despite this, the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pushed its “Fair and Humane Public Charge Rule,” which the lawsuit claims is the Biden administration’s attempt to “further open its borders.”
The new law restricts “public-charge” considerations to financial benefits, ignoring “in-kind” government benefits such as retirement, welfare, health, disability, food, subsidized housing, post-secondary education, and many others. Such non-cash perks were included in former President Donald Trump’s 2019 rule expansion.”
It also “de-fangs the statutory requirement ‘rendering most family-sponsored applicants automatically inadmissible on public charge grounds unless they obtained an enforceable affidavit of support from a sponsor’ by prohibiting a meaningful evaluation of whether the affidavit is true and correct,” according to the lawsuit.
Finally, the new regulation “appears to have been intended and constructed to ensure—and will ensure—that nearly no foreigner is ever determined to be a public charge.”
“Self-sufficiency has been a key premise of United States immigration law since this country’s early immigration statutes,” noted the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which reiterated the “public-charge” criterion.
It demanded that “aliens within the Nation’s border do not rely on public resources to meet their requirements,” so that the “availability of public benefits does not create an inducement to immigrate to the United States.”
Paxton has also petitioned the Supreme Court, requesting permission to defend the Trump-era “public-charge” provision in federal court in light of the Biden administration’s reluctance.
