0:02
Hello and welcome to today's webinar hosted by Infopeople. This webinar is part of the Libraries Helping Immigrants series and today our presenters will be discussing answers and updates addressing questions and concerns about public charge covid-19 and senses Outreach for our immigrant communities and to get us started. I'm going to turn it over to Katie Azevedo from Butte County Library.
0:29
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome libraries. Helping immigrants has been providing professional support for Library staff for some time. And today we are especially proud and excited to present this webinar with Aaron Quinn and Krsna Avila. Aaron Quinn is a senior staff attorney based in San Francisco her work focuses on building capacity of organizations and practitioners to assist immigrants. She conducts trainings on immigration law.
0:58
Through the United States and provides legal expertise through the ilr sees attorney of the day program. In addition. Erin works on issues related to immigration status and health care as well as consumer protection.
1:14
Krsna Avila is a special products attorney based in San Francisco. He focuses on immigration enforcement issues including state and local law enforcement cooperation with Federal immigration agencies in unlawfully deporting immigrants and deferred action for childhood array of Rivals. Advocacy.
1:35
Krsna has also been leading the ilr see census 2020 work by training Grassroots organizers and other Advocates to promote the senses to their families neighbors and Friends engaging traditional and social media outreach and conducting community outreach throughout the Bay Area and Beyond we are very pleased to welcome both Aaron and Krishna and hope that you will make sure to put your questions in the chat box so we can address them as As we can. Thank you, Erin, Krishna. Welcome.
2:10
Great. Thank you so much Katie, and we appreciate everyone joining us today from wherever you are and whatever companions you have with us being children dogs cats. I'm sure you have a few other things. I haven't thought about and we're really excited to take a minute together to catch up on immigrant immigration and current happening. My name is Erin Quinn, and we appreciate the warm welcome Katie and introduction so I won't spend.
2:40
So much time introducing ourselves for those of you though that are not familiar with the Immigrant legal Resource Center. Just real briefly. We are a non-profit National in scope headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Washington DC the Central Valley in California as well as offices in Texas. We work with immigrants and poor immigrants in various ways.
3:09
Some of you might already Eno us for webinars such as this one and showing up to help inform and educate Librarians and that's really part of our legal capacity and advocacy building where we help educate and provide expertise on immigration law to folks working with immigrants in the field and their various capacities.
3:29
We also do a lot of work in the policy space at the national level and various levels and local and state policies to help promote policies that Support and Advance, the wishes and ideas of immigrants in the communities and we do some direct work with immigrants within the communities that Krishna does a lot of that work now around the census helping build leaders to strengthen their voice on issues of importance to them as well as work within the community to help spread information and educate and Workshop around immigration law. And with that. I'm just going to jump in with what we have planned for you today.
4:11
Originally when we had started thinking about this webinar months back. We imagine talking a lot in the health and public charge and access space. We had heard that there were a lot of questions particularly for folks like yourself some of whom are working on naturalization applications or supporting efforts around education and English learning.
4:33
And so we have that focus, of course so much has happened in the last couple months that we thought it would be helpful to give A smattering today of current updates around covid-19 what's happening then in the immigration space and for immigrants that are coming forward to immigration agencies trying to get benefits or get things done a little brief. Look at what that means for some of the aid that we're seeing around covid-19 relief packages and how that relates to immigrants specifically a quick update on senses. Krishna's you've heard.
5:10
Heads up our work in that space. So it'll be a chance to touch base on Outreach and then we'll use the remaining time to dig a little deeper and a little more into the legal weeds around public charge, but with a view to current events and how it dovetails with some of the issues around our current shelter in place and covid-19. That's our plan. We have room probably for questions at the end, but we would really love you to wash your question.
5:40
as we go and if there's some things that we can clarify along the way we will So with that I'm just going to start us off with a quick snapshot of what's happening in the immigration space as many of you know, we're at various levels of shelter in place throughout the nation sounds like maybe no two states are exactly the same and we have the federal safe operating in a little bit of a different sphere.
6:10
Nonetheless immigration does now have formal and announced closures which Use that for us USCIS the agency that here's benefits here in the United States for folks getting green cards or naturalizing have officially closed their offices. At least now until June some practical impacts of that mean that also then naturalization. Oh ceremonies and appointments have been suspended a few States and localities have started to work shop around how to bring naturalization ceremonies back.
6:46
Back in ways that provides social distance and an ability to get folks through the oath storm ceremony to complete the naturalization process, but in large part it means for now none of these ceremonies have been taking place for we're coming up on a couple of months.
