Changes to “public charge” rule may put 500,000 more U.S. citizen children at risk of moving into poverty

The Department of Homeland Security recently proposed a regulation allowing for officials to consider the take-up of non-cash public benefits when deciding whether to admit or deport non-citizens. Immigrant parents, many of whom have citizen children who are entitled to SNAP benefits, are increasingly fearful that any interaction with the government will lead to arrest and deportation. In this brief, we present estimates of the potential impact of this proposal on child poverty.

For more discussion, see the recent article in the HuffPost by CPSP's Jennifer Laird.