The rule change means immigrants using public benefits could be disqualified from receiving a green card or citizenship. The move is one of the Trump administration's most aggressive steps to restrict legal immigration.
The new rules are part of the Trump administration's push to move the US towards a merit-based immigration system.
"We want to see people coming to this country who are self-sufficient," Ken Cuccinelli, acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said.
What are the changes?
In order to apply for a green card (a permanent residency permit) or citizenship, applicants must prove that they are not a "public charge" or burden on the state.
The new rules expand the definition of a "public charge" to include someone who is "more likely than not" to receive public benefits during a 36-month period.
Under the new regulations, this means that immigrants using the government-run health program Medicaid, housing assistance, food stamps or other public benefits for a certain period of time will be disqualified.
Migrants seek shelter in churches
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Immigrants who are seeking to come to the US legally will also be blocked from entering the country if they are deemed likely to need public assistance.
The rules will not apply to children receiving public benefits or pregnant women who are on Medicaid. Programs including emergency medical assistance, homeless shelters or disaster relief are also excluded from the rules change.
Targeting immigration
The change could impact the 22 million legal residents who are not yet citizens, as well as an estimated 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants who are long-term residents.
The rules change has also raised concerns that immigrants will no longer seek help or assistance in order to not jeopardize their green card or citizenship applications.
What happens to immigrants once they leave US detention centers
Each day hundreds of immigrants to the United States are released from detention centers after having successfully crossed the fault line between the world's most powerful country and a region in crisis.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Free for now
Buses arrive throughout the day at the McAllen, Texas, bus station with immigrants released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and allowed to stay in the US while their cases are processed. Between October 2018 and March 2019, about 268,044 immigrants were detained at the border, according to US border authorities.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Handed over to volunteers
Once off the Homeland Security bus, immigrants wait for a border patrol agent to hand them over to a volunteer from the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley (CCRGV). Due to the high number of families crossing the border and the scale of the humanitarian crisis overwhelming the US government, civilian organizations have mobilized to help immigrants at the Texas-Mexico border.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Organized chaos
At CCRGV's Humanitarian Respite Center, people can eat, shower and sort themselves out before traveling to friends or family who will host them while they await immigration court hearings. Up to 800 immigrants arrive at the center each day. "Neither political side in the US appears to have an answer," says Brianna Trifiletti, a helper at the center. "The solution has to come in Central America."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Long road ahead
Once immigrants secure a bus ticket — typically bought by a contact in the US — they are taken back to the Greyhound station. Here volunteer Melanie Domingez uses a US map to indicate to immigrants — many of whom only speak an indigenous language — where they need to change buses. "It's busy but also rewarding as I was an immigrant once," Domingez says. "I feel it is my place to be here."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Numbers behind the wall
East of McAllen, stretching for miles along the border, is a wall built in the 2000s. Then the number of immigrants apprehended at the border — mostly single men — averaged 81,550 per month. Now the average is 32,012 per month and the dilemma is a different one as those coming are mostly immigrant families with young children, who are harder to detain and process.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
River of division
The Rio Grande acts as the Texas portion of the US border with Mexico. "Every week I hear about another drowning," says Jennifer Harbury, who works with people fleeing violence in Central America. "A mother paid the smugglers to take her and three children across on a raft. It hit some turbulence and her two-year-old fell in. The boat man said, 'We don't stop mid-river,' as the child went under."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
US measures to limit migrant flow
At the Mexican end of the International Gateway Bridge, which links the cities of Matamoros and Brownsville, immigrants check lists giving the order in which people will be allowed to cross and approach the US side. This so-called "metering" of immigrants is one of several new policies introduced by the Trump administration that many argue contravenes both US and international asylum laws.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Economic migrants vs. asylum-seekers
At another bridge, a Nicaraguan mother and daughter wait, hoping they can claim asylum. One factor in the US immigration debate is whether those coming should get asylum, meant for people fleeing persecution rather than economic hardship. "I had a job as a civil engineer, but I still came here," says 27-year-old Erving from Nicaragua. "We are fleeing violence, it's not about trying to find jobs."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Hope mingles with fear
Back at McAllen's Greyhound bus station, 9-year-old Valeria from Honduras waits for the bus that will take her and her family north. Immigrants tend to be in good spirits once they have rested and been fed at the CCRGV center. "But there is still fear," says a Honduran woman. "I don't know if after my court hearing I will be able to stay, or whether I will be deported."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
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In a statement, the White House said the new rules were aimed at targeting "large numbers of non-citizens and their families" who use benefits.
However, an analysis of census data carried out by The Associated Press found that immigrants make up only a small portion of those receiving benefits in the US and access those services at a much lower rate than US citizens.
Many are already barred from many programs due to their immigration status.