A young girl waits for care in a medical clinic. A growing number of citizen children of immigrant parents are losing out on Medicaid because their parents fear deportation. Jonathan Kirn/Getty Images hide caption
toggle caption
Jonathan Kirn/Getty Images
Jonathan Kirn/Getty Images
The fear of family separation is not new for many immigrants already living in the U.S. In fact, that fear, heightened in recent weeks, has been forcing a tough decision for some families. Advocates say a growing number of American children are dropping out of Medicaid and other government programs because their parents are undocumented.
Marlene is an undocumented resident of Texas and has two children who are U.S. citizens. (NPR is not using Marlene’s last name because of her immigration status.) One of her kids has some disabilities.
“My son is receiving speech therapy,” she says in Spanish. “But it’s been difficult.”
It was a long journey to get the right evaluations and diagnoses and her son is finally making progress, Marlene says. But she is also bracing for a day when he might have to do without this therapy and others that are paid for through Medicaid. Because she’s undocumented, she’s extremely nervous about filling out applications for government programs like this.
Already, she has decided to stop receiving food stamps, now known as SNAP, which her children, as citizens, are entitled to based on the family’s income.
She dropped it because the application to receive those benefits changed, she says.
“They are asking a lot of questions,” she says. “They are investigating one’s life from head to toe.”
Marlene says she was nervous, in particular, about being asked to provide years of pay stubs. She says there were eligibility requirements she had never seen before. Marlene says the application alone made her “sick from stress.”
NPR repeatedly contacted Texas health officials to ask about the changes in the benefits application process and got no response.
Latin America
Mexicans Protest U.S. Immigration Policy
Mexicans Protest U.S. Immigration Policy
Listen · 3:23 3:23 Toggle more options Download Embed EmbedShare this Post