7:04
This also means that fingerprint or biometric processing offices for immigration have also been completely closed. So although folks can file their applications with immigration. They can mail them into immigration for a green card or for naturalization the next step of getting your fingerprints taken once they've received your application cannot happen. So although they're receiving applications.
7:32
No processing of New cases is actually going forward at least not to the interview stage nor to the Biometrics page offices do remain open for some limited emergency services. That might look like emergency travel permission.
7:51
It might look like for some folks emergency proof of extension of permanent resident status or help with employment authorization, but those services Very limited, and if you do not demonstrate and show true emergency, they will not assist you.
8:13
Taking this a little further and thinking about our immigrant communities in general there further impact which include in the Immigration Court all non detained cases. So for immigration cases where folks remain at home with their families, but do have cases in front of a judge. Those hearings have been canceled through May and it's really hard for practitioners and immigrants alike to understand and figure out how to prepare their cases to move forward.
8:43
Even after that date because it's uncertain than like gosh if you have a hearing scheduled for June 3rd, are you supposed to be getting your documents in? How are you supposed to meet with your attorney? How do you gather the evidence? So it's of course a very problematic space.
8:59
So detained courts are still open but often were hearing of Judges being out or judges getting substituted in telephonic appearances have become very common and most courts are broadly entertaining continuance request related to covid issues, but it really depends on the court and there are operating instructions listed for eoir which is the branch of the Department of Justice that handles Immigration Court.
9:33
So all of this information about closures have been kept up to date on the immigration agency website so you can Google USCIS And covid to get their latest as well as immigration courts and covid to find out more about particular courts in practice. That means folks can turn in applications that nothing is actually moving forward many of you heard a lot of news around backlogs and immigration cases such as naturalization Green Card applications and court cases. So you can imagine how much the situation is exacerbating those backlogs it for the moment.
10:12
The only thing is that they have really going forward is they've made an agreement to process extensions for employment authorization cards where there are biometrics like the fingerprint records already in the files so that they can process even though those offices are closed and additionally they've allowed extensions for cases that were already pending where they ask the applicant for more information.
10:40
There's extensions to those requests for more And but we are hearing that some of those pending applications are getting processed. So just for a quick backdrop snapshot to the rest of this presentation is just to consider that all of these closures and the shelter in place has this effect because of agencies closures of making it even more difficult for immigrants to get things done or get proof of status to move forward and get help in whatever way they might need right now.
11:10
And so with that I'm actually going to turn turn it over to Krishna to get us started with how some of the relief packages are impacting and grants now.
11:22
Great. Thank you Erin. Yes, and these few next sections will be discussing some of the ways that immigrants can gain access to some benefits that are out there as we know this pandemic is not only affecting, you know, the immigration offices and different entities that are in disgust, but it's also impacting immigrants themselves as well as all of us.
11:49
So this verse This section will be going over the cares act and actually just going over one specific part of the cares act which is a federal law that was passed as many of you know, and so first of all the coronavirus Aid relief and Economic Security Act, otherwise known as the cares Act was passed on March 27, the care Zack does of whole bunch of different things.
12:18
So, This law provides loans to businesses and organizations and also provides financial support for students. It provides funding for Clemens clinics and hospitals. But really for this presentation, we will be focusing on the economic support for individuals, which is the economic impact payments.
12:43
Otherwise known as the stimulus checks, so the stimulus checks Ali depending on how much a person makes individuals can get up to 1200 dollars or twenty four hundred dollars if they're fine filing jointly and up to and $500 per dependent child the qualifications are that everyone in the tax filing unit. Let's have a valid social security number and must be either a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.
13:20
Or physically present in the United States for a majority part of the last five years. So basically what this means is that you don't necessarily need to be a US citizen or lawful permanent resident. So many immigrants do have a Social Security number and but this also means that some immigrants do not qualify. So now we can go on to the next slide to see who actually wouldn't qualify for these benefits.
13:50
Alright, so basically individuals who file taxes within what's called an individual tax identification number and itin so these folks unfortunately are not eligible an itin number is one that's given by the IRS for tax purposes only. So these are for individuals who don't have a Social Security number for example, and still have to file taxes.
14:19
They Would receive this number from the IRS and in order to file these texts. So for the stimulus check if folks are filing with an itin and don't have a Social Security number they are unfortunately not eligible to receive this benefit. This also means that in mixed status families where one person doesn't have a Social Security number.
14:46
So for example a spouse or a child Child who has an itin number rather than a social security number. This means that in these families. They're also the whole family's not eligible for for the stimulus check. So of course there is the ability to file separately to filed their taxes separately, but that could also have repercussions and other areas such as eligibility for the Affordable Care Act and other things so this is really devastating.
