That topic and 9 30. Callsays, we take your and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. Washington host the white house plans to go ahead with the change to the Legal Immigration system which could affect potential new immigrants. It would factory and Financial Stability for those looking for green cards. This is the washington journal for august 13. We will learn more about those changes in our first hour. We want to hear from legal u. S. Immigrants only about your experience in coming to the u. S. How you are doing now that you are here and perhaps give comments on these changes. If you are a legal immigrant and have been in the country for less than 10 years, give us a call at 2027488000. If you have been in the u. S. For more than 10 years, 2027488001 is the number to call. You can tweet us at cspanwj and post on our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. Changes are written about in the changes of pages of the litter, pages of politico. Deny green cards to legal immigrants who received certain benefits or deemed likely to do so in the future. Public charge regulation the latest part of the president s vast immigration crackdown announced by Ken Cuccinelli, who prays to the thelatory praised regulatory change. Here is a bit of what changes are in store. [video clip] uscis, the agency i head as part of the department of Homeland Security issued a rule that encourages and ensures selfreliance and selfsufficiency for those seeking to come to or stay in the United States. It will also help promote immigrant success in the United States as they seek opportunity here. Throughout our history, selfreliance has been a core principle in america. The virtues of perseverance, hard work, selfsufficiency lay the foundation of our nation and defined generations of immigrants seeking opportunity in the United States. Our current law, which is generations old, recognizes some new arrivals to our country need the help of their family and community. It requires some of those who seek to live and remain in the United States to have a sponsor who will be financially responsible for them. My italian grandfather played this role sponsoring two of his cousins to come to america. Once they arrived, my grandfather wanted to make sure his cousins spoke english well enough to work and enlisted my father in that effort as well to make sure they could speak well enough to work and they did. My family worked gather to ensure they could provide for their own needs and never expected the government to do it for them. This same hardworking spirit shared by countless immigrants who made the u. S. Their home is central to their american identity. Host for those of you who have been a legal immigrant less than 10 years and want to tell us about your experience and perhaps these potential changes, 2027488000 is the number to call. If you have been in the United States more than 10 years, 2027488001. Joining us on the phone to walk us through these changes is ted hasson. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host could you walk us through the mechanics of the announcement yesterday from Ken Cuccinelli . Guest sure. This is a final rule issued by the Homeland SecurityDepartment Nature insweeping in how it deals with Legal Immigration. President trump frequently talks about legal ilLegal Immigration and the border. Specifically, the rule gives Immigration Authority the power to deny green cards or visas outright to people who might become a drain on taxpayer dollars, what they are calling a public charge and it plays on a statute that dates back all the way to the late 1800s that says if someone comes to the u. S. , they can be denied if they are likely to become what they call a public charge. Host talk about exactly what is received under someone who gets these benefits. What can they get and what can they not receive . Name specifically, they certain benefits here, which are food stamps, welfare, medicare, and housing assistance. It is not so much that they cannot receive them, but also they are looking at whether this person is likely to receive them in the future and they are using a broad test that looks at a range of factors around the applicant, including their age, their health, their family status, Financial Resources as well as education and skills. This is really a sweeping test to see if you come to the u. S. , are you likely to use those core benefits i mentioned before . Caller if this is a host if this is a test, what determines if someone meets qualifications are not . Guest there are various heavily weighted factors, positive and negative factors. For instance, the use of benefits i mentioned before would be a heavily weighted negative factor. One heavily weighted positive factor they mentioned would be if a person has private health taxrance and did not use subsidy under the Affordable Care act. There are many different factors here that are at play and win an immigration officer will. Eigh those the drivings motivation to incorporate these changes by the Trump Administration . Guest the Trump Administration and you heard, acting u. S. Heard kenp you cuccinelli saying this is about selfsufficiency and any immigrant that comes to the u. S. Needs to be able to stand on their own two feet. This is a combination of two potent issues for the republican party. You have immigration, which President Trump put at the forefront and then you have Public Benefits and perhaps reducing the number of people using them. I think those are both key issues for republicans and something that potentially the president can carry into the coming election. 