2020 is off to a rough start so far, and it seems like things are only getting worse with each passing day. On Monday, January 24, the Trump Administration began enforcing the Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds final rule, colloquially known as the "public charge" rule.

An informational page from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website states,

"Self-sufficiency has long been a basic principle of U.S. immigration law. Since the 1800s, Congress has put into statute that individuals are inadmissible to the United States if they are unable to care for themselves without becoming public charges. Since 1996, federal laws have stated that aliens generally must be self-sufficient. This final rule provides guidance on how to determine if someone applying for admission or adjustment of status is likely at any time to become a public charge."

A "public charge" is defined as "an alien who receives one or more public benefits for more than 12 months, in total, with any 36-month period," according to USCIS. For instance, an example they provided states a receipt of two benefits, such as food stamps and government housing, in one month would count as two months.

This final ruling allows for policy changes to deny prospective immigrants whom the government deems possibly could or will rely on public benefits. It's a controversial immigration reform that was brought up to the Supreme Court where they voted almost a month ago — along ideological lines — to allow the policy to be enforced.

I find it ironic how the government can advocate enforcing policies like this while the Statue of Liberty, a national symbol for freedom (and closely associated with immigration), has a famous sonnet engraved on a plaque mounted inside the wall of the pedestal that ends with the following famous lines:

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It should go without saying that immigrants are some of the hardest working individuals in this country, people who strive for nothing more than to be able to be self-sufficient. And to be fairly realistic, we are not all dealt the same cards in life — some have an upper hand at times, while others may not.

The Trump Administration will be notoriously known for how poorly it treated immigrants, from separating families, letting children die in custody, creating a travel ban from a majority-Muslim country (and recently extending it), and now a regulation that would provide officials more power to deny visas and green card applications. Simply put, Trump's public charge rule should not be enforced.