NYC Council drops plan to auto-enroll in benefits over immigrant privacy fears

The City Council dropped a plan to automatically enroll New Yorkers in city benefits Thursday — instead passing a drastically pared-down bill over concerns it would be an invasion of immigrants’ privacy.The revised legislation, which unanimously passed the council, instead directs the Department of Social Services to study whether automatic-enrollment across city administered benefit programs is even feasible because of the overall privacy concerns.Several members of the Democratic-dominated legislature worried information from the auto-enroll benefits could be used by the federal government and sink immigrants’ green card applications.The original version of Intro.

248 would have required the city to use tax records, social services rolls and other government data to identify New Yorkers eligible in all city administered benefits programs and enroll them without having to apply — potentially increasing costs by billions while sweeping up illegal immigrants in the auto-enrollment process.“There are often so many logistical challenges to getting some of these bills passed,” Speaker Julie Menin said of the changed bill.“We want to make sure that we did everything to protect people’s private information.”Menin said concerns over new Trump administration policies helped drive the changes.The federal immigration “public charge” review can weigh immigrants’ use of public benefits when officials decide green card and certain visa applications.The Trump administration, starting Sept.

18., expanded its public charge policy.The new policy lets immigration officials consider whether some immigrants have used government benefits when deciding immigrant applications.The review does not automatically bar an applicant based on benefit usage, but it has heightened concerns about privacy and immigrant participation in public programs, council members said.“One thing we’re particularly concerned about was public charge, and that was a concern shared with...