A long-anticipated plan to enforce the largely ignored public charge provisions of the nation’s immigration laws that require prospective immigrants and visa holders to be able to support themselves without relying on government aid could be unveiled by the Trump administration as soon as this month.

A source close to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rulemaking process who requested anonymity said that proposed regulations will be published this fall, and likely this month, defining the phrase “public charge” under Section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The upcoming change was previously reported in the media, but usually with little indication of when the change was expected to surface.

Left-wing advocacy organizations have attacked any attempt to formally define “public charge” as cruel and xenophobic, aimed at drastically curtailing the flow of immigrants to the United States. But the lengths to which the new regulation will go remain to be seen.

Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency within DHS, previewed the upcoming rule during an Aug. 15 event at the National Press Club in Washington that was hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies.

“The goal is not to reduce immigration or, in some diabolical fashion, shut the door on people–family-based immigration or anything like that,” Cissna explained.

“The goal–and now I’ll actually read it out. The goal is simply to enforce a ground of inadmissibility to this country that’s been on the books for about 100–well, more than 100 years.”

Cissna said the public charge section in the law, a provision that has “hardly ever been enforced,” states that “an alien who in the opinion of the consular officer at the time of application for a visa or in the opinion of the secretary of homeland security at the time of application for admission or adjustment of status–getting a green card–is likely at any time to become a public charge is inadmissible.”

The phrase “likely to become a public charge” has “never been, as far as I know” interpreted in any regulation, he said. There was an attempt in the 1990s to define the expression but it was dropped and “a very short memo that basically said adjudicators were looking at this to determine if someone is a public charge should only consider–I’m generalizing–should only consider cash benefits–whether they received cash benefits. Everything else is off the table.”

Cissna said the administration wants to “issue proper regulations open to full public comment, the full gamut … to, at long last, interpret what that means.”

A document purporting to be a copy of the draft regulation was published online by the Washington Post.

The draft states:

“Aliens who are seeking adjustment of status or an immigrant visa, or who are applicants for admission, must establish that they are not likely at any time to become a public charge. Moreover, DHS will require aliens seeking an extension of stay or change of status demonstrate that they are not using or receiving, nor likely to use or receive, public benefits.”

The public charge principle has been part of the American experience for centuries.

As James R. Edwards Jr. wrote in a 2001 paper for the Center for Immigration Studies, “Public charge doctrine has been part of American immigration law since colonial days.”

“The English colony of Massachusetts enacted the earliest American public charge laws in 1645. The arrival in the colonies of undesirables spurred other colonies to enact similar laws.”

“By the end of the seventeenth century American colonists were especially reluctant to extend a welcome to impoverished foreigners and the ‘Rogues and vagabonds’ that England had so graciously decided she could spare. Many colonies protected themselves against public charges through such measures as mandatory reporting of ship passengers, immigrant screening and exclusion upon arrival of designated “undesirables,” and requiring bonds for potential public charges.”

Good stuff finally from government.