Supreme Court Allows White Supremacy to Infect Immigration Law With 'Public Charge' Ruling

Should Trump be removed or voted out of office this year, the insidious effects of his Presidency will long be felt through the courts and in rulings like these.

CBS News reports that in a 5-4 ruling the Supreme Court has authorized the Trump administration to implement a stricter “public charge” regulation when it comes to legal immigration. This ruling expands the definition of “public charge” and allows the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) more power to deny visas and green cards to applicants who may need to apply for certain public benefits such as food stamps or government housing. Essentially, it allows the government not to let poor people inside the country.

Clinton-era regulations have been the norm when it comes to finding if an immigrant would be a “public charge.” Those rules only allowed cash benefits to be examined by caseworkers. Under these new rules it would determine if an applicant would be a public charge by looking at their wealth, age, education, English fluency and health. As most immigrants wouldn’t be allowed to use public services it’s believed that this would be criteria of which applicants would be judged. This comes after a proclamation the White House issued in October allowing the government to reject visa applicants if they can’t prove they could pay their medical costs. Which is odd to me because not affording medical costs seems to be the epitome of being an American these days.

Trump’s crackdown on legal immigration clearly comes from a place of white supremacy. There’s no talking around it. It’s racism plain and simple. The tragedy of this administration is that while Trump will one day leave office, his court appointments will stand and reversing these damaging laws and policies is going to take time. The damage wrought by Trump and his band of white nationalists is going to be felt long after he leaves. Trump has weaponized the judicial system to become a more overt instrument of white supremacy than it already was.