Transcript Slide 1

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Immigrants and Public Benefits in Texas
Immigration and Border Security Hearing
House Committee on State Affairs
House Committee on Border and International Affairs
March 28, 2007
Anne Dunkelberg, Associate Director
[email protected]
900 Lydia Street - Austin, Texas 78702
Phone (512) 320-0222 – fax (512) 320-0227 - www.cppp.org
Center for Public Policy Priorities
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The Numbers
Texas Population now ~ 22.5 - 23 million
– About 1.1 million are naturalized US citizens who were born abroad
(U.S. Census)
• U.S. Census does NOT provide information on immigration STATUS,
only citizenship status.
– About 1.4-1.6 million are “Unauthorized” (Pew Hispanic Center)
• Some persons in this estimate have legal authorization to live and work in the United
States on a temporary basis. These include migrants with temporary protected status
(TPS) and some migrants with unresolved asylum claims. Together they may account for
as much as 10% of the estimate.
– About 1.2 million are Legal Immigrants, mostly Legal Permanent Residents
• LPRs are foreign nationals who have been granted the right to reside
permanently in the United States. LPRs are often referred to simply as “legal
immigrants," but they are also known as “permanent resident aliens” and
“green card holders.”
– Texas #3 or #4 in the number of newly arrived Legal Immigrants for the last
several years; tied for #3 in adoptions from overseas in recent years.
– 23 percent of ALL Texas' children live in "mixed families" (one or more parent
is non-citizen)
– 34 percent of Texas' children in low-income families (below 200% of the
federal poverty line) are in mixed families (Census 2001 CPS, CBPP)
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Basic Immigration Status Vocabulary
•
•
“Alien” is a term used in many laws to refer to immigrants (both legally
present and undocumented).
“Undocumented” Immigrants include 2 groups -– EWIs (Entries Without Inspection)
– Overstays (came with a legal visa, but stayed after it expired; these make up 2540% of all undocumented)
– Other terms: “not lawfully present”, “illegal aliens”
•
“Legal” immigrants include many different legal statuses
– Some are permanent or long-term statuses, that is, the immigrant can reside in
the U.S. indefinitely as long as they do not commit crimes: e.g., LPRs (lawful
permanent residents), Refugees, Asylees
– Others are temporary, or transitional statuses, which may be indefinite in length
(e.g., the spouse, child or fiancée of a US citizen waiting to get LPR status may
have a “K” Visa), or they may be required to get approval for renewal of status at
regular intervals (e.g., “Temporary Protected Status).
– MOST LPRs in the US are family-based immigrants.
•
All legal immigrants are NOT treated equally with regard to federal benefits.
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Immigrant Eligibility for Public Benefits:
A Short Review
• Before 1996 “Welfare Reform” law (PRWORA), most legally present
immigrants were treated the same as U.S. citizens for purposes of
federal benefit eligibility.
• PRWORA created new terms: “Qualified”, “Not Qualified.” “Not
qualified” now includes undocumented, plus some legally present
immigrants. These are NOT immigration law terms, just public benefit
classifications.
• Despite term “qualified,” PRWORA reduced eligibility of qualified
immigrants for benefits. Also, big differences in eligibility depend
on whether in US prior to Aug. 22, 1996 (date PRWORA signed).
• Congress has, over time, restored portions of the Legal (Qualified)
Immigrant cuts proposed in PRWORA, especially for Food Stamps.
• Also, access to critical health and crisis services for “Not Qualified” is
protected under federal law and regulation.
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Certain Legal Immigrants are Exempt
From Any Benefit Limits:
These persons are eligible for SSI, Food Stamps, Medicaid,
TANF, or CHIP on same basis as U.S. citizens:
• Refugees, asylees, withholding of deportation, Cuban & Haitian, may
collect during first 7 years in U.S. (EXCEPT: TANF window is 5 years,
Amerasians may only get 5 years Medicaid, SSI).
• Persons with 10 years (40 quarters) of U.S. work history
– immigrants with date of arrival 8/22/96 or later must have 40
quarters AND have been in US more than 5 years)
– families “share” quarters (married couples and their minor children)
• Active-duty U.S. military and veterans (& spouse, dependent children)
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New Categories Related to Public
Benefit Eligibility
Qualified
Non-qualified
Legal Permanent Residents
Undocumented persons
Refugees, Asylees
Legally present Non-qualified
Withholding of Deportation
Employment Visas (incl. Ag.)
