Mixed-Status Immigrant Families and the Affordable Care Act
On October 25, 2013, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) issued a guidance titled “Clarification of Existing Practices Related to Certain Health Care Information.” The guidance can be found at: http://www.ice.gov/doclib/ero-outreach/pdf/ice-aca-memo.pdf
Specifically, the guidance states ICE’s policy that it does not use information about applicants or their family members that is obtained for purposes of determining eligibility for coverage under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) “as the basis for pursuing a civil immigration enforcement action against such individuals or members of their household, whether that information is provided by a federal agency to the Department of Homeland Security for purposes of verifying immigration status information or whether the information is provided to ICE by another source."
Immigrant workers or their family members who have questions about whether they can access health insurance coverage through the marketplaces can visit the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ (“HHS”) webpage on its ACA website, HealthCare.gov, titled “What do Immigrant Families Need to Know about the Marketplace?” The page can be found at: https://www.healthcare.gov/what-do-immigrant-families-need-to-know/
For more information on immigrants’ access to healthcare and benefits, visit the National Immigration Law Center’s website at www.nilc.org.
Author: Monica Guizar
