DHS proposes limits on welfare payments to immigrants

The Homeland Security Department has announced new rules designed to enforce a long-standing, but also long-ignored, requirement that immigrants not become a burden on American taxpayers.

Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who signed the proposal Friday, said it would push immigrants eithrt to be self-sufficient or to rely on their family or the business that’s sponsoring them to be in the U.S. for help, rather than to take assistance from the government.

Those who do end up taking taxpayer-funded benefits could be denied the ability to gain citizenship — and the rules also apply prospectively, meaning the government would be able to refuse adjustments of status for immigrants whom officials deem likely to become a “public charge.”

Homeland Security says the government stands to save nearly $20 billion over the next decade in benefits it will no longer have to pay out.

The rules are a proposal, and the public will have 60 days from the official publication date to submit comments.