The Trump administration is considering something so obviously correct that the only surprising thing is it took this long to propose it: requiring green card applicants to post a $100,000 bond before entering the United States, refunded only after they become citizens.
The State Department is developing the proposal. The bond amount could vary by case and country, with officials considering a pilot program in select nations before broader implementation. The stated objective is simple and unarguable: people who immigrate to America should be financially self-sufficient. They should add to this country, not subtract from it.
This is an excellent idea to ensure immigrants are highly skilled and don't depend on the government.
An idea I proposed last year when I described what a strong and efficient public charge rule would look like ?? pic.twitter.com/263SbedanW
— Daniel Di Martino (@DanielDiMartino) July 15, 2026
Milton Friedman explained the underlying logic decades ago with characteristic precision. Open immigration worked when America had no welfare state — because the absence of a safety net was itself a filter. People who came here came to build something. They had no choice but to succeed on their own terms because there was no alternative. That filter no longer exists. We have built an extensive social welfare apparatus, and the combination of open immigration and a generous welfare state is, as Friedman argued plainly, an untenable one. You cannot have both. A welfare state requires limits on who accesses it, or it collapses under the weight of unlimited demand.
“If people immigrate under circumstances where they are all promised a prorated share of the pot, then free immigration would mean a reduction of everybody to the same uniform level.”
-Milton Friedman on why you cannot have free immigration in a welfare state pic.twitter.com/V1qfxB7IU7— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) August 19, 2025
The $100,000 bond proposal is a mechanism for restoring that filter in an era when we can no longer abolish the welfare state itself. It does not bar legal immigration. It does not discriminate by nationality, ethnicity, or religion. It simply requires that people who wish to immigrate permanently to the United States demonstrate — with actual money, not a signed affidavit — that they are capable of supporting themselves without becoming a burden to American taxpayers.
Eminently common sense https://t.co/PUO8YEGrto pic.twitter.com/FG9rQmo81x
— Daniel Di Martino (@DanielDiMartino) July 16, 2026
The left will scream that this is unfair to poor immigrants. They are missing the point deliberately. The question is not whether poor people deserve sympathy. Of course they do. The question is whether the United States has an obligation to absorb unlimited numbers of people who will immediately require government support — while American citizens who need those same services wait in line behind them. The answer is no. It has never been yes.
The existing public charge rule — which is supposed to prevent exactly this — has been so thoroughly watered down, litigated, and selectively enforced that it provides essentially no real filter at all. A bond requirement is a concrete, enforceable mechanism. It doesn’t depend on a bureaucrat’s subjective assessment of someone’s likely future financial trajectory. It requires demonstrated financial capacity, period.
The policy is still under development. The exact amount could change. A pilot program will likely come before full implementation. All of that is fine — details matter and getting them right is worth taking the time.
But the principle is correct, the need is real, and the logic is ironclad.
Legal immigration should benefit America. This new requirement helps ensure it does.
