Chinese for Affirmative Action and partner community organizations gathered media to provide information related to immigration and public benefits impacts of changes to “public charge” rules. Leaders shared critical information and resources on how immigrants should respond when accessing public benefits, and dispelled myths to stop the “chilling effect” of the controversial policy,
Fear and confusion surrounding recently announced “public charge” rules have already pushed immigrant families to dis-enroll from life-saving public benefits. At the earliest, the rule change is expected to take effect October 15th, and would potentially penalized immigrants for accessing public benefits, such as Medi-Cal, SNAP and SSI, when applying for a green card in the United States.
An estimated 300,000 individuals nationwide will be affected. Current green card holders, asylees, refugees, and any other humanitarian visa holders will not be affected by the rule change and should speak to a trusted service or legal provider before making decisions about their public benefits enrollment.
Please call CAA if you need any immigrant rights services at 415-761-3222 or you can visit immigrants.sfgov.org for more information.
Speakers:
• Amy Lin, Immigrant Rights Program Manager, Chinese for Affirmative Action
• Amy Lee, Executive Director and Managing Attorney, Jubilee Immigration Advocates
• Dr.Cami Le, Pediatrician, Northeast Medical Services
• Virginia Cheung, Director of Advancement, WuYee Children’s Services
• Hong Mei Pang, Director of Advocacy, Chinese for Affirmative Action
• Kenny Chu, Naturalization Program Supervisor, Self Help for the Elderly
See below for clips from the press conference.
