Trump policy could have far-reaching effects on Hawaiʻi’s immigrant population

In Hawaiʻi this “chilling effect” could affect about 110,000 Hawaiʻi residents, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute, a calculation that includes households that have received government support for food, health or housing and where at least one member of the family is a noncitizen.

The rule also specifies that citizens from Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands, many of whom come to live and work in Hawaiʻi, would need to pass the new public-charge test. However, it’s not clear how this would be implemented. Citizens of those countries can freely enter and the leave the United States under the Compacts of Free Association and don’t require a visa. They also aren’t eligible for most government benefit programs, including SNAP, Medicaid and Medicare.

“We don’t know if customs is going to start pulling them over because they have passports from those countries,” said Nicole Woo, a senior policy analyst at the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice. “I think that is still ambiguous.”