BILL NUMBER: S8626
SPONSOR: SALAZAR
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to guaranteeing
access to certain public benefits for non-citizens
 
PURPOSE:
To guarantee access to certain public benefits regardless of citizenship
status.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends section 398-e of the social services law, as amended by
chapter 669 of the laws of 2022. This amendment clarifies that access to
certain public benefits shall be statutorily guaranteed regardless of
citizenship status.
Section 2 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
In 2025, the federal government began an attempt to rollback guaranteed
access to public benefits for non-citizens, unless such access is
protected in state statute. While this federal effort is still being
litigated, it has demonstrated a clear vulnerability in New York's laws.
This bill guarantees access to prevention services, adoption subsidies,
kinship guardianship assistance, after-care services for youth and fami-
lies involved with child welfare, childcare assistance, residential
services for victims of domestic violence, and all other public services
and benefits, as applicable under existing eligibility requirements.
This bill ensures that citizenship status alone cannot be used to deny
access to public benefits.
New York has always been a home to immigrants-- recent or generations
removed- and it guarantees the dignity and rights of all its residents
equally. At a time when citizenship status is used as a wedge, New
York's laws must explicitly reflect the values the state has always
implicitly held that the length of time someone has been a New Yorker
does not determine their relative worth before the law.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S8626: 398-e social services law