Houston Chronicle by Jenny Deam Oct. 12, 2018
Marcela Para, a caseworker, had just started her day at ECHOS, a Houston community health and social service ministry, when a Salvadoran-born woman slid nervously into the chair before her, clutching tightly the card proving her legal residency, issued only a month earlier.
Para smiled brightly, explaining that the woman and her two children, both U.S. citizens, were eligible for a variety of assistance programs, including Medicaid and subsidized medical care through Harris Health System. First, though. she would need to make a copy of the woman’s green card to begin the application for health benefits. The woman froze.
She told Para she had heard rumors that if she applied for public assistance the government would use it against her, maybe even take her card away. “Will this affect my status?†she asked, her words tumbling out in Spanish. It’s a question asked a lot as the Trump administration moves forward in a tightening of the century-old policy designed to discourage poor immigrants from becoming a burden by using too many services, including those for income, health, housing and food.
The new, so-called public charge rules, unveiled in draft form last month by the Department of Homeland Security, has unleashed panic and confusion among immigrant communities in Houston and across the nation— even among those the change will not touch. The rules are aimed at immigrants applying for green cards that grant permanent residency or seeking temporary visas for work or school, but they have generated so much fear that even immigrants unaffected by the change have stopped enrolling in assistance programs for which they are eligible or dropped off the rolls.
At ECHOS, for example, applications for government-funded health care programs for children are down 23 percent from year ago. Renewals for Children’s Medicaid, the federal health insurance for the poor, are down 28 percent. Renewals for food stamps have plunged by one-third, although that doesn’t necessarily mean people are no longer in need. The number of families using the agency’s food bank have nearly tripled.
“It is a result of families being too fearful to apply despite they are eligible for the services,†said Cathy Moore, executive director of ECHOS. “They think it will put a target on their back.â€
The stated goal of new policy is to encourage self-sufficiency so immigrants will not “depend on public resources to meet their needs, but rather rely on their own capabilities, as well as the resources of family members, sponsors, and private organizations.†But discouraging immigrants in general from using government benefits — including those unaffected by the rule change — appears to be part the Trump administration’s plan.
Buried in the 447-page document detailing the policy was this assertion: “Research shows that when eligibility rules change for public benefits programs, there is evidence of a ’chilling effect’ that discourages immigrants from using public benefits programs for which they are still eligible.â€
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/New-rule-Tougher-scrutiny-on-legal-immigrants-13302652.php
