WHAT’S ON THE TABLE FOR IMMIGRATION

Deliberating in upcoming months will be a new proposal for extending immigration status (green card and visa applications) for individuals and families.  It means to empower officials to look at records of what public assistance benefits a person or family unit has utilized.

The immigrant may find that their participation in any of the following social assistance programs for an extended period can weigh against them as a derogatory strike in an application for change in status:

• education benefits, like Head Start or school meal programs
• Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
• subsidies for healthcare cost provided under the Affordable Care Act
• Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) assistance
• Housing Benefits like Section 8 or other subsidies
• Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
• transit vouchers that are often supplied through Employment Assistance

The proposal includes two ways to overcome the strike against an immigrant’s record.  One is to be earning more than 250 percent of the federal poverty level when applying for the new visa or green card (2017 makes this income figure $60,750 for a family of four). The other is to post a $10,000 bond that will be payable in full if the immigrant uses any of the fore-mentioned services during a five year period.  The draft summary of this proposal is available on-line.

Objections to or support of such plans need to be voiced through your senator or congressperson, that’s what they are tasked to accomplish.  It’s believed this proposal will emerge into formal government discussion as early as March, but it has not passed through the office of L. Francis Cissna, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Remember that with every layer of information to be researched and every possible penalty there is a greater administrative cost, legal cost (bore by taxpayers) and let alone a human cost for anyone who finds themselves suddenly not working while resident in the US with green card status.