Proposed change to immigration rule may push Florida kids out of safety net
But with the Trump administration's posting of a proposed rule Wednesday that would deny citizenship to immigrants who use certain public benefits, such as food stamps, housing assistance and Medicaid, Anderson said it has become much more difficult for him to do his job.
Fewer patients are seeking care, Anderson said, and those who do are increasingly reluctant to follow up with additional care when needed -- raising the likelihood that their medical conditions will worsen.
"Many of us consider this an effort to weaponize the safety net," he said.
Legal experts and patient advocates say the proposed rule, also known as "public charge," affects immigrants seeking lawful status and not their children and dependents. But confusion and fear over the policy is likely to lead to fewer children in immigrant households receiving healthcare, food stamps and other benefits that are key to healthy development, said
"People are confused and afraid," she said.
A rise in uninsured children, Harmatz said, is likely to strain the county's taxpayer-owned
"Those costs are going to be shifted right back to the
Immigrants who live in
Anderson, a family physician working with
But the woman refused because of her status as an undocumented immigrant and fear that seeking help would bring her to the attention of immigration officials -- even though under
Anderson said he feels as though the tools he uses to help uninsured and low-income
"It really erodes the trust that we have worked years if not over a decade to build with our local communities that we are on their side," Anderson said. "We are trying to help them become healthier and even self sufficient."
Anderson, an assistant professor for
Lately, Farnsworth said, the program has seen a drop-off in visits and an increasing reluctance to seek specialty care, even among immigrants who have nothing to fear because the proposed rule does not affect them, such as those with green cards or TPS. She says the rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric and confusion over the proposed rule has caused a chilling effect among the program's patients.
Farnsworth said the program has been working with one family that includes a father who is a naturalized citizen, a mother who is undocumented and their three children, who were born in
"They qualify for food stamps and Medicaid for their children," she said. But they won't apply.
"They're afraid if they apply for that, they won't get citizenship for the mother," Farnsworth said. "Thankfully the children are healthy, but God forbid something happens."
Anderson said the social workers and physicians with the NeighborhoodHELP program would like to tell their immigrant patients that they have no reason to worry. But they're not immigration law experts, he said, and they fear giving out bad advice to their patients.
"We don't want to alarm them," he said.
Immigration policy currently defines a public charge as someone who is primarily dependent on the government for subsistence. The policy only allows the government to consider whether the person applying for citizenship receives, or is likely to receive cash assistance, such as Supplemental Security Income or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or government sponsored long-term care in a nursing home or other institution.
The expanded list posted on Wednesday adds Medicaid, the Medicare Part D Low Income Subsidy Program,
Anyone interested in the proposed rule will have 60 days from Wednesday to post a public comment through the
Childers studied an unpublished version of the 434-page rule and said the latest draft appears to be much less restrictive than the original version, which proposed denying citizenship to immigrants who used a larger set of public benefits, including subsidies to buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act Exchange and even state and local assistance.
While that's no longer the case, Childers said, he expects the chilling effect will lead to parents removing their kids or refusing to sign them up for public healthcare benefits that American citizens are entitled to, such as the
He pointed to the bad advice that some immigration attorneys provided on
"There's going to be a large faction of legal immigrants who already have a green card who are going to mistakenly think this is going to affect their application to be citizens," he said. "It won't."
By analyzing
"Short of an incredibly well-funded public information campaign," he said, "there's still going to be a chilling effect."
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