15:20
For people who don't actually have a Social Security number and lastly for families where they have children who are ages 17 to 24. Unfortunately because IRS defines a child as someone under 17 for purposes of a child tax credit, so these children won't be receiving the $500 bonus. So that's another area where there is a huge gap.
15:50
for people in need so next slide Alright, so now let's look at what states are doing to fill in some of this Gap these gaps for some people who are eligible for unemployment insurance or other sorts of AIDS.
16:11
Next slide. So in this section, we will be briefly mentioning unemployment insurance as many of us know there are many who have lost their jobs during this time because of the pandemic and some may be eligible for unemployment including many immigrants. So the so unemployment insurance is administered by the states.
16:36
So it's not the federal government and that also means that Who's eligible for unemployment insurance varies by state slightly, but in this slide we're showing you a just general overview of what the qualifications are throughout the states. So that is that one the worker must have earned enough wages during a base period and be totally or partially unemployed through no fault of their own. They also must be physically able to work.
17:11
And ready and willing to accept work. And then lastly I think this is what affects many immigrants is. They must be what's called available for work. So what this has been interpreted to mean is that the person must have been authorized to work at the time that they were working and when they were are receiving the benefits so many immigrants do have work authorization.
17:37
So for example DACA recipients I have work authorization that even though they're not citizens or lawful permanent residence. And so as long as these folks had the ability to work while they were working and they still have our have valid employment authorization when they receive these benefits they can claim unemployment insurance generally.
18:02
All right. You see before we go. Now before we go to the next slide, I mean, I just want to pause on some of this content because I think it is just so overwhelming, you know, we're hearing so much about the relief packages and I've noticed in the media a bit of confusion around providing these scarce resources to undocumented immigrants.
18:26
And so, you know, just breaking it down the way Krishna has really sort of highlights where the Sorry, even for folks that are really contributing to our economy as well as to our tax base and very small wave are still going to be left out and you know, as you notice not only alright end-users left out, but those with Social Security Plus item in their household that files taxes that whole household is getting left out.
18:54
And when you move to this unemployment That Base period plus current means that Through this whole period of time the period of time that establishes the unemployment benefit as well as now that work authorization has to be in current and that is creating huge gaps for those that actually are even authorized to work being left out from getting relief as they're losing their jobs right now. And so I know that's all things that Krishna just said, but it really helps us explain and set the backdrop for folks that are maybe misunderstanding why folks are moving to this.
19:32
Teeth that Christian is about to discuss. Yeah. No, I would also say that there there's a lot of advocacy happening. There's another there's a bunch of Bill proposals on a federal level to possibly give more economic benefits to folks and so there's advocacy team for the next round to include those have that have been left out.
19:56
But for the most part the other like Aaron said that a lot of folks that are contributing to our economy Economy are being left out. And so that's why with this new slide. We're looking now to see I think Aaron. Okay, there we go.
20:14
We're now looking to to the different states different states have the ability to support their own residents and different ways that the federal government is an able to so for example, one of the things that we're seeing is that there that states are looking for Alternatives to support undocumented immigrants who have been left out. So here in California, for example, we just found out a few weeks ago that there now there's now a 125 million dollar fund that is coming from a disaster relief fund. So it's not unemployment insurance there. And so now this money that's an alternative is able to support a lot of undocumented persons who are left out.
21:02
Out and so undocumented persons can now apply for a one-time cash benefit of $500 per adult or $1000 per household. So that's one way to support undocumented folks. And I know a lot of other states are looking at similar ways to support undocumented immigrants, excuse me. Krishna question has come in. How does does this have any application all four people here on student?
21:32
This for the for the state aid financial support.
21:39
Yeah, so for this it's basically available to anyone who doesn't qualify for the federal cares act or unemployment insurance. So for if the student doesn't qualify for either of those they would be eligible to apply for for the disaster relief fund. Where are you may be coming to this point where would those folks find this information and the application procedures?
22:08
Yeah, so if you go to the California, so it's EDD. Ca.gov. You'll be able to see information on how to apply for this.
22:22
And I would add that there has been in terms of the how to access the logistics of these larger programs have you know are incredibly complicated and the state is trying desperately to work with Partners in the field to figure out best ways to get emergency funds out so it's likely somewhat of a moving space and following krishna's laid on going to the website.
