'Chilling effect' expected if ban on immigrants' benefits upheld

California and other states are suing to stop U.S. policy for those without legal status.

- BY KEVIN RECTOR

TEACHER Viviana Banuelos plays with a child at the Pacific Clinics Early Head Start Center in Pasadena, which might face funding cuts.

If the Trump administration succeeds in barring undocumented immigrants from federally funded "public benefit" programs, vulnerable children and families across California would suffer greatly, losing access to emergency shelters, vital healthcare, early education and lifesaving nutritional support, according to state and local officials who filed their opposition to the changes in federal court.

The new restrictions would harm undocumented immigrants but also U.S. citizens — including the U.S.-born children of immigrants and people suffering from mental illness and homelessness who lack documentation — and put intense stress on the state's emergency healthcare system, the officials said.

Head Start, which provides tens of thousands of children in the state with early education, healthcare and nutritional support, may have to shut down some of its programs if the new rules barring immigrants withstand a lawsuit filed by California and other liberal-led states, officials said.

In a declaration filed as part of that litigation, Maria Guadalupe Jaime-Milehan, deputy director of the child care and developmental division of the California Department of Social Services, wrote that the restrictions would have an immediate “chilling effect” on immigrant and mixed-status families seeking support, but also cause broader “ripple effects” — especially in rural California communities that rely on such programs as “a critical safety net” for vulnerable residents, but also as major employers.

“Children would lose educational, nutritional and healthcare services,” Jaime-Milehan said. “Parents or guardians may be forced to cut spending on other critical needs to fill the gaps, and some may even be forced out of work so they can care for their children.”