If the govt screens out "public charges," then why are more than half of all immigrant households w/kids receiving welfare assistance?

The Center for Immigration Studies reports that "In 2008, 53 percent of all households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) with one or more children under age 18 used at least one welfare program, compared to 36 percent for native households with children. Immigrant use of welfare tends to be much higher than natives for food assistance programs and Medicaid."

Now wait a second - wait a second. To get a green card (permanent residency), I thought you need to prove you will not become a public charge??

Section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), an individual seeking admission to the United States or seeking to adjust status to that of an individual lawfully admitted for permanent residence (green card) is inadmissible if the individual, "at the time of application for admission or adjustment of status, is likely at any time to become a public charge."

This is a reasonable requirement. After all, there's no reason to let someone stay permanently in our country if they're just going to burden the American taxpayer. Keep the loafers out! Makes sense. Great.

But if the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is screening out potential public charges from among applicants for permanent residency, then why are over half of immigrants receiving at least one form of welfare?????

Surely the USCIS is not doing its job of weeding out the loafers!?

Well, no. The USCIS defines "public charge" in such a narrow sense as to be virtually meaningless.

This is the USCIS definition of "public charge": an individual who is likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense. Non-cash benefits and special-purpose cash assistance are generally not taken into account for purposes of public charge determination.

In other words, the USCIS has set the bar really low for becoming a permanent resident. So long as you're not institutionalized in a mental asylum or nursing home, or receiving direct cash payments to supplement your income, you won't be considered a public charge.

This means that you can receive Medicaid benefits; Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits; subscribe to nutrition programs including Food Stamps, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program, and other supplementary and emergency food assistance programs; housing benefits; child care services; energy assistance such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP); emergency disaster relief; foster care and adoption assistance; educational assistance (such as attending public school), including benefits under the Head Start Act and aid for elementary, secondary, or higher education; job training programs; community-based programs, services, or assistance (such as soup kitchens, crisis counseling and intervention, and short-term shelter); and assistance from state and local programs that are similar to the federal programs listed above (in California, for example, Medicaid is called "Medi-Cal" and CHIP is called "Healthy Families") and still not be considered a public charge!!

In short, you can receive all the "non-cash" or "special-purpose cash benefits" the government has to offer, and this will not disqualify you from becoming a permanent resident. Welcome to America - and jump on the gravy train!

But considering Medicaid, the government's program for the poor, is heavily used by legal immigrants and is helping to bankrupt California, and Obama and the Democrats claim that Medicaid costs are spiraling out of control and threaten to bankrupt the entire nation, don't you think Medicaid recipients should be considered "public charges"??

Only makes sense to me. But then again, I, like millions of middle-class white Americans, are just paying for all of this, so who really cares what we think?

Wake up white America (and middle-class minorities too)! The liberals/leftists and ethnocentric lobby groups are pulling a big one over on all of us. They decry the swelling ranks of the uninsured on the one hand, but continue to invite masses of impoverished Third World people into our country on the other. The logical solution would be to halt the inflow of impoverished peoples. Then we could get Medicaid costs under control. But no, that makes too much sense. Their solution - in the form of Obamacare - is to provide free or subsidized medical care to all! This, combined with a never-ending flow of impoverished immigrants, ensures that the gravy train will only get longer and longer and longer...And of course the liberals, always generous with other people's money, are going to have you - and your children and grandchildren - pay for it. Oh they're so wise. So moral. So above the rest of us. And so laying the groundwork for turning America into Brazil. Splendid.