22:48
So really great starting point particularly because you all are in that Point of information where you can be directing folks, if you're keeping up with the website. The other thing to note would be that there are disaster funds getting set up at local levels as well. And so that's definitely important to keep an eye on with think about places like Houston and other localities even outside of California are looking at creating different types of funds and how you access them.
23:21
Course would be varied by by the location.
23:29
Thank you, so we can move to the next section. So now we will be talking about the census 2020 and making sure that immigrants specifically are counted. We've we've known from previous census that these are very hard to reach populations many times memory runs are scared.
23:58
So This section will kind of just give an overview of what the census is and why I'm we're going to should be should be counted.
24:10
All right. So just an overview if you don't already know, so it's important for a lot of different reasons to be counted. And this is some of the information that we share when we're talking to immigrants specifically just to make sure that they know that they can benefit from just from completing the census. So I think when we talk about this we mentioned the money that there's more than six hundred seventy five billion dollars.
24:41
In funding for your communities, if you complete the census, so the more people in the location that complete the census some more money goes to that location. So this is funding we're talking about school lunches.
24:55
So when we mention when we do presentations, we often mention some of the local schools that immigrants go to and we mentioned like hey, do you we know that we you have children that go to a X school so this one D can impact that's cool by allowing them to continue receiving support for their lunches where your students after school programs community health clinics. We also know that funding for this goes to libraries throughout the country.
25:30
So there was a study in December that stated that there's about a 1 billion dollars worth of I mean this this time around there will be allocated to States and we'll go specifically to libraries and we know a lot of immigrants go to you all to support. So that's another way and then lastly government representation, right so we know that by completing the census this is directly tied to how many congress person specifically House of Representatives are allotted to each state. 
26:10
Eight. So we like to let immigrants know that by you filling out the census. This means I you are potentially allowing your ideas to flow through Congress. Although many of them can't vote. They can get their ideas and opinions are represented in the federal government.
26:33
All right, and then so now we also just mentioned that you know, a lot of immigrants fear completing the census because they think the Census Bureau is connected to immigration and we just wanted to mystify the fact that the Census Bureau is not ice. So it's not immigration. They have nothing to do with immigration. In fact, also, the Census Bureau is obligated by law to protect.
27:04
The information that any any person provides to them through the senses. So by law they're obligated to protect information and they can disclose it to anyone including immigration. And also there's a separate provision in the law that immigration also cannot even use that information. Even if somehow they got access to it then information isn't allowed to be used for.
27:33
Immigration purposes so that means that they can't use it to arrest people or they can use it in court so all around we like to remind folks that this is relatively safe to to complete.
27:52
And then lastly before we wrap up the the senses, we just want to note that in the beginning of this Administration. And when the census was first being announced there was an effort by the Trump Administration to include a question to ask whether the person completing. It is a US citizen, but luckily this the US Supreme Court sided with us.
28:20
And they prevented the government from adding that question. So that question is not being asked this time around.
28:33
And because of the pandemic like everything there the timeline has been changed. So now we have more time to actually complete the census. So the revised timeline is as follows. So on March 12 households should have started receiving invitations to participate participate in the census and the timeline to respond have has been pushed.
29:02
Now, it's October 31st. It was initially set to July 31st my believe but now we have more time to promote the senses and make sure everyone is counted for the first time as many of, you know, this time around people are submitting it have the option to submit it online. So through computer or through cell phone and it's fairly easy. It takes literally like five to ten minutes to complete.
29:32
Pleat so the survey just first of all asks to verify your address and then just ask a few demographic questions about the individuals in the household. So things like the person's race. So very simple questions.
29:53
The survey is also available in 12 languages, including Spanish and very importantly so as of yesterday, Only 58.7% have responded and would hard to count populations. It's even lower. So that's why it's very important for us to still continue to promote the census to our immigrant population.
30:19
Krishnan can I can I jump in and ask you a couple questions before we move off this one? Okay. Great. One is you know, I think libraries have also been very heavily involved in trying to help the census Outreach. And of course now we're in this whole new shelter in place largely situation. Have you heard as you do work of anyways, people have been continuing Outreach in the last few weeks or so like just other ways.
30:49
Those that have been involved in Outreach have made contact or done Outreach with immigrant communities. Yeah, definitely. So actually locally we do partner with the local libraries. So we partner with a Oakland library to do in the beginning. We're doing face-to-face Outreach and when that was limited we shift the gears to do a lot of social media a lot of like virtual.
31:19
One-on-one meetings with folks to not only talk about the census but also to give consultations and provide information on immigration law. So we find that libraries do have because all of you have are connected directly with a lot of these community members. We we love to partner with them and do more virtual Outreach.
