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Biden To Order Review Of Trump Rule That Had ‘Chilling Effect’ On Immigrants Seeking Benefits

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President Joe Biden is set to order a review of a controversial Trump policy that has been blamed for deterring immigrant families from seeking out public benefits, including in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, the White House released a fact sheet laying out plans for Biden to sign a number of executive orders aimed at reforming the U.S. immigration system.

Among the expected EOs is an order that includes instructions for federal agencies to review the “public charge” rule - a policy allowing immigration officials to consider immigrants’ use or expected use of certain benefits programs as a “negative factor” when considering their green card or temporary visa applications.   

Immigration advocates expect that the public charge rule will ultimately be rescinded, with Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, commending the president in a statement for “acting quickly to end this harmful policy”.

“Immigrants have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic caring for the sick, harvesting our nation’s food, and keeping businesses running,” Hincapié said. Yet, she said: “These public charge regulations have prevented immigrants from obtaining health care, food, and financial relief at a time when it’s needed most.”

Indeed, earlier this week, the Urban Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., revealed findings on how a “chilling effect” believed to have been brought on by the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies saw immigrants in the U.S. avoid accessing public benefits throughout the pandemic in 2020.

According to the Urban Institute’s findings, nearly one in seven adults in immigrant families in the U.S. avoided public benefit programs during 2020 over fears that seeking out support might negatively impact their immigration status.

Previously, research by the institute had found that the public charge rule had played a role in deterring families from participating in safety net programs even before the policy took effect in February 2020.

Throughout 2020, that chilling effect appeared to continue with roughly 13.6 percent of those surveyed asserting that they or a family member avoided a public benefit program such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or housing subsidies out of fear of negatively impacting their their chances of obtaining green card status.

According to the Urban Institute, the chilling effect was highest among families where one or more members did not have a green card already, with 27.7 percent of people in that category asserting that they or a family member avoided benefits programs over status fears.

In a phone interview, Hamutal Bernstein, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, said the study’s findings should be particularly worrying in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re not surprised that the chilling effect continued in 2020,” Bernstein said. However, she said: “It is even more worrisome because we know that need and hardship has increased dramatically in that period.”

 The reality, she said, is that “even before the Trump administration, immigrant families [had] systematically been facing barriers to accessing safety net services.”

However, she said the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration in the U.S. contributed to a culture of fear that deterred many families from seeking out benefits.

Particularly in the midst of the pandemic, Bernstein said it was important for the new administration to focus “on the communications side, in terms of reassuring and communicating to communities across the U.S. that they should feel safe” to seek out benefits, as well as health care, including accessing the country’s coronavirus vaccination program.

In an apparent effort to reassure undocumented immigrants in the U.S. that they will not be targeted if they access vaccination services, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently issued a statement asserting that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers would not carry out arrests near vaccination clinics or other sensitive areas except in extraordinary circumstances.

“No one should ever have to choose between keeping their family healthy, or keeping them together,” Emily Stewart, executive director of non-profit advocacy organization Community Catalyst, said in a statement.

“The Trump public charge rule is a part of a larger pattern of attacking Black and Brown communities, and it has had the devastating impact of denying many the health care they need during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Stewart said. “As health advocates, we are very relieved the Biden-Harris administration has taken swift action to reverse it.”

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