Stop the bleeding: Attacks on immigrants are attacks on all of us

We are hurting. The public charge regulation being finalized this week is just the latest attack against immigrant families by this administration. Despite overwhelming opposition, the Trump administration has chosen to advance a regulation that directly harms families and communities and threatens a core principle of the American immigration system: family unity.

The public charge regulation reinforces a preferential option for the wealthy — rather than for the poor, as we find in the Catholic faith — and exacerbates fears already felt by immigrant communities. It cuts to the heart of the most basic realities for immigrant families and calls into question a more than 100-year-old recognition that health care and food are basic to the ways families provide for loved ones, remain productive and help communities thrive.