BEYOND AWFUL

Trump Executive Order Draft: Kick Out Immigrants on Welfare

Would deny entry to people likely to need assistance.

A draft executive order circulating among the Trump administration lays out a plan to filter out immigrants who might require public assistance, and to deport immigrants already living in the United States who depend on a form of welfare. The documents, obtained by The Washington Post, describe the power to “deny admission to any alien who is likely to become a public charge” and outline methods for “determining whether an alien is deportable... for having become a public charge within five years of entry”—that is to say, if they receive public assistance via food stamps, welfare, and Medicaid, among others. A second order draft, titled “Executive Order on Protecting American Jobs and Workers by Strengthening the Integrity of Foreign Worker Visa Programs,” calls for the elimination of the so-called “jobs magnet” encouraging undocumented immigrants to travel to the United States, and calls for the repealing of work-visa provisions found not to be in “the national interest.”