31:42
So a lot of the libraries are doing Outreach through zoom and through and also doing Paid advertisements through through Facebook and such. So everything has just now shifted to Virtual Aires.
31:58
Thanks, and there was also questions just about some of the graphics early on here. Is there a place where folks can find some of our resources and our these graphic slide things that were okay with folks using as they do Outreach. Yeah, definitely so you can go to our website IRC dot-org. So we have a lot of we don't have this presentation.
32:28
Empire happy to observe also upload this but we do have graphics and we have a resource materials for immigrants that you can use.
32:44
And follow up on that she's with fake people can certainly contact me as well. I'm Katie and people can certainly email me from the list the information on info people and we can make sure that they have access to all of that to the slide presentations.
33:02
Wonderful Greg. Thank you. And so I know that Krishna if people were were looking for some kind of a consultation what sort of a resource would we find would we contact IRC?
33:15
With our consultation type questions, where would we go?
33:21
So Aaron, you might be able to answer that better, but Yeah, and I mean feel free to dovetail with any information you have krishna's so, you know consultation if we're talking at the immigration level of a immigration consult. We would want to make sure that someone is partner up locally. So as Krishna described he's involved in helps with the partnership with some of the local collaborations that are happening in Northern California, and I know we have a national audience.
33:58
Which is why we have a little bit of hesitation. We do work with immigration Partners throughout the nation.
34:05
So if there's something that you would like help getting Partners to provide some connection to immigration consultations, if you don't already have those Partnerships, you could reach out to me and we will maybe Katie we can put our emails into their chat box or the announcements here because I realize I forgot to put our email Al's on the final slide for today. So if you do need help setting up a partnership with an immigration nonprofit in your location, we could probably help facilitate that I think that's a great idea. Thank you. Yeah, I would say that if you're in the Bay Area or in the Central Valley where we're doing a lot of deep support with the census we can definitely find ways to support. Otherwise, we'll find local organizations that can help you.
34:59
One of the reasons for that is not only you know, obviously if we're National support center. There's there's parts that you're probably imagining is our bandwidth which is true, but the other piece is that we really want to promote warm handoff or meaningful connections and consultations for the immigrants that are asking that information.
35:20
And so making that local connection often does more to set that family up for support moving forward and so So trying to build those Partnerships has a better lasting impact on creating a Community Network of resources. That's another reason. We would like to help support those Partnerships where you can so if we're set because that was there anything else that needs shared out because we are about to shift topics. Okay, dear Krishna any final words on senses.
35:55
We did have the one comment that people are sharing bookmarks, encouraging census responses with curbside hold pickup, which is becoming more of a more accessible for folks that I think promoting and every way we can is where we're all going to be. That sounds great.
36:15
And so maybe part of those types of resources is, you know, taking some of these Graphics or things that if you think there are immigration Concerns also coming into play in your community maybe adding some of those pieces to those amazing resources you all are making and using new creative ways to connect. So with that I'm going to move up to public charge and I would charge is a charged or loaded term. And so we'll break that down a little bit in general. I know some of you have already been pretty connected into resource.
36:54
Has around this new rule out of immigration that has been percolating really for since the new Administration. I still call it new to a cold many years ago and we've gone through cycles of drafts of this Rule and rhetoric and leaks.
37:14
So I imagine some of you are actually fairly well versed in this topic, but we're going to try to frame it and some general ways for those that don't know what we're talking about and also because One this is one space where media and the News cycle. Maybe does this a little bit of Injustice because that term public charge is really a legal term of art.
37:36
So it's sort of Taken on a life of its own and seems to in common language instill fear and a sense of a bigger law than it actually is so we'll step back for a few minutes today to really talk about what it is, but then we'll also Focusing on some current impacts we're seeing in the space and questions were seeing in the space because of covid-19 loss of jobs and Sheltering in place. So we'll try to do a little bit of everything in our remaining time together.
38:10
The first thing I wanted to highlight is that public charge comes up and pretty much everyone thinks we are talking about use of public programs and benefits and I think the questions we get from community members and those supporting community members is really largely around the space about does it mean I can or can't access certain public programs. What we're going to be focusing on today. Is that really the heart of the public charge rule at the end of the day is looking at a lot of different factors and in reality the use of benefits for an immigration practitioner trying to help somebody with a case is probably the smallest.
38:55
Piece of this law that has a pretty large negative impact for certain immigrant families and then for others, it's really just that this law doesn't apply at all to them. But unfortunately the government has been really good job of instilling fear that this term is broader than the law itself and there's this concept that it applies to access and use of benefits generally, which it does not so thinking through that lens.
