What government assistance are immigrants eligible for?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
Since 1996, access to many federal programs has been limited to citizens and people that the law defines as “qualified aliens” — such as green card holders, refugees, and asylees. In 2025, a series of changes, most tied to legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), modified access for several groups. According to the visual above, what services and duties were restricted by the 2025 legislation?
According to the visual above, do unauthorized immigrants pay taxes?
According to the visual above, what services are unauthorized immigrants eligible for?
A green card holder is a person who has been granted authorization to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis. Also known as a "lawful permanent resident" (LPR), a green card holder receives a permanent resident card as proof of status. This card allows them to live and work anywhere in the U.S. and serves as a step toward becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen. According to the visual above what is the one difference in eligibility between citizens and green card holders?
Imagine you were asked to write a newspaper headline describing the visual above. What would you write?
Unauthorized immigrants are eligible to attend public school. I have unauthorized immigrant in my school. Imagine that we no longer allowed unauthorized immigrants to go to public school. How would this impact them and how would it impact our country?
This week, The New York Time Chicago bureau chief reported the following: “During a recent run near Lake Michigan, I watched a black S.U.V. make a U-turn and chase down three young men. Two armed immigration agents, their eyes peeking out from behind their balaclavas, jumped out and approached them. One asked what visas they held. “H-1B,” they responded, looking bewildered. That’s the visa for foreign workers with special expertise. Nothing that I could see would have attracted the attention of the agents, except for the fact that the men had brown skin. After questioning them, the agents let them go. This scene is now unfolding across Chicago every day.” Do you think the U.S. government should stop and question people based on their race?
Based on the visual above, how would you describe how welcoming Americans are to refugees.
The Trump administration is considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration. The proposals, some of which already have gone into effect, would transform a decades-old program aimed at helping the world’s most desperate people into one that conforms to Mr. Trump’s vision of immigration — which is to help mostly white people who say they are being persecuted while keeping the vast majority of other people out. The refugee program overhaul proposals also advise Mr. Trump to prioritize Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties.” a reference to the European far-right political party Alternative for Germany, whose leaders have trivialized the Holocaust, revived Nazi slogans and denigrated foreigners. Describe the criteria you think the United States should use in accepting refugees.
According to the visual below* about what percent of the largest benefit programs go to non-citizens?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
Contact your members of Congress and let them know what you think about the changes in refugee policy made by the Big Beautiful Bill.
Get Creative
Emma Lazarus was one of the first successful and highly visible Jewish American authors. She advocated for Jewish refugees and others. She is most famous for her poem, The New Collossus, the end of which is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Rewrite this final stanza of Lazarus’ poem to best 2025 America.
