Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell has consistently covered the Trump anti-immigrant “public charge” regulations. Her past columns underscored the real harm done by these policies. Her most recent column focuses on how effective communication drove that harm.
As our partners at the Center for Law and Social Policy point out in the column, the Trump administration deliberately cultivated fear and mistrust of government to deter immigrant families from accessing safety net programs. With the pandemic hitting families of color especially hard, the consequences have been devastating. And as Rampell rightly recommends, only effective communication can restore trust and mitigate the harm done to the health and wellbeing of millions in immigrant families.
As advocates and providers work to repair the damage, using the power of communication to do more good is nothing less than a matter of life and death.
If we want immigrant families to stay healthy — and keep their nonimmigrant neighbors healthy, too — the government needs to put better policies on the books. But it needs to rebuild immigrants’ trust in those policies, too. That part may ultimately be harder.
