Transcript:

Good morning. I'm Pat Baker, Mass Law Reform Institute in support of House 135 and Senate 76, an act to establish basic assistance for Massachusetts immigrants.

We have a broken immigration system right now. We know that people who are legally present are waiting for work authorization per month. We join with the Healey administration in urging support of getting the Biden administration to expedite the work authorization. At the same time, we have an incredibly complex system or patchwork of federal rules of who is eligible for federal benefits based on their immigration status. For example, nationals of Cuba and Haiti qualify for federal benefits, federal cash, refugee cash assistance, and SNAP food stamp benefits. They have humanitarian parole pending asylum and yet nationals of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Columbia, Columbia cannot get those benefits even though they have the exact same status. This is a crazy patchwork of eligibility.

We have Ukrainians who currently are eligible for benefits with parole, but if they lose that parole and get something called temporary protected status, they will lose their benefits. That's the specter we face in Massachusetts and across the nation. Victims of violence who have U visas cooperating with law enforcement, they too cannot get benefits. You will hear from a victim of violence today about her plight. Battered immigrants, legal permanent residents, have to wait 5 years to get the benefits. How did we get here? Well, 27 years ago, I had the honor of working with Chairman Cabral to get this Legislature to approve state funded benefits for legally present immigrants. And Speaker Finneran agreed with, and we carried that benefit on for 5 years. We don't have those benefits now.

We have faced this crisis because of COVID. We have seen what's happened in the commonwealth when we don't have the resources. We have essential workers with work authorization who cannot support their families, they do not make enough, and they cannot get SNAP benefits. These are the families that are at La Colaborativa's food pantry near the Tobin Bridge. This bill would provide state funded access to core basic benefits, food benefits, and for a small subset of families cash assistance, because many families don't apply for cash due to fear of public charge. This bill will help families get on their feet and will help families in shelter who do not have access to benefits to move out more quickly. We strongly urge the committee to support a quick favorable reporting of this bill. I'm happy to answer any questions about the very complex immigration rules and benefit eligibility for this population. Thank you.