As we reported yesterday, the Trump administration issued new rules defining what a public charge is under our immigration laws. As we also noted, this is not a new concept. 

It has been part of U.S. immigration law since the 1880s and was revived during the Clinton years. The problem is that it was never seriously enforced. (By the way, the new rule also benefits immigrants who are proficient in English.)

Predictably, the left’s reaction to these reasonable rules is over the top. 

For example, The Washington Post warns that the Trump administration is ramping up its “war on legal immigration,” while The Nation declares that the “war on immigrants just got a whole lot worse.” Numerous progressive politicians and special-interest groups are vowing to sue to overturn the rule.

What the left is describing as a “war on immigrants” is actually cover for the left’s war on the American taxpayer. We taxpayers are a very diverse group of people. Taxpayers include immigrants, as well as people of all races, religions, and backgrounds.

The progressive reaction is also very telling because it exposes yet again how the left goes out of its way to promote the interests of noncitizens over the interests of American citizens. 

We are told over and over that immigrants pay taxes and are a boon to society. Well, to the extent that they are productive members of society and do pay taxes, that’s true. And that is why most conservatives are strong proponents of legal immigration. 

But that assumes we have an immigration system that is making commonsense decisions about who gets in. That has not been happening. 

We know that because Reuters tells us that “some experts say [the new rule] could cut legal immigration in half,” which means that half of legal immigrants meet the definition of “public charges." 

According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), "63 percent of households headed by non-citizens use at least one welfare program, including an astonishing 80 percent of non-citizen households with children." 

CIS research also found, "The average household headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) costs taxpayers $6,234 in federal welfare benefits.”

Thankfully we have an administration that is fighting for the taxpayer. Voters who are uneasy with Trump’s style or his tweets will get a rude awakening if the left takes power and there is nothing standing in between them and their wallets.

More Commonsense Actions

It may be time for summer vacations, but the Trump administration is not taking a break. 

The administration also announced significant revisions to the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Specifically, the government will no longer ignore the economic impact of its actions when deciding whether to extend protections to certain species.

Of course, everyone wants to protect endangered species, like the American bald eagle. But listening to the reaction of the left-wing media, you’d think Trump just put fried eagles and scrambled sea-turtle eggs on the White House menu!

Like so much of what Washington does, the Endangered Species Act endangered another important species — entrepreneurs. 

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from friends around the country, especially in California and other western states, who had major projects stopped cold because bureaucrats or environmental activists expressed concerns about some unknown creature.

President Trump is making government work for working Americans!

Stoking Racial Hatred

Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren are two of the left’s leaders who routinely attack President Trump for allegedly stoking racial hatred and spreading discord in the country. But how do they hold up under scrutiny? 

Late last week, Harris and Warren tweeted about the “murder” of Michael Brown by a “white police officer” on the fifth anniversary of Brown’s death. 

You remember Michael Brown. His death gave rise to the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” narrative and led to the Ferguson riots. But there was only one problem: That narrative was a lie.

How do I know that? Because the Obama Justice Department, under then-Attorney General Eric Holder, sent dozens of FBI agents to Ferguson, conducted scores of interviews with eyewitnesses, and concluded that there was no basis to charge Officer Darren Wilson. 

The truth is that the 6-foot 4-inch, 290-pound Brown attempted to wrestle Wilson’s gun away from him and was shot in self-defense. Yet Harris and Warren deliberately stoked racial tension by repeating what they must have known was a lie.

Monday night in California, three police officers were shot during a routine traffic stop. One was killed. Should we blame Harris and Warren for the officer’s death because they stoked more hatred of police last week? 

I don’t think it is fair to make that connection, but that is exactly what the left is doing to Trump every time he speaks out against illegal immigration or criticizes a minority elected official.

Threatening Justice

If you have any doubt about what the left intends to do, we got a clear sign Monday. In a brief delivered to the Supreme Court involving a challenge to New York’s gun laws, five progressive senators warned the justices:

The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it. Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.

Where is the “mainstream media” warning about this progressive threat to judicial independence?

China Cracks Down

Riot police stormed the Hong Kong airport yesterday, attacking demonstrators with pepper spray and clubs. It is likely that an American in Boston knows more about the chaos than a Chinese resident of Beijing. 

In recent weeks, the demonstrators have taken to singing the famous anthem from Les Miserables, “Do You Hear The People Sing?” China’s communist government, which was supposed to change for the better thanks to our doing business with it, has so much power that it erased every reference to that song on all Chinese social media. 

But it is actually worse than that. Monday a Chinese dissident here in the United States posted on his Twitter feed a video of the airport protests. Our daughter Elyse shared it with me Monday morning. By the time I got home Monday night, U.S. Twitter had removed his video.

The demonstrators are also bravely waving U.S. flags and singing our national anthem. Such scenes have reminded me that just before the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square in 1989, Chinese students waved copies of our Declaration of Independence in the faces of the soldiers who eventually opened fire on them.

Meanwhile, back here in the United States before the week is out, I expect we will see another athlete kneel during the national anthem and university professors will teach our children and grandchildren that the United States is a lie built by slave owners. 

Maybe President Trump can restart the trade negotiations by offering to trade China our spoiled athletes and pompous professors for those Chinese waving American flags and proudly singing the Star-Spangled Banner!