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

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.

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

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