2027488000 is there a sense host is there a sense of the number of legal immigrants who receive these benefits . What kind of number are we talking . Guest there are some debates about what the estimates of who exactly will be affected are. Dhs is issuing this regulation said somewhere in the neighborhood of 382,000 people moving to a green card every year would be subject to a review under public charge. A nonprofit who looked at this said there would be somewhere like another 500,000 people abroad applying to an immigrant toa and potentially subject it. By other estimates, it could be millions of people at least subject to review. How many people would actually be denied these benefits is not clear at this point. Host are there exceptions to those coming to the United States under this proposed change . Guest humanitarian visas are one exception. Refugees, people applying for asylum are not subject to the public charge test. There is something called a special immigrant juvenile visa that is for immigrant children for the most part used by unaccompanied minors coming to the u. S. And that visa does not apply to. For humanitarian categories, there is an exception to this. Host with the introduction of this potential change and the final rule being issued, will there be legal challenges and how could it affect the implementation . Guest the legal challenges are all but certain. There were several groups that came out right away and said they were exploring what they could do. We saw, on the west coast, a promigrant group vowed to sue over this. We saw Santa Clara County in california say they were exploring legal options. New york state said they were and even the city of california you have multiple parties saying they are planning to sue over this and the reason is they say this will drive people off vital benefits they are offering to their populace and not even just the benefits mentioned in the regulation that potentially could have a Chilling Effect where people do not use benefits because they are worried their name did this regulation and perhaps they could jeopardize to a green card. Host you can find his story online at politico. Com. Thank you for your time this morning. Guest thank you for having me. Host you can comment on these changes and we want to hear from legal immigrants in the United States. If you have been here less than 10 years, give us a call at 2027488000. If you have been here more than 10 years, give us a call at 2027488001. We want to hear about your experience coming to the United States. Perhaps you want to comment on legal changes. We will hear from alexandria, virginia, juan, who has been here less than 10 years. Caller good morning. First of all, i am not a big trump fan, absolutely not. I think this policy change is spot on. I think it is right to prioritize. I dont think the policy is to deny completely folks who are receiving aid, but to prioritize folks that have skill and are not receiving aid should be on the higher priority to receive green card and access to citizenship eventually. I think that is fair. I think every other country around the world does the same thing. Europe, latin american even. I am not a big trump fan at all, but i think this policy change is significant and fair. Host part of the reason for this morning, we wanted to hear about experiences for legal immigrants. You indicated you were here less than 10 years. What country did you come from and what was the process for you . Caller it was horrible. It took me 12 years. I was a student visa holder and became a ph one student. I waited for a sponsor to sponsor me by the book. Once i did that, i continued my to the green card and from the green card, weight the five years required to become a u. S. Citizen. Very long process, costly lawyers and whatnot. It is difficult and i think it should be difficult, it should not be for everyone to come in and get a green card and become a u. S. Citizen. This is the land of opportunity and we should be careful how we allow folks to come in there and i have no issue with that at all. Host lets hear from christina in maryland who says she has been here more than 10 years. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for having me. Overe been here a little 30 years and my experience has been good. I am not a trump fan, but some of what he put in place makes sense. The animosity with americans saying people are coming in and getting their benefits, maybe that would diminish even though it is really not true. In 85 and it wasnt so hard 1985 and it wasnt so hard. And986, i had my green card 1985, i was a citizen. I came as a medical transcriptionist, so i was able to work. I have been working with Kaiser Permanente 30 years. My two daughters finished college and i have a son. As an immigrant, my experience was not a bad one. Host what part of the world did you come from . Caller i came from an English Speaking country, so it wasnt so hard with the english because they teach english in school. Host was there a cost of you becoming a citizen of the United States . 30 years agothan it wasnt as expensive as it what you paid, i cannot even remember now. It was like 100 or 200. To get a lawyer or anything. It was not a big deal in those days, they did not give you a lot of headaches or hard time. Int lets hear from anne dallas, texas. She has been here more than 10 years. Hello. Caller hello. Hello . Host you are on, go ahead. Caller thank you very much for taking my call. Join a Family Member just like Ken Cuccinelli. My greenhs, i had card, i found a job and i was working for three dollars per hour cleaning. Then i got married and got divorced. At that time, i needed some help and i thought i would get it, but i did not. Basically i was homeless with my child on the street. I did not get any benefits. I was a legal immigrant at that time. I was already in the country for 15 years. I was a citizen actually because i got my citizenship in 5 years. Still, i did not get any benefits because i think there is certaints from a country, they have a tendency to benefits to immigrants legal or illegal from the same country. Nobody was willing to help. Host what do you think about these changes announced by the Trump Administration . Somer i think for immigrants, of course, it would news because as i said, they were getting help from their fellow immigrants who were actually working at those agencies. Evengrants like me if i was fully eligible, i was still discriminated against because of the country of my origin. Country is that . Caller soviet union. Everybody is like, yes, those people have to be discriminated forever. Host these potential changes cuccinelli. Mr. Immigrants in the United States receiving Public Benefits, this 2016. M 2014 to overall, 82. 