Michael Levitis
Hi, everybody, it’s Michael Levitis from Jurisq.com, a legal network with commonly asked legal questions answered by our professionals. They will have with us we have our professional Yakov Spektor an immigration attorney who’s always happy to answer our questions. Yakov, welcome back to our show. Let’s talk about benefits, government and other benefits that you can get. If you’re just an undocumented immigrant, you don’t have your green card yet, you definitely don’t have a citizenship. What do you qualify for? On a state level and or on a federal level?

Yakov Spektor
This question probably pops up during every consultation that I get, of course, the reason for that, I mean, it’s quite natural. So when it comes to your, people started their lives all over, they might not be able to make a living, sometimes they’re not to be eligible for work permit. Sometimes they were here, without any status whatsoever, they’re not even, they’re not able to really, they don’t know the language, they’re not able to, to get the kinds of jobs that people who’ve been living here for many, many years can get. That’s quite normal, people start their lives from step one. So any help they can get is very much appreciated. Let me tell you this, this is not really a question for an immigration lawyer, because most of the benefits that someone might be eligible for such as food stamps, for example, or any sort of cash payments, such as welfare or and that’s a big one, Medicaid, that people want to be insured that comes from the states, and states, even though a lot of their rules are very similar. It could be different enough, if you live across the river from New York or New Jersey, and you’re a green card holder, you might not be eligible for Medicaid. Well, if you live in New York, you are. It’s very state specific New Jersey makes you wait for five years after you get your green card. Before they would give you Medicaid, New York doesn’t not? So one thing that I can tell you, if you are undocumented, or even if you have a green card, it first of all, find out with your state, what’s out and benefits you might be eligible for. You might be surprised. Even if you’re undocumented but you came here as a refugee. There are pretty robust programs on the state level that refugees might be eligible for Ukrainians who come here through the United for Ukraine program are eligible for the benefits, even though some other categories of immigrants might not be every group

Michael Levitis
Every group is different. Always go to ask an attorney, your particular situation, what do you qualify for?

Yakov Spektor
By the way, that’s not good for them, and for the country, because you want these people to be obviously checked for any kind of viruses and viruses to be treated not only for their own sake, which is a humane thing to do, but also for the sake of the society. Exactly! Or ask your state representative, New York has a very easy to remember 311 information number that you could dial and just simply tell them what you need, and they’ll help you out. Now, one thing that is going to be super important, because what happened with our previous administration, Trump administration tried to make you receiving government benefits conditional upon you getting legal status. So basically, we were say: if you’re getting government benefits, that means you cannot support yourself on your own, maybe we shouldn’t be giving you a green card, because you go become a public charge, you’re gonna need people like you here, even though on the statue, Statue of Liberty itself, it says, give me your poor, give me your infirm. Immigrants are not immigrants who just come here, they’re not in the best position in their lives. They need a little bit of assistance to start, but then we are a country of immigrants, the assistance that we will give to those in need, who just come to our shores is going to pay itself forward, probably many fold. Okay, but what, you might be a Republican, or you might be a Democrat, you might have different attitudes towards immigrants. But if someone is already here, that helps that person don’t kick him. Our previous administration tried to make it pretty difficult. And a lot of people were scared away from actually getting the benefits that they were entitled to elderly immigrants, were afraid to get medical insurance that they would have otherwise been eligible for. Because they were afraid, because the Trump administration made it so difficult for people to get the correct information that there were tens of thousands of immigrants who simply were not getting the health care that they needed. Because erroneously, they believed that that would hurt them or their loved ones with their immigration. For the sake of the public health. Exactly. Now, so what we had to do, we had to pretty much public re education campaign where we were telling people that, in fact, you will be completely fine applying for the government benefits, even though even though sometimes, like senior citizens are usually hard to stop, they might not, even if you tell them and if it even if it’s someone like me who’ve been doing it for a living, for the past almost 20 years, they might still be wary of replying, which is never it’s not necessarily a bad quality. Hey, Check and double check whatever I tell you, but here’s a very simple rule for you. Now, there’s lots of different kinds of listeners that listen to you, Michael. Some of you might be undocumented. Some of you might have your green cards. Some of you might be in all sorts of different situations. And I’ll give you a very easy kind of way how you might determine whether it’s something that you can apply for or not. Here’s that rule. Don’t lie on the government applications. When you’re applying for Medicaid, for example, and tests what’s your immigration status. If you’re not a citizen of the United States, don’t tell them that you’re a citizen of the United States. There might be some people were getting some really bad advice. And let’s say, they’re filling out these applications and people will tell them just to say that you’re a US citizen, or just say that you’re a green card holder, you’ll just you’ll you’ll be enrolled in this program, you’ll get medical insurance, you’ll get food stamps, there’s nothing that will really hurts you, if you just do this little white lie, don’t do that.