39:25
Of not really the immigration law side, but how it comes out in the media and in the questions we hear is really this idea of can I use a benefit or can I use this program or can I get health care? And so to sort of separate out that framing there's different ways to look at using a public program one is you know, do I qualify for this benefit or public program in the first place the public charge rules and all the rhetoric we've heard out of this Administration.
39:55
Has done nothing to change eligibility or qualifications for a benefit or public program so we can message largely and broadly that if you are eligible for a public program or benefit you remain eligible and this government hasn't changed any of that. I'm going to jump to that last box on your screen the red one, which is really where we think that most of the fear and concerns come from which is it's really about the side.
40:24
Idea that in order to get a public benefit or program that this person might be telling me I'm eligible for or they're referring you to it is they just don't understand and I'm worried about immigration and when people say they're worried about immigration.
40:40
They're actually not really worried about the in the weeds legal effect of this one small little called public charge, but they're actually worried about is if I give you this information or I signed up for this benefit will I get deported will somebody else in my Household get deported because you don't know maybe about my you know, Uncle Johnny that lives with us and I'm terrified. He'll get deported. So really we think that most of the concerns and fears actually don't center around things that the public charge will in reality impact which is eligibility which has remained the same and immigration enforcement because public charge or signing up for a benefit is actually separate and apart from immigration.
41:24
Enforcement and there's actually been no changes to the confidentiality rules and laws and policies we have in place around using information given to a county agency or state agency and even particularly around health care and health insurance to the government to do deportations. The reality of the public charge rule. Is that it all it does is it it is an effect on your immigration status or options.
41:55
On public charge and we'll talk about what that means. But it's the possibility that using some program could impact your ability to get an immigration status. That's the only thing that this law actually impacts.
42:08
And so sometimes we're hearing a lot of questions in our roles and it's sort of down to us to break this down or make clear messages around the green box or the red box to help people focus on the idea that this rule hello law is so much smaller than the fears or the way that it comes out in the media the actual law around public charges what we call a ground of inadmissibility in immigration law inadmissibility rules for for those of you that love information. It's like this idea that inadmissible means we are not going to admit you into the United States, right? So there's actually a whole list of reasons.
42:54
That folks could be found inadmissible and that is really I'm going to jump to this for a moment is the idea of we have a whole list of things that will keep you out of the United States when you apply to come in and get status and we also use the same list to decide whether you Merit a green card.
43:17
Are you likely to become a public charge is just one of those criteria on that list and that actual public charge law says this it's the idea of if in the future you are likely to become a public charge you are inadmissible. That's all we've really got in terms of what the actual law says.
43:43
And so if we think about it that's actual public charge rule again has nothing to do with immigration enforcement nothing to do with eligibility and instead applies only to those that are seeking entry into the United States or have an application that they can file to become a permanent resident through what we call adjustment of status and this rule or law doesn't apply in any other context in Immigration. So right away.
44:10
Way, we're helping a whole bunch of people in the immigration space that aren't doing these things. They might be applying for naturalization. They might be undocumented and just need some social support relief package something like this. They're not coming forward on their own and turning them this application to become a permanent resident if they're not doing that then there's no public charge issue. They should be looking Instead at eligibility and what they need.
44:36
So when we think about it, there's a whole bunch of immigration categories or statuses as well as applications that people could file in Immigration and have no public charge issue because public charge doesn't apply in these contexts refugees and asylees special immigrant juvenile status for those that might not have two parents support you non-immigrant for victims of crimes. T's for trafficking victims.
45:06
GE temporary protected status applying for naturalization and the even applying for a green card. If you're doing it through different Pathways like in Immigration Court or through an asylum status or you status these types of things have no public charge chest which means that the use of your benefits your programs. Your economic status does not come into play at all. As you can see this means that a lot of the immigrants we serve.
45:36
Eve and their families shouldn't even be worrying about this law.
45:40
So one unfortunate thing about this Administration is that they've done a very good job of making it feel like a global rule that applies to all immigrants and their use in eligibility for benefits what we can say right off the top is it has nothing to do with eligibility for benefits and it only applies to a very narrow group of immigrants that are ready to apply for their green card through the family member a lot of us on Call denaturalization work or work with permanent residents that are looking to naturalize we can say definitively there is no public charge test to become a naturalized citizen. So that's going to be very important for folks that are already have their green card. This particular public charge rule doesn't apply to them and so public charge is only going to come up in certain instances. I see that we have a question about.
