A new policy for immigrants on welfare
It used to be that immigrants who came here legally had to make their own way. There were charities – often religious or ethnic-based – that helped somewhat. But immigrants had to work very very hard to make it out of the crowded tenements and sweatshops, and to learn English. If they sent money back home to relatives – and they did – it was money they earned by the sweat of their brow.
There are still plenty of immigrants who do that. But for decades there have been plenty who are on the dole, and yet they send money back, too. Now there will be some limits:
In an appearance on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Bessent revealed the administration will now require those on public assistance to identify their welfare status when visiting “money service businesses” with the intention of wiring money to other countries.
BESSENT: From now on, anyone who wires money out, from one of these money service businesses, has to check a box saying whether they are on public assistance. And, if you are on public assistance, we’re going to start pushing that you cannot wire money out of the country.
More here:
FinCEN also issued a geographic order increasing scrutiny on banks and money transmitters in Minnesota’s Hennepin and Ramsey counties, which will require firms to report additional information on funds transferred outside of the U.S., including FinCEN reports on transactions above $3,000.
Asked if this would have a chilling effect on legitimate remittances made by migrants to families overseas, Bessent said, “No, it shouldn’t. Anyone who can prove where the money has come from … is fine,” in an interview after touring the Minneapolis-area engineering lab of RV and boat maker Winnebago Industries. …
“You cannot send welfare money from the people of Minnesota to Somalia, right? Like, that just means you’re getting too much, or you can’t send stolen money.”
It used to be that immigrants who came here legally had to make their own way.
Law still says they are not to be a public charge, the law says Medicaid doesn’t cover illegals, but the regulators have decided differently.
WAC stands for “Washington Administrative Code”. Not laws. Nobody voted for them. Nobody voted for the regulators either.
$3K, so send 2.5K. These people are not dumb, they will work around quickly.
It’s not clear how this can be enforced. Good idea, though.
@Kate:It’s not clear how this can be enforced. Good idea, though.
Usually a memo from the regulatory agency. Any business that handles wiring money will be advised by their counsel what risks they’ll run if they don’t comply.
The US congress should pass a law that no charities or NGO’s that support immigrants can receive federal funds as that is just a way around direct federal support to immigrants, legal and illegal.
If real people want to donate to these organizations that is fine and many should but the rest of taxpayers who don’t want their tax dollars going to immigrants should not be forced to pay for this.
@CultivatingMan:The US congress should pass a law that no charities or NGO’s that support immigrants can receive federal funds as that is just a way around direct federal support to immigrants, legal and illegal.
If you’ve been following Data Republican’s work, you’ll know that charities and NGOs launder their grants through each other, and the one that got the money from FedGov is not the one that spent the money, and there can be several intermediaries. Money is fungible.
One thing we could do would be to enact a general rule that corporate bodies are debarred from receiving any grant money from the public treasury, then list a half-dozen exceptions which cover inter-governmental transfers and some odds-and-ends.
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The only private philanthropies who should be receiving government grants are those which are in real time providing hands-on services during natural disasters and wars. They should face prosecution if they distribute funds to other philanthropies. In fact. private philanthropies in general should as a rule have only the most circumscribed franchise to make grants to other philanthropies and the corporation, its board, and its officers should face prosecution if they defy this precept. We might make an exception for foundations if it be the law that (1) foundations are debarred from any activity other than making grants to other agencies and (2) that any foundation must be liquidated within sixty years of when it was established, with its assets returned to donors or distributed to hands-on service providers under the supervision of a surrogate’s court.
Sorry to be a bore, but we would benefit if sectoral subsidies were limited to medical care, l/t care, schooling, legal services, and shipping-and-transportation. The first three might be highly subsidized, the last two at the margins. For resident aliens, the terms of one’s eligibility should be a function of accumulated work credit. If your work credit is below a certain threshold, your deductibles are higher, you are charged fees to register your children for school, &c. As for cash transfers, Social Security and unemployment compensation have ‘buy-in’ requirements as we speak for natives and foreigners alike. Ditto veterans benefits. SSI benefit levels should be lower for those whose close relations lack a certain quantum of work credit. Subsidies for earned income for which low wage workers might be eligible should also be lower for foreigners who have yet to accumulate sufficient work credit. Eligibility for workmen’s compensation, disaster relief, subsidized legal services, and subsidized transportation and shipping (to and from remote areas) might be unaffected by civil status, as might child protective, foster care, and allied programs for infirm and incompetent adults.
