The White House is considering adjusting U.S. immigration rules to only allow legal permanent residents who have never received government benefits to successfully apply for citizenship, NBCNews reports.
The White House change requires no Congressional approval because it involves interpretation of existing federal law. The benefits which would hinder a legal immigrant from attaining legal permanent residency or citizenship include food stamps, welfare and government-provided health care.
The proposed rule change which is slated to be put into place in the coming weeks would reduce the number of overall naturalized citizens per year. The Trump administration’s stated priority is to shift the U.S. legal immigration system away from prioritizing familial ties to existing U.S. residents towards merit-based immigration.
President Donald Trump is also considering shutting down the government in the coming months over Congressional refusal to consider his proposed changes to the U.S. legal immigration system.
I don’t care what the political ramifications are, our immigration laws and border security have been a complete and total disaster for decades, and there is no way that the Democrats will allow it to be fixed without a Government Shutdown…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018