Free legal ‘public charge’ screenings available for South Florida low-income immigrants
Starting Monday, low-income immigrants will be at a greater risk of being denied a visa or a green card.
The Trump administration’s new “public charge rule” will keep people who need benefits like food stamps, housing vouchers, Supplemental Social Security Income and Medicaid from getting their green cards because they’d be considered a “financial burden” to the U.S.
However, there are still certain people who receive public benefits are exempt from being impacted under the law, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“The number of people who are directly affected by this is much smaller than the universe of people who think they are affected and are going to react to this,” said Matt Childers, director of research and policy at the Florida Health Justice Project, a bipartisan research nonprofit organization . “This is called a ‘chilling effect.’“
He added: “This is something that has scared the living daylights out of a lot of people who aren’t even subject to it.”
Experts project that Florida will be among the states that are hardest hit, where the new rule’s “chilling effect” could actually end up affecting people that the rule doesn’t even apply to.
That’s why nonprofit immigration organizations — Florida Immigrant Coalition and Americans for Immigrant Justice — are holding free one-on-one legal assistance clinics for those who are confused about whether they would be impacted by the new rule.
The next screening will be held at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 29 in Florida City: 19308 S.W. 380th St.
Additional ones will be held in March until July.
Protecting Immigrant Families, another non-profit, also published resources on the new public charge rule.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition also has a hot line where immigrants can call for general questions about their U.S. rights: 1-888-600-5762
