Can states align immigrant-eligibility requirements among programs?
No. Immigrant-eligibility rules are defined in federal law and cannot be changed through a waiver; states can align some sponsor-deeming rules and procedures, however. States have very limited ability to align immigrant-eligibility requirements across federally-funded programs. (States that choose to provide state-funded benefits to immigrants ineligible for federally-funded benefits can align eligibility rules as they wish.) Federal law prescribes the immigrant-eligibility rules in Medicaid, SCHIP, food stamps, TANF, and child care, including which immigrants are eligible and which immigrants are subject to sponsor deeming or liability. While the rules for TANF and Medicaid/SCHIP are largely similar, they differ in important ways from those that apply to the Food Stamp Program and to child care funded with Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds. Most notably, in TANF and Medicaid/SCHIP most legal immigrants, including children, are ineligible for benefits in their first
