Public Charge

Inside Trump’s “public charge” attack on immigrant families with the Protecting Immigrant Families campaign; Jocelyn Frye on how little has changed since Anita Hill; and Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week.

This week on Off-Kilter, the Trump administration is out with its latest attack on immigrant communities — this time in the form of an income test on the Statue of Liberty. A rule posted online to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website over the weekend would massively expand an archaic provision in immigration law called “public charge,” which dates back to 1882, and has been used in the past to keep out Irish Catholics, Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, unmarried women, and other “undesirables.” Rebecca sits down with Shawn Fremstad, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a huge nerd when it comes to the intersection of immigration and public benefits — and Wendy Cervantes, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, one of the organizations leading the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition.

Next, with the Kavanaugh confirmation process moving full speed ahead, despite Dr. Ford’s serious allegations of sexual assault, the #MeToo movement has reached new heights, with countless women sharing their stories — many for the first time — of #WhyIDidntReport. Rebecca talks with Jocelyn Frye, a senior fellow with the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress and former policy director for First Lady Michelle Obama, about how much, and how little, has changed since the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings 27 years ago, the shifting power dynamics that #MeToo has catalyzed, and whether we’re headed towards another “year of the woman” in the wake of this ugliness.

But first, Trump gets laughed out of the U.N., McDonald’s workers stage a massive walkout in cities across the U.S. to protest the company’s inadequate response to sexual harassment, thousands of Arkansans lose health insurance as Trump’s cruel new Medicaid work reporting requirements take effect, and more, as our beloved Slevinator returns with the news of the week.

View more information and the transcript here.

Source URL: https://medium.com/@OffKilterShow/public-charge-7e4ddd66d927