9.4 Policies for Immigrant Families
Policies that are in place for immigrant families according to the text:
- Temporary Assistance of Needy Families
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- Supplemental Security Income
- Children's Health Insurance Program
- Medicaid
- College Financial Aid
These are some of the programs and policies that have been put into place for immigrants. Thought it is great that the USA has these helpful policies in place, they are not as helpful as they seem. The problem with most of these polices are the waiting periods, the punishments for using them, and the limited amount of immigrants that they can help. First, the waiting period for immigrants to use these policies has increased because of welfare reform. Immigrants must now wait 3-5 years before using most of these resources. This is a very long time for immigrant families to wait to get the assistance they need to help support their families and reasons for migrating. After 5 years immigrants may not need as much help as they would when first coming to the USA with barely any resources to aid their migration. Immigrants need this help as soon as they enter into the USA because that is most likely the most challenging time for their families. Second, the punishment for using these programs could be devastating to the immigrants. After working very hard to get the USA or get their families to the USA, deportation for trying to utilize helpful resources is too risky. This makes it even harder for immigrant families to get the support they need. Third, most government assistance programs are for refugees. Other immigrant statuses do not have as many options as immigrant refugees but immigrants of all status may need the same assistance. There definitely needs to be some reform to these programs, as they are not helping everyone that they could be.
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