Immigration Policy

The Immigrant Access to Health and Human Services study maps and describes the policy context that can affect immigrant access to health and human services and the well-being of immigrants and their children. This paper summarizes federal provisions and key aspects of state-level variation related to immigrants' eligibility for TANF, SNAP, Medicaid, and CHIP based on a review of literature and the latest information. It provides a building block for the fieldwork and in-depth assessment of the policy context around immigrant access to health and human services.

Many children and youth - abroad and here, with their families or unaccompanied - flee their toxic surroundings, hoping to find new homes elsewhere and create new lives. With a panel of experts whose knowledge spans the globe, this forum will plumb the experiences of vulnerable youth who are displaced or on the move and examine ways to protect them, sparking an overdue exchange on policy lessons from America and abroad.

Foreign-born workers, spanning all skill levels, are a significant part of the U.S. workforce. But in the midst of a weak economy beset by many pockets of double-digit unemployment, some policymakers are concerned that low-skilled immigrants take jobs away from their native-born counterparts. Others contend the United States is losing its competitive edge by limiting the entrance of high-skilled foreign workers

ICE agents arrest hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year. Immigrant families and their communities live on the frontlines of enforcement operations. Potential opportunities such as early release and ongoing community support and the challenges associated with home arrests both argue for applying humanitarian release guidelines universally, great caution in executing warrants, and greater community involvement.

This paper reviews the evidence on the effects of less-skilled immigration to the U.S., and considers the implications of this evidence for immigration reform ideas. It begins with a review of the costs of less-skilled immigration, in terms of competition to native-born American workers and fiscal costs; as well as the benefits of such immigration in the form of lower prices to consumers, higher profits for employers, and greater efficiency for the U.S. economy. The paper then reviews various reform ideas that have been proposed in Congress in recent years, and also considers a range of other ideas, that would likely raise the net benefits associated with less-skilled immigration to the U.S.

Urban Institute researchers are available to help reporters delve into the Census Bureau’s new poverty numbers, to be released Thursday, September 16. To speak with an Urban Institute expert, contact Simona Combi at 202-261-5709 or scombi@urban.org.

Immigration policy and reform debates test our ability to think about what's at stake when we open (and close) our doors to a diverse range of newcomers, and how ongoing immigration affects our future. As the debate on how immigrant workers and families continue to reshape the country gathers steam, the public is often misled about the challenges and opportunities stemming from policies about who can come to (and stay in) the US.

It is widely known that improving access to ambulatory care helps prevent hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions. The Children's Health Initiative of Greater Los Angeles (CHI) formed in order to improve children's access to primary care by increasing Medi-Cal and Healthy Families enrollment. Previous reports showed the CHI reduced the overall rate of preventable hospitalizations in low-income children. This study examines if the CHI similarly reduced preventable hospitalizations for low-income children in Los Angeles County by analyzing hospitalization rates in Los Angeles for lower income compared to higher income children, and calculating hospitalization rates for ambulatory care sensitive conditions.