Michael Levitis
They can also hurt you criminally, because the lying, you could say you are lying on a federal form, that’s a crime itself. So you can get charged and then if you get charged with a felony or even a misdemeanor, sometimes you could lose your right to get your citizenship.

Yakov Spektor
Absolutely. But if you do not, as I said, you’re you live in New Jersey, and you’re a green card holder, and you are not eligible for like Medicaid as long as you disclose all that information on those forms, you do not get the Medicaid, but you did not lie to the government, you are not going to be worse off. So as long as you disclose all your information, truthfully, any government benefits that you will be eligible for that the government will give you or if we couldn’t use it safely in most instances.

Michael Levitis
And also, you brought up a very good point that sometimes people are afraid to get treatments, or even report a crime because they’re afraid they’re gonna get deported. We talked about it before that some states are sanctuary states, and I believe New York State or New York City, is a sanctuary city. In New York if you go to local authorities, and they find out you are, in fact, undocumented, they have no right and they don’t report you to immigration services. Right?

Yakov Spektor
That’s correct. They will not. And that’s also that’s a public health issue. If you have a whole group of people who is afraid to go to the police to report a crime, that means that the crime is going to thrive in that area, because criminals don’t know that people are going to be afraid to report them. It happens a lot and in the communities that are predominantly comprised of undocumented immigrants, because unfortunately, for one reason or another, they’re afraid to go to the police, because they might think that actually, the police will check their immigration status tried to deport them. In some places, in some Texan border areas, that’s exactly what the government tried to do. They try to get the local law enforcement to cooperate, to try to kind of do their immigration duty work for them. So saying what sanctuary city is, essentially, that does not mean that a New York City will protect you from deportation if you do something wrong. But if you did not do anything wrong, and you’re undocumented, they’re not going to feel obligated reporting your immigration status to the federal authorities, it’s completely safe for you to go to the police, it’s completely safe for you to apply for government benefits and you should take advantage of that.

Michael Levitis
But let me follow up with this question. Actually begging for this question. Once you get those benefits, and you apply for your gender status to become a legal resident, can the government use that against you that you received benefits before?

Yakov Spektor
That’s a great question, and there is no good answer to it. Because it’s a really, it’s a patchwork of things. It depends what you’re applying for, what category you’re applying for, what kind of benefits you were receiving, the only thing that I can tell you is this, if you’re applying through your family, most likely getting government benefits is not going to be a problem for you. If you’re applying through your employer maybe talk to someone like me. If you’re seeking asylum, and you were working here without work permit because, work permits take a while, they take months to receive right now. We maybe should have a video talking about that at some point.

Michael Levitis
That’s a good idea.

Yakov Spektor
You’re working here without authorization and then you get asylum, that’s not going to be a problem for you. Even if the government learns that you were working here without to work permits, that getting government benefits is also not going to be a problem for you. So for most of our listeners, getting the government benefits that you’re entitled to that you can get without lying on any applications is probably okay. Take advantage of the help that the government provides. It’s probably not going to be a problem for your future immigration, or for applications such as getting a green card or getting citizenship. You want to be 100% sure, there is unfortunately, I cannot tell you 100% because they simply don’t know your situation. Get on the phone, talk to someone like me. Explain your situation and then you’ll know what to do.

Michael Levitis
Exactly. Yakov, would definitely thank you for providing this very important information. But you should not use this information in vacuum for your case. Would you should do though, is contact an attorney someone like Yakov Spektor, lay out all the facts, what government help are you applying for whether or not when to use against you when you change your status, every step of your way, in your journey in getting a green card and citizenship. You shouldn’t have an attorney, hold your hand, but it’s a very difficult process. It is a legal process. So only a true professional and attorney, a licensed attorney can help you along the way. That’s the advice we’ll give you today. Yakov, thank you so much for your time. Thank you, everybody for listening and we’re gonna be back shortly with actually, you gave us a taste of what we’re going to talk about. We’re going to talk about work permits. Because as we know, right now, in New York City, there are a lot of migrants being shipped, being bused here, by taxes. When we want to do is we want to talk about new initiative by our mayor, where he promised to get them expedited work permits. We’re gonna talk about it, whether he can do it. What’s the purpose? What are the benefits. See you next time, thank you.