Hawley: Biden Axing Public Charge Rule to 'Exacerbate' Migrant Crisis

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, charging that President Joe Biden’s elimination of Donald Trump’s public charge rule would only “exacerbate” the migrant crisis.

Hawley wrote to Mayorkas as the American southern border has experienced a 170 percent increase in illegal immigration apprehensions. The Missouri senator wrote that the Biden administration’s scrapping of the public charge rule, a Trump rule that would crack down on welfare-dependent legal immigration, would only worsen the migrant crisis at the border.

The National Academies of Sciences found that state and local taxpayers are billed roughly $1,600 each year per immigrant for their welfare. Immigrant households consume roughly 33 percent more cash welfare than American citizen households.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) also noted that about 63 percent of noncitizen households use at least one form of welfare, compared to 35 percent of native-born households.

Hawley wrote that the public charge rule would ensure that the federal government would prioritize Americans first. He noted:

Contrary to the apocalyptic tone of some media coverage, the rule clarified that these limitations do not apply to asylees and several other vulnerable populations outlined in the underlying statute and rule. Rather, such a rule was both rational and necessary: the American government has a responsibility to prioritize, first and foremost, the well-being of taxpaying citizens. That is the first duty of any regime.

Hawley continued, adding that the Biden administration should keep safeguards to disincentivize illegal immigration while millions of Americans remain unemployed.

The Missouri conservative wrote:

The American economic situation has grown much more dire since then. We are in the middle of a national pandemic, millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, and there is a burgeoning crisis at the border. Under conditions like these, this is perhaps the worst imaginable time to gut this important safeguard. By creating a fresh incentive for foreign migrants to surge across our southern border, your actions reflect a profound misunderstanding of the plight of American workers and communities across the country, and threaten to further exacerbate an already severe humanitarian disaster

“This dangerous moment is no time for the Department to change course,” Hawley concluded in his letter to Mayorkas. “The public charge rule serves the essential purpose of protecting Americans’ welfare first and foremost, and it should be immediately reinstated.”