Want to sponsor a legal immigrant? No problem. Just be prepared to reimburse the government for all costs in case that legal immigrant decides to mooch from the government’s teat.

This was the message that newly designated acting Citizenship and Immigration Services Director and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli shared in a memo released last Friday.

“If the sponsored immigrant receives any federal means-tested public benefits, the sponsor will be expected to reimburse the benefits-granting agency for every dollar of benefits received by the immigrant,” he wrote.

An affidavit of support is a legal and enforceable contract between the sponsor and the federal government. Read more about how @USCIS will take action to implement the @POTUS directive to enforce the law and protect American taxpayers: https://t.co/E6MeT8TRQu — USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli (@USCISCuccinelli) June 15, 2019

Why is this rule being implemented? Because President Donald Trump has grown tired of legal immigrants burdening America welfare system and forcing U.S. taxpayers to subsidize their lifestyles.

And yes, legal immigrants do collect welfare. While most new legal immigrants are barred from America’s generous safety net, those who’ve been in the states long enough may collect certain types of welfare, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Data shows that immigrants tend to collect welfare at a higher rate than native-born Americans:

“The President has made it a priority to ensure that every individual who seeks to come to the United States is self-sufficient, temporarily or permanently,” Cuccinelli’s memo continues.

“The principle of self-sufficiency has been enshrined in our immigration laws since the 1800s, and we as an agency must ensure that immigrants who become part of this great country abide by this principle.”

In a series of tweets accompanying Cuccinelli’s memo, USCIS reminded potential sponsors that this new rule is enforceable as per the Affidavit of Support that all sponsors must sign:

Last month, @POTUS issued a presidential memorandum directing relevant federal agencies to update or issue procedures, guidance, and regulations to comply with current law and ensure that ineligible immigrants do not receive federal means-tested benefits. pic.twitter.com/fsxCR4OfQO — USCIS (@USCIS) June 14, 2019

The memo highlights the commitment of the Administration to enforcing existing immigration laws & protecting taxpayers. As part of implementation, we’ll now remind individuals at their adjustment of status interviews of their sponsors’ responsibilities under existing law & regs. — USCIS (@USCIS) June 14, 2019

The Affidavit of Support is a legal and enforceable contract between the sponsor and the federal government. The sponsor must be willing and able to financially support the intending immigrant as outlined by law and regulations. https://t.co/galyyia4wQ — USCIS (@USCIS) June 14, 2019

If the sponsored immigrant receives any federal means-tested public benefits, the sponsor will be expected to reimburse the benefits-granting agency for every dollar of benefits received by the immigrant. — USCIS (@USCIS) June 14, 2019

The tweets referenced a memorandum issued by the president last month that urged federal agencies to start enforcing a set of Clinton-era laws that require that immigrant sponsors reimburse the government if their sponsored immigrant collects any welfare.

While Democrats and their media allies framed the memorandum as another sign of Trump’s alleged cruelty, the memo specifically noted that the goal was to stop immigrants from “straining the social safety net and jeopardizing [the] benefits needed by the most vulnerable American citizens.”

President Trump is fighting misuse of our safety net by enforcing restrictions on welfare use by non-citizens. https://t.co/IAaadEmDhf — The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 29, 2019

Friday’s move comes weeks after word broke that the president is considering implementing a regulation that would pave the way for immigration authorities to deport those low-income immigrants who abuse America’s welfare system.

“A Department of Justice draft regulation, seen by Reuters, dramatically expands the category of people who could be subject to deportation on the grounds that they use benefits,” Reuters reported at the time.

“Currently, those legal permanent residents who are declared to be a ‘public charge,’ or primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, can be deported – but in practice, this is very rare. The draft regulation would use a more expansive definition to include some immigrants who have used an array of public benefits, including cash welfare, food stamps, housing aid, or Medicaid.”

It’s unclear whether this rule change will ever be implemented.

But as the Trump administration has been busy trying to reduce welfare consumption and abuse, Democrat presidential candidates such as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have been busy pushing to expand America’s welfare system even further so that it caters to illegal aliens as well.

Three months ago the New York senator called for expanding Social Security to include illegals.

“[W]e need comprehensive immigration reform,” she said at a campaign event in Iowa. “If you are in this country now, you must have the right to pay into Social Security, to pay your taxes, to pay into the local school system, and to have a pathway to citizenship. That must happen!”

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But if illegal aliens were allowed to pay into the Social Security system, they’d, therefore, be permitted to draw money from the system as well. This is alarming because, as it stands, illegal aliens are already costing American taxpayers billions of dollars because of how much welfare they collect.

This was true in 2011: “Census Bureau data reveals that most U.S. families headed by illegal immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare programs on behalf of their American-born anchor babies,” Judicial Watch reported at the time.

And it’s still true now, according to Steven A. Camarota, the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.

“A large share of the welfare used by immigrant households is received on behalf of their US-born children. This is especially true of households headed by illegal immigrants. There is simply no question that households headed by illegal immigrants access a good deal of welfare. In fact, illegal immigrants’ use of some programs is quite high,” he said to the New York Post last year.

Were a Democrat to win the 2020 election, every single action that the Trump administration has taken to stop welfare abuse by immigrants legal and illegal would likely be rolled back.

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