Immigrants’ Eligibility for U.S. Public Benefits: A Primer

work requirements and to incentivize states to allow people to remain on Medicaid or the companion Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) throughout the pandemic without reverifying eligibility.3 Congress also expanded economic supports by increasing the size of the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income working adults and the Child Tax Credit for parents, and by offering pandemic stimulus pa. [...] born and immigrant alike, out of poverty in the midst of the pandemic and its harsh economic impacts.4 The end of the public health emergency, announced on May 11, 2023, signaled a return to standard eligibility rules. [...] This report thus provides an overview of immigrants’ eligibility for 13 programs assisting the nation’s immigrants and services related to general assistance, health to understand the complex rules and nutrition, employment and income, education, governing immigrants’ access to housing, and driver’s licenses, according to the standard public benefits. [...] Finally, the report includes a look at the needs and benefits eligibility of the nation’s large Latino immigrant community, and an Appendix of national and state-level data related to the Latino immigrants’ sociodemographic characteristics and immigration statuses. [...] citizen or “resident alien.”51 In IRS terminology, a “resident alien” is a noncitizen who is a lawful permanent resident (LPR, also called a green-card holder) or who meets the IRS definition of having “substantial presence” in the United States (that is, the noncitizen was in the United States at least 31 days of the current year and 183 days of the past three years).52 To receive the EITC, all m.