Senators Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Pat Roberts (R-KS) sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano demanding answers regarding the administration’s soft treatment of immigrants likely to rely on welfare.
This is actually a follow-up letter; their original demand for information came four months ago. It went unanswered.
The Senators wrote four months ago to ask about the criteria being used by the administration in granting visas. It is against federal law to admit people who are “likely at any time to become a public charge.” But the Senators found out, they told State and DHS, that “both the State Department and DHS exclude reliance on almost all governmental welfare programs when evaluating whether an alien is likely to become a public charge …. Indeed, under your interpretation, an able-bodied immigrant of working age could receive the bulk of his or her income in the form of federal welfare and still not be deemed a ‘public charge.'”
Here’s the text of the letter:
It has been more than four months since we requested basic information from your Departments regarding the Administration’s apparent failure to enforce federal law prohibiting the approval of visa applications for those likely to be welfare-reliant. The Department of State has provided a partial response, while the Department of Homeland Security has provided no reply at all. We are waiting for more detailed information from both of your Departments to assess if the Administration’s polices are consistent with congressional intent. In addition to promptly receiving this information from both departments, we request that our offices be briefed no later than January 7th about this matter.
With the lack of transparency emanating from this administration, any response at that time seems unlikely.