Not too long after the Biden Regime effectively repealed the Public Charge section of a federal statute, the Immigration And Naturalization Act (INA), as amended, poverty-stricken immigrants are back in the news, effectively baby-waving for increased welfare. Now, the Biden Regime has effectively repealed all immigration laws with the ongoing zerg rush on the border, but the Biden Regime specifically repealed the half-way measures on excluding and removing immigrants who are unable or unwilling to provide for themselves.
In this case, one of the welfare dependent groups of immigrants, those from China, are in the news. For over 10 years this family of immigrants—we don’t know if they are legal or not—has been living dependent on welfare and living in poverty that would seem more familiar during the late 1880s when tenement poverty in urban areas was a major problem.
✍️Special Project✍️
— Han Li 李晗 (@lihanlihan) February 16, 2023
Chinatown’s Hidden Poverty: How a Big Family Struggles To Survive in a Tiny Roomhttps://t.co/stskRF8Uq3
The INA prohibits those dependent or likely to become dependent on welfare from entering or remaining in the United States. The provision in the INA is referred to as the Public Charge section and is supposed to protect the nation and taxpayers from aliens who either cannot or will not provide for themselves. But that section of law was effectively repealed by the Biden Regime, essentially rewriting the statute to say that most welfare programs are allowed to aliens.
Even after living in the U.S. for almost a decade, Muyi Yu still bursts into tears when talking about the size of her home.
She and her husband, Jianhua, are raising their four children in a 100-square-foot single room occupancy (SRO) dwelling in San Francisco’s Chinatown. They have no kitchen of their own and no sink or toilet, just a single room to house six people.
“I don’t know how to explain to my kids,” Yu said in Chinese. “I could only [lie] to them that we will move into a bigger place soon.”
Like other hundreds of SRO families struggling in the city, the Yus are living with extremely limited space while their underage children—two teenage daughters, ages 16 and 15, plus two 8-year-old twin boys—are growing up.
[Chinatown’s Hidden Poverty, How a Big Family Struggles To Survive in a Tiny Room, by Benjamin Fanjoy, San Francisco Standard, February 16, 2023]
It’s a sad story, but one completely avoidable. Likely they were living in a tenement or village hovel in China and have not improved their lives in over 10 years. But the Biden Regime has decided, like the Obama, Clinton, and Bush regimes before it, that importing poverty is somehow good for America.
Now, even if either of the adults in this story had taken real jobs, well paying service jobs are available in the San Francisco Bay Area, and especially in the unionized hotels in San Francisco. English not required either, cleaning crews for example can mop without speaking English. But this pair of adults have been unable to do anything to move up. And most certainly not learned any English. Likely they both work in some illegal garment shop or Chinatown restaurant, and most certainly not contributing to saving Social Security, as their contribution in taxes is likely low, if anything. They are as likely to be working off the books as on. And will never earn enough to cover their own Social Security payments, which are coming up soon.
The problem is that Congress did not adequately define public charge in the INA, which has allowed the Biden Regime to effectively repeal the provision through redefinition and non-enforcement. Congress must step up, define public charge, and prohibit the Executive Branch from ignoring its provisions. However, Kevin McCarthy seems unwilling to do anything about any problem using the leverage he has over the budget and debt ceiling limit.
