Title: FACT CHECK: What Happens When You Cross the United States Border Illegally?
Headings: What Happens When You Cross the United States Border Illegally?
What Happens When You Cross the United States Border Illegally?
A viral Facebook post comparing U.S. immigration policy to that of North Korea and Afghanistan gets most of the facts wrong.
Claim
Rating
Origin
A job
A driver’s license
Food stamps
“A place to live”
Health care
Child benefits
Education
A tax-free business for seven years
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Content: “A place to live”
Generally speaking, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal housing benefits like public housing, rental assistance, and vouchers. However, as a 2015 Congressional Research Service report outlines, some undocumented immigrants may live in a household with citizens or qualified immigrants, and thereby indirectly benefit from some public housing assistance (although the level of that assistance is reduced on a pro rata basis, due to the presence of that undocumented immigrant.) Undocumented immigrants are eligible for emergency assistance such as homeless accomodation and domestic violence shelters. It is possible for an undocumented immigrant to own a home, either by buying it outright with cash, or by using something called an individual tax identification number ( ITIN) mortgage. This allows non-citizens (including undocumented immigrants) to bypass the usual requirement of having a social security number to take out a mortgage. Some 31 percent of undocumented immigrants live in a home that is owned by at least one of its residents (as opposed to rented), according to a Migration Policy Institute analysis of data from the United States Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey. Health care
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace, significantly curtailing the affordable health insurance and health care available to them. However, six states and the District of Columbia have rules that allow undocumented immigrant children to avail themselves of Medicaid benefits, and undocumented immigrants are also entitled to emergency medical care. According to a 2017 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, non-elderly undocumented immigrants are four times more likely than United States citizens to be uninsured, and fears about immigration enforcement and detection often cause undocumented immigrants to forgo preventive healthcare, leading to worse outcomes. Child benefits
It’s not entirely clear what the creator of this meme means by “child benefits,” but let’s take a look.