The president of the United States, Donald Trump, ordered the US consulates to deny entry visas to the country to those immigrants without medical insurance or who cannot pay for their health, the White House announced on Friday.
This is the last measure promoted by the president in his strategy to reduce both irregular and legal immigration.
In a proclamation, the president ordered consular officials to deny visas unless applicants demonstrate that they have "the financial resources to pay for medical costs" while in the United States or that "they will be covered by approved medical insurance."
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The measure must take effect as of November 3.
"While our health care system faces the challenges caused by unpaid medical care, the United States Government is compounding the problem by admitting thousands of foreigners who have not demonstrated any capacity to pay for their medical expenses," Trump said. The proclamation
To prove his thesis, the president defended that "the data shows that legal immigrants are three times more likely than citizens of the United States to lack medical insurance."
"Immigrants entering this country should not be a burden to our health system and, consequently, to US taxpayers," he concluded.
In addition to the varied strategies to reduce irregular immigration on the Mexican border, the Trump administration is also focusing on reducing legal migration.
Other measure
On August 12, the Government presented a regulation that will allow the denial of permanent residence permits in the United States to legal immigrants that the authorities consider have become a "public charge" for the country.
Under this new regulation, a legal immigrant will be defined as "public charge" if he receives "one or more designated public benefits" for more than 12 months in a 36 month period.
These public benefits include food assistance, housing assistance or programs that subsidize the high cost of medicines.
