When my parents immigrated to the US in 1950 they had to sign that they would not be a burden on ANY government. Couldn’t get a green card unless my dad could show he had a job waiting for him. The sponsor was responsible for them financially.
The sponsor was responsible for them financially.
Same with my wife who immigrated in 1978 and got her green card in 1985. But at least since LBJ’s war on poverty it has only been enforced when there was some other motivation.
I worked with migrant cherry pickers in Door County WI summers of 61, 62 for a local group led by the Quakers and Assembly of God with the Baptists and Lutherans following the leaders. The local leaders were pro-immigrant, pro-work.
But the national leaders associated with the Nation Council of Churches were even then very much for welfare for immigrants ... and non-immigrants also, of course. They thought it was ‘mean’ that immigrants were forced to work.
You can see that same attitude now towards Muslim “refugees” in Clarkston Georgia a couple miles east of me. The do-gooders think it is “mean” and anti-Muslim to expect the Muslims to work and not give them food, clothing, housing, even entertainment without working.