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Other sorts of subsidies and cash transfers might be eliminated.
Ideally, federal distributions to local governments would be limited to (1) disaster relief and (2) property tax payments on federal real estate. Ideally, for state and territorial governments, distributions would be limited to (1) Medicaid, (2) unemployment compensation, (3) Long-haul Interstate highway maintenance, and (4) a general grant which could be used for any lawful purpose. The territories other than Puerto Rico might also receive property tax payments on federal real estate.
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How local governments assess property and compose levy schedules would be an issue here there and the next place and many local governments would be properly denied on that basis.
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Allowing illegal aliens to sign up for Medicaid or unemployment compensation should mean an immediate end to these federal grants for any state which does this and a refusal to restore them until proofs that the policy has ended are supplied and a five year supplementary penalty period has elapsed.
It’s a symbolic gesture at best. Democrats already have a pocketed District Judge who will issue an injunction stopping any restrictions, because that’s SOP now.
California and New York will probably set up a government funded wire transfer service to help the immigrates.
I have never been so pessimistic about the future of this country. Not because of immigrants, legal or illegal, but because it’s obvious to me that Democrats care more about having power than doing the right thing. By any means necessary should be a SEAL team credo, not a political party credo.
James, I sadly agree with you.
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And about the $3000 wire limit, I don’t doubt some people would simply do so frequently. Maybe even multiple times a day. Is anyone checking for that??
I wish they’d appoint a DOGE guy to write some monitoring software or better yet prevention software to shut off this type of fraud.
James Sisco,
“… it’s obvious to me that Democrats care more about having power than doing the right thing.
Well stated and, sadly, true. Also, the Republicans are feckless. Not sure if it’s incompetence or by design (I lean towards the latter). The U.S. Congress has been failing massively at its duties for at least a quarter century, and this has done great harm to the U.S.
“By any means necessary should be a SEAL team credo, not a political party credo.” Good line!
I tend to prefer a strict adherence to the Constitution, but, as you write, Leftists are at war with the U.S., as are China, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea and, sometimes Canada and Europe. Maybe Trump and others like Kurt Schlichter are right that a “by any means necessary” approach is the only way to combat those working to destroy liberty.
Most, all?, NGOs should be terminated and made illegal for receiving any public tax dollars.
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“…..check a box….”
You must be joking; those on welfare intent on sending $$ out-of-country will not check any box.
Long ago, Milton Friedman said that you cannot have unlimited immigration with a welfare state.
As for those who cite that the USA is a nation of immigrants; there was no welfare state when the vast majority of immigrants entered the USA.
About 1 in 3 immigrants, during the “Age of Mass Migration” , returned to their homelands before 1910.
“…The U.S. Congress has been failing massively at its duties for at least a quarter century, and this has done great harm to the U.S…..”
And this can mostly be blamed on the growth of the administrative / bureaucratic State, which has allowed Congress to fob off their constitutional duties as the law making branch of govt and, for all intents and purposes, turned it over to the multitude of (un-elected, un-acountable) federal agencies.
Of course, it is congress that has established this system and they are all for it because it means less work and less decision making for members of congress.
This all began with FDR (one of the worst presidents in US history) when he established dozens of agencies as part of his “New Deal,” to counter a Great Depression that was deepened and lengthened by his policies and later on , LBJ , when he established his “Great Society Program;” (recall, it was to abolish poverty in our lifetime. How is that working out, folks ??).
Other presidents, post-LBJ, also expanded the federal bureaucracy, but FDR and LBJ are at the top of the list.
Congress routinely issues budgets that require THOUSANDS of pages to describe which nobody in Congress reads .
Frankly, the only way to get around this is by abolishing about 90% of all federal agencies, which in turn, would force individual states to handle its own problems and find ways to fund their own programs.
If this was the case, gigantic cases of fraud – like that in MN – would not occur because a “third party,” (i.e, the US taxpayer) would not be footing the bill.
Anytime a third party is paying the tab, you will get massive fraud, fiscal abuse and sky high costs.
The “third party” payment system has to be abolished.
@John Tyler:
“Third Party” really means Other Peoples’ Money. It’s the easiest kind to spend.
The U.S. is, it seems, like some great, unaware beast, shambling along, parasites burrowed into it’s body, which are slowly sucking the lifeblood out of it.
Anytime a third party is paying the tab, you will get massive fraud, fiscal abuse and sky high costs.
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We don’t benefit from fanaticism.