Government cracks down on immigrants using public benefits

https://www.10news.com/news/national/government-cracks-down-on-immigrants-using-public-benefits

Pedro Rios says the idea that immigrants are coming to this country solely to be a burden to the United States is absolutely false.

Rios is the Executive Director of American Friends Service Committee – a national organization that has worked on immigration and border issues for 42 years. He says he is against a new rule that disqualifies immigrants from a green card if they use certain government benefits, because he says it's causing people to drop out of benefit services they do qualify for.

“In this case, prenatal care is not a targeted benefit. However, someone might decide to stop receiving that care simply because they fear that it would place them at the crosshairs of some sort of immigration enforcement operation,” Rios said.

Dulce Garcia, an immigration attorney and DACA recipient, agrees with Rios. She says the rule has a two-fold impact: it denies more people the ability to qualify as a legal permanent resident, and now people are afraid of accessing other public benefits. She knows from personal experience when her family had to live inside a car and with very little food.

“We’re going to see more people like my parents who were afraid of accessing public benefits and decided to risk our health essentially by remaining unsheltered and by struggling with food,