Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

364 Barbara Weiner
Notes
1. The systemic failure of the Human Resources Administration to correctly
determine the public benefits eligibility of immigrant victims of domestic
violence is the subject of litigation entitled MKB, et al. v Eggleston, et al.
05 Civ. 10446 (JSR), currently before the US District Court, Southern
District of New York, on a motion for preliminary relief. The litigation has
already forced both New York and New York City to issue policy
clarifications, undertake additional training and to revise various systems to
ensure that benefits eligibility determinations with respect to battered
immigrants are correctly made.
Plaintiffs in MKB, et al. v Eggleston, et al. are represented by the New
York Legal Aid Society, Scott Rosenberg and Jennifer Baum, Of Counsel;
The New York Legal Assistance Group, Jane Stevens and Caroline Hickey,
Of Counsel; Hughes Hubbard & Reed, Ronald Abrams and Russell Jacobs,
Of Counsel; and The Empire Justice Center, Barbara Weiner, Of Counsel.
2. Immigrants whose children (or parents) have been abused by a US citizen
or LPR parent (or spouse) are also eligible to be treated as qualified
immigrants for benefits purposes as long as they are the beneficiary of a
family-based immigration petition that is pending or has been approved.
8 USC § 1641(b) and (c).
3. See 8 USC § 1613.
4. See 8 USC § 1183a.
5. See 8 USC § 1612(a)(2).
6. Also exempted from these restrictions as well as the five year bar in all the
other federal means-tested benefit programs are active duty service
members and their dependents and honorably discharged veterans and their
dependents.
7. Safety Net and state Medicaid are accessible not only to qualified
immigrants but to persons “permanently residing under color of law”
(PRUCOL).
8. A child who has been battered by his or her US citizen or LPR parent may
also qualify for benefits if a I-130 petition or I-360 self-petition is pending
or has been approved. Children listed on the I-130 petitions or I-360 selfpetitions
of their immigrant parent may also qualify for benefits as
derivatives. See 8 USC 1641(c).