***For Immediate Release***
September 22, 2018
Contact, Omaid Zabih
Federal Policy Director, Nebraska Appleseed
Office: (402) 438-8853 x128
Email: ozabih@neappleseed.org
Statement on White House’s proposed changes to family work supports and temporary safety nets
New restrictions will punish aspiring Americans for meeting their basic needs, endangers health of U.S. citizen children
LINCOLN – Today, the Trump Administration announced a proposed change to a long-standing provision of immigration law that would limit aspiring Americans’ ability to become lawful permanent residents if they have used certain public work-support programs that help many hard-working families continue their jobs and move out of poverty.
The proposed rule change greatly increases the categories of public assistance programs and temporary safety nets that can be used to block someone from getting on a pathway to lawful permanent residence and participate fully in the country they call home.
Nebraska Appleseed Immigrants & Communities Director Darcy Tromanhauser released the following statement on the new restrictions:
“This proposed change will force millions of American families to make the impossible choice between their essential needs for their families and a future with the people they love. It will remove the possibility to achieve the American Dream for many hard-working families who perform essential work in their communities, while at the same time endangering the health of millions of U.S. citizen children.
“This new rule punishes immigrant families for accessing the same work-support programs and temporary safety nets that help millions of American families and children stay healthy, get the food they need, and get out of poverty. The people who would be punished by these changes are hard-working families who pay taxes and contribute to our communities every day. This disruption ignores the long history of people getting temporary assistance from these programs in order to continue working and making even greater contributions in the future.
“We urge Nebraskans to leave a public comment opposing this new rule. The best way to build a strong country is to make sure all hard-working families have the food, medical care, housing and other basics they need to get ahead.”
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