Senate Passes Sen. Marshall Measure to Uphold High Standards for American Citizenship

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the U.S Senate passed a bipartisan measure authored by U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. to nullify the Biden Administration’s public charge rule that lowers the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) citizenship standards for legal immigrants. This rule reduces the types of taxpayer-funded federal benefits – such as food stamps, housing vouchers, and Medicaid – that DHS can consider when determining whether to grant admission or lawful permanent residence to green card applicants. The final vote was 50-47.

Passage of Senator Marshall’s resolution comes just after he led a group of Senators to Brownsville, Texas for an eyewitness account of the crisis at the southern border. The visit came just hours before the lifting of Title 42 last Thursday evening. In the build up to Title 42 ending, border patrol agents in the Brownsville sector reported over 11,000 illegal crossings in the local area. On the frontlines in Brownsville, American military patrol the area, and barbed wire lines are cut on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande River. Camps of migrants line the opposite side of the Rio Grande, waiting for their chance to escape into our country. Striking down Joe Biden’s public charge rule sends a clear message to this Administration and migrants – legal or illegal – that potential new citizens need to be exceptional. They cannot come to America’s front door expecting a handout

“Joe Biden has a communication problem. His open borders agenda tells the world that the United States stands ready to take everybody in with open arms. But this is totally detached from reality,” Senator Marshall said. “As I saw in Brownsville last week, the United States of America does not have the capacity or resources to care for the thousands of migrants clamoring to be here. This is nothing new- our country has dealt with huge crowds of migrants at the southern border since the earliest days of the Biden Administration. But these crowds are coming because the Biden Administration keeps making promises to both legal and illegal immigrants about what they are entitled to in America. The public charge rules we just struck down in the Senate represent one of those promises. Our actions today deliver a resounding statement of truth to Joe Biden and anybody who wants to try and call our country home: we only reward the best and brightest and there is no room for freeloaders.”

Senator Marshall spoke on the Senate floor prior to the passage of his measure. You may click HERE or on the below above to hear Senator Marshall’s full remarks.