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Schakowsky statement on Trump's shameful Public Charge Rule change

September 26, 2018

Today Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Chief Deputy Whip, released the following statement on the Trump Administration's announced changes to the Public Charge Rule:

"President Trump and his Administration are not content with simply terrorizing undocumented immigrants and the communities they live in. Their latest anti-immigrant attack sets its sights on legal, taxpaying immigrants to our country. Shame on them.

"The ‘public charge' rule they are amending has been weaponized before, used against Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, unmarried women, and Irish Catholic immigrants. Now, the Trump Administration is hoping to use it to discriminate against immigrants who obtain a Child Tax Credit, turn to Medicaid for their citizen children, or seek Pell Grants to further their education, to name a few.

"These immigrants are using the very government programs they pay for with their tax dollars to support their quest to achieve the American dream. Donald Trump is extending his government by the ultra-wealthy for the ultra-wealthy vision to our immigration policy and we can't allow it. My parents and grandparents would not have been able to immigrate to the United States and become citizens under Donald Trump's shameful policies. Once again, the President is using every tool at his disposal to change the immigrant-rich character of our nation. We won't sit idly by."