The Trump administration is starting implementation on Monday of its change in the “public charge” rule in order to restrict green cards for those immigrants who are determined to likely be reliant on welfare, Fox News reported.

“It’s consistent with our law for over 140 years, it's a core American value of self-sufficiency, and it’s just plain old logic - what country wants to bring welfare problems into its society?” acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told Fox. "We’re happy to open our doors to people from all over the world, but we expect them to stand on their own two feet."

Democrats fiercely oppose the policy, saying it will harm both immigrants and society overall.

Democratic presidential front-runner Bernie Sanders decried it as "designed to demonize and hurt those who are the most vulnerable of all" and has vowed to reverse the policy if elected.

Doug Rand, who worked on immigration policy in the Obama White House and is co-founder of Boundless Immigration, slammed the Trump policy, declaring to Axios that "It's the administration saying let's get as close as we can to the 1924 act that restricted immigration from everywhere but Northern Europe."

But Cuccinelli told Fox that “The reaction by most ordinary Americans that talk to me about this is ‘I can’t believe we needed to do this, I can't believe that welfare is available for people who aren’t American citizens or who aren’t already here on a permanent basis.’ They are stunned by that for starters and the idea that we would encourage that is not something I have seen much in the way of favorable response.”