46:36
About like okay. So wait, does this include applying for a marriage or spousal based green card? So like the idea of a family member that can petition for you and through that petition. You can apply to become a permanent resident. That is exactly the scenario where public charge does apply.
46:58
So those folks that do have those qualifying family relationships like a US citizen spouse or permanent resident spouse or US citizen child or maybe a US citizen parent. Those are the folks that do have to worry about public charge and pretty much everyone else does not so really all of this starts with a very basic immigration screening to see who is on their Pathway to get a green card through a family member.
47:28
And everyone else and if we are dealing with someone else it's more likely we can give them very positive news about not worrying about public charge public charge is really a test that looks at a lot of different factors and everything.
47:45
We've shown you so far about public charge has been in the law book for close to a century, depending on how you debate what the law said, it's this idea of likely to become a public charge and are Are statutes passed by Congress way back in 96 tells us that they should be considering all these factors age Health household size the financial resources of that family education and skills. The reason why this hasn't been a big event in the last decade is because we had set policies about what officers looked at and in addition if you showed the necessary family support in your family unit in your household.
48:28
His Affidavit of Support a contract signed by your sponsor showing that you had in that household a hundred and twenty-five percent of the Fall federal poverty guideline income available to the household you essentially overcame your public charge concerns. So what's changed? So what's changed is that the government has come up with a new rule that adds a lot of negative rhetoric to how an officer should assess public charge it minimizes.
48:58
Izes this contract of the Affidavit of Support and then sets into play New pieces in how we look at deciding whether somebody is likely to become a public charge importantly this new rule doesn't take effect unless the application for a green card was filed on or after February 24th. Any application already pending gets to benefit from our older rules, which are much more.
49:28
to the Immigrant and we'll learn that it's a pretty extensive evidentiary burden meaning that under this new rule filing these very basic applications to get a green card or going to be even more tedious than our normal immigration process including a new form and including really just personal information that in my mind doesn't really tell us if someone's likely to become a public charge in the future.
50:00
Including a full snapshot of debt liabilities, whether the person's ever had bankruptcy a credit score and information and data about their family members their language level their employment history Etc. So it's really opened up a pretty big fishing Expedition into a whole bunch of factors in a person's life. All of which are really markers for being low income. And so the idea is that really this rule.
50:30
Rule is going against the concept of the American dream that you can come with nothing work hard educate yourself and and create a new life. It's essentially taking all those markers of coming from poverty and saying those are reasons you were likely to become a public charge in the future.
50:52
In a nutshell the new rule that's now in effect for applications getting filed for green cards now has done three things would be a way to break it down. It's created a new definition of the term public charge. You might have noticed as I was describing it you showing you what's in the law. The term public charge was not defined this new rule tries to Define it and it does a pretty bad job it also then expands the list of public benefits.
51:21
it's that we consider in deciding what public charge means so now public charge means someone who is likely to use a certain amount of benefits and those benefits include things that have never been included before big highlight there, which will dig into is things like healthcare and housing and lastly where we're going to see the biggest impact is that that list of factors we just looked at where they're supposed to consider all the circumstances in someone's life. There's been an addition of a whole bunch of ne- decision-making factors into what an officer should look at and assess and this is the part for immigration law practitioners that are really going to pose barriers who are regular applications for green cards because of the Deep dive into someone's education finances credit score.
52:21
Cetera that's going to be really problematic. So we're going to take a couple minutes to look at these individually and then we're going to talk about where we're at with a needed benefits under covid. So when I said there's a new definition of public charge.
52:38
We were have now moved from a standard where what this law used to be which was the idea that an officer making a decision on a green card would decide I'd whether somebody was likely to become primarily dependent on the government to support themselves. So notice primary dependence and for income support to a new definition that says a public charge is an immigrant who receives one or more of this new expanded list of public benefits for more than 12 months in an aggregate within any 36-month period and remember that that's the future looking test.
53:21
So it seems to be saying they've made a more tangible definition but really what they're saying is also sir. Can you please look and talk to the person now today and tell me if you can imagine in the future get out your Crystal borrow a 36-month period of time where a person might need 12 or months month or more of certain benefits. So it's still the speculative future looking test and now puts these.
53:51
Rameters on that looking forward that, you know don't really make it any easier to assess.
53:59
And then as we talk about what those public benefits are, the list has changed. So at the top we have what an officer used to think of as a public charge somebody primarily dependent on cash assistance or long-term institutionalization paid for by the government. Now the new rule says the benefit of public benefits that count still include the cash assistance from any source of government local state federal.
54:29
And includes now anyone who needs federally funded Medicaid with a few exceptions federally funded food stamps or Section 8 or federal subsidized housing so though that's where the expansion is, but notice that it's a focus on Federal and so what that means is a few things one.
