DACA Illegals Sue to Ensure They Can Use Welfare and Still Get Green Cards

Two illegal aliens shielded from deportation by President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are suing the Trump administration to ensure they can collect federal welfare and still obtain green cards to permanently stay in the United States.

The open borders group CASA de Maryland and two DACA illegal aliens are suing the Trump administration over its soon-t0-be enforcement of the “public charge” rule, which would save American taxpayers billions by effectively ending welfare-dependent legal immigration to the U.S.

The regulation prevents legal immigrants from permanently resettling in the U.S. by obtaining green cards so long as they are found to have used or likely to use welfare programs like food stamps and subsidized health care.

The DACA illegal aliens, represented by Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP), want a preliminary injunction to stop the implementation of the public charge rule while the case goes through the courts, calling an end to welfare-dependent immigration “discriminatory” and suggesting the rule is racist against non-white immigrants.

“The new rule would allow immigration officials to deny [Lawful Permanent Resident] status to many immigrants in an arbitrary and discriminatory way,” Amy Marshak, senior counsel at ICAP, said in a statement. “This is by design. President Trump and his advisors have expressed animus toward non-white immigrants, and studies already have shown that the new rule will disproportionately affect immigrants of color.”

The lawsuit seeks to ensure that DACA illegal aliens, who have lobbied for DACA amnesty for years, would be able to obtain green cards if such an amnesty is granted despite them having used welfare that U.S. taxpayers have been forced to pay for.

“The new rule would expand the concept of a ‘public charge’ beyond recognition, making someone who receives little more than $1500 in food stamps or a few benefits at the same time for less than a year into a ‘public charge,’” ICAP counsel Jonathan Backer said. “That is not what anyone has ever understood the term to mean.”

Despite outrage from the open borders lobby, Democrats, and establishment media, Trump’s seeking to end welfare-dependent immigration is hugely popular with Hispanic Americans and U.S. voters overall.

The latest Harvard/Harris Poll finds Hispanic Americans, by a majority of 56 percent, support denying permanent residency to immigrants who are known to have used welfare or are likely to use welfare. Likewise, a majority of 65 percent of Hispanic Americans said illegal aliens should not be allowed to draw from taxpayer-funded welfare programs, as well as 71 percent of black Americans.

A study by the Center for Immigration Studies notes that about 63 percent of noncitizen households in the U.S. use at least one form of taxpayer-funded welfare, while only about 35 percent of native-born American households are on welfare. This means that noncitizen households use nearly twice as much welfare as native-born American households.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that granting amnesty to roughly 3.5 million enrolled and eligible DACA illegal aliens would cost American citizens at least $26 billion as about one in five DACA illegal aliens would end up on food stamps, and at least one in seven would go on Medicaid.

The case is Aguiluz v. Trump, No. 8:19-cv-02715-CBD in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.