Granted Conditional Entry
Temporary Protected Status
Parolees
In US since 1/72 (not LPR)
Domestic Violence “VAWA” petitioners
(must have US citiz. or LPR spouse)
Lawful Temporary Residents
Family Unity Status
Certain Voluntary Departure
Certain Stays, Suspensions of
Deportation
Victims Of Trafficking (not technically
“qualified”, but eligible for all federal
benefits
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Non-immigrants (tourists, students)
www.cppp.org
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The Big Picture:
• Undocumented Immigrants are not eligible for
Medicaid, CHIP SSI, Food Stamps, or TANF (cash
assistance).
– This is NOT a new policy for undocumented persons; these
programs never included the undocumented.
• State and local programs that use federal funds MUST
abide by the federal policy regarding immigrants—legal
and undocumented—related to those funds (i.e., they
cannot impose stricter rules).
• Many Legal Immigrants are still eligible for benefits
from federally funded programs, including many
programs the state administers.
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The Big Picture:
• Undocumented immigrants must be provided access
to many federally funded programs, especially health
care programs, short-term emergency and
intervention services, WIC, and school meals.
– Access to emergency and crisis services is ALSO mandated
under federal law even when a program is funded entirely with
state or local funds.
• U.S. citizen children (i.e., all children born in U.S.) can
be eligible for public benefits, regardless of the
immigration status of the parents. Federal policy
protects these children’s rights.
– Only the applicant's status is relevant to his eligibility; for
example, the parent's immigration status is irrelevant to a U.S.
citizen child's eligibility for public benefits.
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Some Programs MUST be Available to
ALL PERSONS in Need; MAY NOT exclude undocumented
Public programs, whether federal, state or local, MUST NOT
restrict access based on immigration status if they provide
any of the following:
– Emergency Medicaid, immunizations, diagnosis (testing) and
treatment of communicable disease
– Non-cash assistance needed to protect life and safety and not
income-conditional (e.g., shelters, soup kitchens, crisis intervention)
as specified by U.S. Attorney General (see next slide)
– Short-term, in-kind emergency disaster relief
– WIC, school meals, child nutrition programs, and elderly nutrition
• IMPORTANT: when they provide the benefits listed above,
service providers
– are not required to verify citizenship or immigration status
(exception: Emergency Medicaid), and
– MAY NOT EXCLUDE UNDOCUMENTED PERSONS.
Center for Public Policy Priorities
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U.S. Attorney General’s
List Of Programs “Necessary To Protect Life Or
Safety” Which Must Be Open To All In Need
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Child protection & adult protective services
Violence and abuse prevention, including domestic violence
Mental illness or substance abuse treatment
Short-term shelter or housing assistance (e.g. battered
women’s shelters, homeless, disaster shelters)
Programs during adverse weather conditions
Soup kitchens, food banks, senior nutrition programs
Medical & public health services & mental health, disability or
substance abuse services necessary to protect life or safety
Programs to protect the life and safety of workers, children &
youths, or community residents
Other services necessary for the protection of life or safety
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Texas CHIP: Coverage of non-U.S. Citizens
Undocumented persons are not eligible for either Medicaid or CHIP
Federal law REQUIRES Texas to include Legal Immigrant
children (who qualify by income) IF they have been in the
U.S. for 5 years or more.
– Texas has CHOSEN since creation of CHIP to also cover the
small group of Legal Immigrant children who are in their first
5 years in U.S.
– Legal Immigrant kids in CHIP already have to provide their
immigration documents to get CHIP.
– All CHIP policies (premiums, asset test, etc.) for these
children identical to those for U.S.-citizen children; state
tracks their expenses separately.
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Texas CHIP: Coverage of non-U.S. Citizens
Undocumented persons are not eligible for either Medicaid or CHIP
• HHSC reports about 16,000 legal immigrant children per
month were enrolled in fiscal year 2006; it is assumed that
this group’s caseload has declined along with the rest of CHIP
enrollment.
• Combined child Medicaid and CHIP enrollment in Texas in
February 2007 is 2.09 million, so the immigrant CHIP children
made up less than 1% of enrollment (0.79%).
NOTE: Because Texas has not exercised its option under federal
law* to provide Medicaid to otherwise-eligible Legal
Immigrants who arrived after 8/22/96, LPR children at
Medicaid incomes are eligible for Texas CHIP. In other words,
the immigrant portion of CHIP is serving children who
otherwise would be served in Medicaid.
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Texas CHIP: Coverage of non-U.S. Citizens
Undocumented persons are not eligible for either Medicaid or CHIP
– Vast majority of these children will eventually naturalize to
become U.S. citizens. Texas’ modest investment today helps
give these future citizens a healthy start.
– Because legal immigrant children become eligible for
federally-funded CHIP after 5 years, the program is selflimiting in size: children are “aging out” of the program at the
same rate new children become eligible.
– Opponents imply that eliminating coverage will result in
savings to Texas taxpayers, but costs of care for these
children will be shifted to Texas' charity care providers: public
and nonprofit hospitals, cities, counties, community health
centers, and others who care for the uninsured.