6 million residents received one or four of tested benefits. Of those u. S. Born, 86 of those 70 million plus. For noncitizens, that figure about 8 of populations. Naturalized citizens, 6 . There is much more to this report and you can find that at the website for the migration policy institute. Stephen is next in baltimore. Hello. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. Here in the early 70s and she came here as a on,stic worker and later when she was able to bring her kids here, she brought me and my sister and later ron, my other brother and sister. Alone, sheother, worked a couple jobs and got her citizenship. Herr ron, she got citizenship as well. Said she needed public assistance. College andnt to education. At some point later, she was able to get public assistance. The point i am making is yes, do your hardest but some things happen and you get ill needose a job and assistance from somewhere. I dont see any reason why you should not be able to get help in those situations. Host this potential change which would use a test to to determine how someone would emigrate to the u. S. , what do you think about that proposal . Caller i have mixed feelings about it, really. Once you are legally here and things happen to you that you can earn an honest living, you have to have some way something to lean on and it is good the government is providing that thing you can lean on. What happens if you dont have that . What are you going to do . You are here legally already, you should not be discriminated against, that is how i feel. Host in this first hour in light of these announcements yesterday from the white house, legal immigrants only, we want to talk about your experience. You can talk about what was announced from the white house yesterday. In the uniteden states less than 10 years, 2027488000 is the number to call. If you have been here more than 10 years, 2027488001. You can give us a call. Allie from virginia, hello. Agree withotally this. I am not usually a trump fan, but i agree with this. Is a home care nurse and she works on people that were married before they came to the United States, so they dont have a marriage certificate from the United States getting all this help from the government and when i came as a student, i worked my but off. I came here to better myself. Trump on thisith one and thank god this happened. A lot of people think all immigrants are doing this and it is not, just the people abusing it. Host what country did you come from and what did you study when you came to the u. S. . Caller i studied graphic design. We have two children now, one was in the u. S. Army and the degree. Doing a masters i am proud of this country, i. Ove this country in washington, d. C. , thanks for giving us a call. Caller my family came here from poland. I came here as a small child. What i would like to say is i strongly disagree with this policy. What the Trump Administration is deliberately trying to do is just let in wealthy people, people that have massive amounts of wealth and they can do whatever they want and it leaves the people here struggling kind of behind and it doesnt help people in these rural areas struggling to have people that can buy their way in. The one great thing about america is you can come here and this country needs immigrants. People before them need immigrants to come behind them so everyone can give each other a leg up. The previous caller said something about people having more cars and taking advantage of the system. Nobody gets rich off of having public assistance, that is a myth and something people like to say. I really feel we are doing ourselves in. Host talk to me about your parents experience. Talk to me about their immigration experience. Caller my greatgrandfather came here and worked for 20 years, but he had children here and one of them that stayed was mike grant great aunt who sponsored my children coming over. I was the first want to go to college and i have a masters degree and it is part of climbing the steps. Nobody really had an education. My grandparents, my mother did not have anything beyond high school. She worked as a waitress and wound up owning that restaurant she had been a waitress in and my brother was in the army, in the national reserves. Dream. The american i would like to say those people worked some of them for 20 years. Why cant they work with employers and say you have these people, yes, they have been here illegally, but they seem to follow the rules and be working and have families. Why cant companies sponsor these people to get a Legal Immigration status . I am sorry. Host it is okay. Joseph is next in silver spring, maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. My own experience was really not that bad. Came here 8 years ago i needed money to survive. I did not get benefits. I dont think people really understand the trump bill. I voted for trump. Us whentrying to tell apply legally if they are going to rely on benefits, you are going to use that as a consideration to demand people dont understand what the bill is. From nigeria originally. The people that do that are the people that really need help. If somebody [inaudible] the people that really need the benefits, let them get the benefits. Since i have been in this cou