54:52
There's the ton of benefits and programs that don't have a negative impact on immigrants or their It's even if they're applying for a green card and that includes emergency medical care Medicaid. It includes WIC Public Health Services School based nutrition Head Start, all of these types of things some of which Krishna was talking about is support resources now under the shelter in place and covid-19 pandemics.
55:20
In addition, you'll notice that it means that it's not covering state-funded program. So that means folks that qualify for instance in California for médicale, but not under Federal Medicaid there under some special program which happens in some states where they've expanded their Medicaid programs to other folks or they might have local health insurance programs things like this possibly local housing.
55:49
Since none of those local or state health or housing will count against an immigrant in a public charge determination and also use of benefits by family members that are eligible to count. So if you have US citizen children that are using these benefits because they are eligible their youth doesn't get reported. So that doesn't count against the family either.
56:16
So the bottom line here is we have a whole bunch of exemptions categories that don't count in terms of needing to prove. They're not a public charge. There are some exceptions for military. There's also that whole list I gave you at the beginning refugees asylees U Visa t visa a whole bunch of types of immigration applications and statuses that don't have public charge tests. And then we also have this crazy thing happen with this rule, which is all these new buildings.
56:46
a bit they've pumped up and added to the rule are if you notice things that undocumented immigrants do not qualify for so for the most part someone who is on their path to get a green card would not be eligible to use any of the programs that are now included in the rule that you could get penalized for using bottom line is that it's really about politics and Optics to make this broader inclusive list because In reality, most of the immigrants that would be applying for a green card don't have access to any of these programs. There are a couple narrow exceptions and they're very very narrow like Vietnam war vet who type scenarios where you might have eligibility for these benefits and also potentially end up subject to a public charge test.
57:42
Otherwise for the most part the expanded list isn't to come into play for many of our families instead. It's the focus on all of these other factors where we're going to see negative impact, you know, this focus on family size and income level education and skills. This is where we are more concerned about public charge having an impact and then we turn to this idea first now that benefits aren't really the main event, but now we're in this situation where people really do need to make sure they're getting the safety.
58:20
Help that they might need for themselves or their families given that their jobs might be on hold or gone. Now that we're all a Sheltering in place or that they might have health concerns that keep them from working. They might be sick themselves or have a family member that is sick.
58:40
So a few things we need to make sure we're saying is you might notice from all of this that emergency medical care is not part of public charge and everyone should be getting the care they need USCIS is also issued a statement about covid-19 and has specifically said that any treatment testing preventive care including vaccines or testing Etc does not impact somebody who's coming forward and may have a public charge test. And in addition when they did that they said also that if you need other services because of job losses Etc.
59:20
Emergency funds that all of that will be taken into account in a public charge determination if it was covid-19 related.
59:32
So this is actually pretty favorable policy Krishna has already mentioned the emergency funds. But again here we expect that. None of these emergency funds for undocumented related to covid-19. As far as we can tell from most that we've looked at that we believe that they will be classed as emergency or disaster relief funds and therefore not affect somebody who is applying for a green card in this public charge test.
1:00:00
So that's sort of where Wanted to end up today is getting you into the weeds of public charge and ending up with some actually positive messages that under covid-19. People need to get the help that they can and then leave you with those messages that we do have strong messages around folks ability to get the care. They need access programs that they can and that most of these programs and most immigrant families won't be negatively impacted and I know we're at the hour now.
1:00:32
And your lunch breaks are over. So thank you so much for listening. And I believe that there's been information passed on how you can follow up with any questions with Katie myself or Krishna, and we thank you so much for tuning in and getting the information with us today.
1:00:49
Amazing information Aaron and Krishna. Thank you so much. I did share my email address K Azevedo at Butte County dotnet we can forward all of your questions to Aaron and Krishna and hope that you will continue your diligent work supporting this very important population and community in our country.
1:01:11
Great. Yes, that was excellent, and I think we answered people's questions as we were going along, so we actually didn't have any other questions. So thank you very much and for our audience everyone who registered and attended today's webinar. We will receive a follow-up email tomorrow that includes a link to the archived recording of This webinar as well as a link to the certificate of attendance. We also have a short survey you'll see after you close out of the webinar. So if you could please take a few minutes to fill that out helps us in planning future training. Thank you.
1:01:41
Again, everyone and we'll see you at our next webinar.
1:01:45
You can much for having us. Thank you. Thank you, Krishna, and thank you. Mary and Eileen. Have a great afternoon.