 of PRWORA, only the citizenship and immigration status of the child, who is the primary beneficiary of the childcare benefit, is relevant for eligibility purposes.” In other words, regardless of a parent’s immigration status, citizen children and “qualified” immigrant children may be eligible for childcare assistance.
· TANF funded childcare
Federal TANF assistance – and this includes TANF-funded childcare, is generally denied to legal immigrants during their first five years in the United States. There are, however, limited exceptions. And many states use state funds or CCDBG funds to cover immigrants during that initial five -year period. A mixed status household – where there is at least one citizen and one non-citizen family member – is a different story. A citizen child may be eligible for federally funded TANF cash assistance even if her or his parents and other family members are ineligible. But in most states, TANF-subsidized childcare is considered to be serving the needs of the parent, and therefore is not available to an unqualified immigrant parent.
A shaky future for many families
One problem facing many families, immigrant or otherwise, is the devastating impact of sequestration on the federal Head Start program. The government cut $115 million from the childcare subsidy system, which only made the problem of inadequate funding much worse. For years the system had failed to keep up with the rising cost of childcare, which created enough of a problem, but the funding cuts made things even worse by forcing some families out of quality childcare programs. Moreover, funding cuts eliminated nearly 60,000 children from the Head Start program in 2013, with the result that some centers had to shut down some of their classrooms or close their doors entirely.
Policies can be complicated and, as noted above, are always subject to change. Although all US families need to pay attention to the issues regarding childcare and other family policies in the US, immigrants often face unique challenges, so it pays for them to make an extra effort to stay current on policies. Immigration lawyers also need to be cognizant of current policies, recent changes and pending legislation.
· For official government information on US immigration reform efforts, see http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration
· For information on US policies and policy reform for low-income families, see http://clasp.org.
· For general information on how immigration policy impacts immigrants, see this 2012 report: http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/DrebyImmigrationFamiliesFINAL.pdf
· For information and resources on international immigration (migration) policies, see http://www.migrationpolicy.org/