On Thursday, the Trump administration highlighted its efforts to remove illegal immigrants from public benefits programs in order to preserve and ensure better access for American citizens.
“Today, at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the Administration is taking the biggest step in more than 30 years to protect taxpayer-funded benefits for American citizens — NOT illegal aliens,” the White House said in a press release.
The administration specifically highlighted actions by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to limit illegal immigrants’ access to 13 public programs, as well as the Department of Education’s decision to end free tuition for undocumented students in certain career education programs.
The Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Justice have also taken steps to restrict illegal immigrants’ access and close loopholes that allowed their enrollment.
These coordinated efforts are part of the Trump administration’s broader strategy to encourage self-deportation, including cutting off illegal immigrants’ access to public programs and funding voluntary relocation initiatives.
Former President Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, acknowledged in a Thursday interview that Trump was “right” about the border, admitting that Democrats had allowed it to fall into disarray.
“The first thing any president should say, any president, or anybody in public life, is, without a border protected, you don’t have a nation — I believe that. If you’re going to define your nation, you have to have a border that means something,” Kerry said during an interview on BBC’s “Reflections” podcast. “We have a system. I wish President Biden had been heard more often saying, ‘I’m going to enforce the law.’”
Kerry served as Secretary of State under former President Barack Obama and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004—losing to George W. Bush. BBC correspondent James Naughtie, during the interview, noted that Trump would likely seize on Kerry’s comments to claim he was right about the border issue.
“He was right,” Kerry responded. “The problem is we all should have been right. Everybody should have been right, doing the same thing, all moving in the same direction. They just allowed the border to continue to be sieged, under siege,” Kerry added.
