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Comment by oh_sigh | Hacker News Reader

I assume this article was written because of proposed changes to the green card system hinted at earlier this week.

It may be my own bias showing, but is there ever a reason to offer some person permanent residency in the country when you know they will need to go on public assistance right away?

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> It may be my own bias showing, but is there ever a reason to offer some person permanent residency in the country when you know they will need to go on public assistance right away?

Every single immigrant visa category in the US immigration system is based on something that has been specifically deemed by the Congress as a reason to offer people admission, permanent residency, and ultimately citizenship in the United States.

So, yes.

You're just using the law as a proxy for correctness. 180 years ago a similar argument would have said that black people should be chattel because the law says that they should be and Congress passed those laws.

Because permanent residency shouldn't be a privilege granted only to the relatively wealthy.

Do you have to be wealthy to not need public assistance?

Most Americans aren't relatively wealthy, but also aren't on food stamps or other public programs.

As of July 1, 2016, over 80 million Americans, nearly a quarter of the population, was enrolled in Medicaid. [0] (Because someone qualified for other means-tested assistance will almost always also qualify for Medicaid, that's a pretty good rough estimate, though still a lower bound, for the total aid-receiving population at that point in time.)

[0] https://data.medicaid.gov/widgets/x3sw-xby3

Okay, so most Americans are not on public assistance. That seems to agree with what I said.

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