The Quiet Reversal With Massive Implications Earlier this week, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) quietly issued a seismic policy reversal — a legal opinion that undoes a 1997 Clinton-era interpretation which effectively allowed many immigrants, including some unlawfully present, to receive federal welfare benefits. For nearly three decades, that loophole neutered the teeth of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which was supposed to make clear that immigrants must be self-sufficient and that taxpayers wouldn’t be stuck holding the bag. Now, this new opinion doesn’t immediately change eligibility rules, but it forces federal agencies to reinterpret how they define "means-tested" benefits, potentially expanding restrictions, strengthening sponsor obligations, and restoring long-dormant provisions of…
Continue reading as a Citizen
Dedollarize News is free to read for signed-up members. Become a Citizen to finish this article, save what matters, and get the daily “While You Were Distracted” briefing.
No credit card required.