– Eighteen other states have similar programs for their legal
immigrant children: California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of
Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska,
New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.
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Texas Medicaid: Coverage of non-U.S. Citizens
Undocumented persons are not eligible for either Medicaid or CHIP
Full Medicaid Coverage
• Legal Immigrants who came to US before 8/96 treated same as U.S.
Citizens
• Texas has chosen (federal law option) NOT to provide Medicaid to
Legal Immigrants who arrived after 8/96
– Example: Lawful permanent resident of U.S. who entered U.S. in 1998
cannot get coverage, even if severely disabled
“Emergency” Medicaid
• Nearly half the persons whose care is covered under this category
are LEGAL immigrants, because we exclude them from full Medicaid
• NOT available to pay for E.R. care for every immigrant: ONLY those
who meet every other Medicaid requirement except immigration/
citizenship status
– Example: undocumented 25 year-old single construction worker cannot
get covered
Center for Public Policy Priorities
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How Does Immigration Factor In
Uninsured Rate?
• Immigrants are NOT the primary cause of
Texas’ last-place ranking
– Census Bureau reported 1.3 million uninsured noncitizens (includes both legal residents and undocumented
persons); (54.5% of non-citizens)
– BUT, if you remove non-citizens from the equation, Texas
would still be tied with New Mexico for the worst
uninsured rate at 20.6% uninsured (4.2 million), even if
you left the non-citizens in the other state’s counts
• Without immigrants, New Mexico’s rate would drop to 18.9%
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Uninsured Texas Children:
We CAN Cut the Number in Half by Enrolling
Kids Who are Eligible Right Now
•Texas is home to nearly 1.4 million uninsured children.
• 2/3 of these uninsured Texas children are below 200% of the federal
poverty line, despite Medicaid and CHIP.
•More than HALF our uninsured Texas Kids Could be enrolled in
Medicaid or CHIP today! (Adjusting for ~230,000 undocumented kids; another
160,000 legal immigrant (LPR) children can participate in CHIP (Pew Hispanic Center)).
Texas Children who are Uninsured, 2004-05 – U.S. Census CPS
All incomes, under age 19
(0-18*; 2-year average 2004-05)
20.4%
1.367 million
Below 200% FPL; under age 19
(0-18; 2-year average 2004-05)
28% of <200%;
13.4% of all
kids
919,000
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Texas Medicaid: Who it Helps
February 2007, HHSC data.
Disabled,
353,390
Elderly,
367,672
Poor Parents,
55,901
TANF Parent,
24,288
Children,
1,769,244
Maternity,
93,063
Total enrolled 2/1/2007: 2.66 million
Center for Public Policy Priorities
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CHIP and Medicaid: Helping Texas Kids
As of February 2007:
• 1.77 million Texas children (under age 19) were enrolled in Medicaid
•
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about 100,700 of these children get Medicaid because of a serious disability
About 122,000 in TANF cash assistance families (7% of the kids)
About 12,700 pregnant teens (less than 1% of the children)
Other 1.53 MILLION predominantly in WORKING poor families
• 325,479 Texas children were enrolled in CHIP.
“CHIP stands on the broad shoulders of Medicaid”
That’s 2.09 million Texas children –
nearly one-third of all our kids.
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Medicaid in Texas: Who it Helps
Medicaid:
As of February, 2.7 million Texans were enrolled in Medicaid:
895,000 were adults:
– 721,000 (80.5% of the adults) were elderly or disabled. Adults
on SSI account for 60% of the aged and disabled recipients
– Other adults: 93,000 maternity coverage;
– 24,288 TANF cash assistance parents (less than 1% of total
caseload);
• NOTE: there are fewer than 81,000 total poor parents on Texas
Medicaid. 55,901 are parents who are at or below TANF income, but
not receiving TANF cash assistance
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP):
• as of September 1, 2003 — 507,259 children
• as of March 1, 2007 — 325,090 (drop of 182,169, or 36%)
Center for Public Policy Priorities
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Income Caps for Texas Medicaid and CHIP, 2006
250%
200%
$21,708
$30,710/yr $30,710
$22,078
150%
185%
100%
222%
$16,600
100%
50%
200%
$7,476
185%
133%
$33,200
$2,256
$3,696
13.6%
22.3%
74%
0%
Pregnant Newborns
Women
Age 1-6
Age 6-18
TANF
Working SSI (aged Long Term
parent of 2, Parent of 2
or
Care
no income
disabled)
Mandatory
CHIP
Optional
Income Limit as Percentage of Federal Poverty Income
Annual Income is for a family of 3,
except Individual Incomes shown for SSI and Long Term Care
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