What federal and state public benefits immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, human trafficking, child abuse, child neglect and child abandonment qualify for varies by:
- The state in which the immigrant victim lives;
- Whether or not the victim has applied for immigraiton relief;
- Which form of immigration relief the immigrant crime victim has applied for or been granted;
- Whether the immigrant is the child of a victim applying for crime victim related immigration relief and the age of the child; and
- The type of state or federal benefits program the applicant needs and would like to apply for.
It is important that victim advocates, attorneys, judges, and other professionals encountering abused immigrant victims in their work have easy access to tools to help the evaluate which immigrant crime victims qualify for which state or federal public benefits. This information ensures that advocates and attorneys have the information they need to assist immigrant crime victims in applying for any of the public benefits that individual victim and their children are eligible to receive. This information also provides judges easy access to information about which immigrants qualify for which benefits in their states to that in family court and juvenile court cases court orders requiring that parents apply for certain benefits for themselves and their children are legally accurate and do not order parents, families and children to apply for benefits they are not legally eligible to receive.
Public Benefits Map
NIWAP has developed and is updating in 2018 its public benefits map which serves as a guide helping advocates, attorneys, judges, health care, housing and other public benefits providers determine which immigrant victims and which children they are working with qualify for which public benefits in their state.
Public Benefits State by State Charts
NIWAP is additionally developing detailed charts by state that allow advocates, attorneys, courts and benefits providers to easily access more detailed information about benefits available in each state. These charts contain numerous footnotes that link users to state and federal statutes, regulations, government documents and materials developed by the National Immigration Law Center, NIWAP and other public benefits subject matter experts that will assist advocates, attorneys, courts and public benefits providers in correctly assessing the benefits eligibility of an individual victim or their children.
During 2018 NIWAP began publishing these state by state charts. We have completed versions for the states listed below. Our goal is to complete similar charts for all U.S. states and jurisdictions. Since the development of these charts has been a long process and we want to get this important information out to the field, we are making the version listed below available to the public. Each chart has the date of the most up to date version for each state. We are continuing to update these charts and develop charts for states that are not yet listed here. If you work in a state that is not posted below and you are working on a case in which you need this information for an immigrant crime victim client or a client’s child, please call NIWAP for technical assistance and we can provide you the information for your client and to also request that we complete a chart for your state.
Technical Assistance on public benefits eligibility for immigrant crime victims and immigrant children: Call NIWAP at (202) 210-8886 or info@niwap.org
State Charts