Welfare program for immigrant victims of domestic abuse up for consideration

Monday, Dec. 26, 2005 | 6:53 a.m.

The state agency that oversees welfare is expected in January to consider offering help to a new group of Nevadans -- immigrants who have been the victims of abuse.

The proposal is on the agenda for the Jan. 25 Division of Welfare and Supportive Services meeting. It would open welfare assistance to women who have been victims of domestic violence and are accepted in a federal program that offers a path to citizenship and other benefits such as the right to work in the United States.

The federal program, renewed and amended by Congress Dec. 17 under the Violence Against Women Act, is meant to protect women who stay in abusive relationships because they are in the country illegally and their husbands, who are legal, threaten them with deportation.

The number of women statewide in that situation is unknown and probably small, experts said.

"It's a small ... but very vulnerable population ... and this is good public policy," said David Thronson, associate professor of law at UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law.

Thronson said the proposal, if accepted, would make Nevada one of 19 states with similar or broader measures.

Nancy Ford, administrator of the state welfare agency, said the proposal could extend benefits to anywhere from 30 to 60 families, at a cost of $100,000 to $200,000. The money would come from the state budget.

By contrast, the division spent $14.5 million for single parents in the fiscal year ending June 30 -- most of which were federal funds.

Thronson said that under the proposal, women would first have to be approved under the federal program in order to be eligible for welfare benefits. He said that program also grants women the right to work while adjusting their immigration status, so not all women covered by the federal law would necessarily need welfare.

"We're not talking about pounding down the doors to get benefits," he said.

The idea, he said, is to "make it more possible (for women) to leave the (abusive) situation."

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259-8828 or at timothy@lasvegassun.com.