Many immigrant families do not enroll eligible members in safety net programs for fear that doing so will expose them to immigration consequences. In this fact sheet, we draw on data from the Urban Institute’s December 2022 Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey to provide an update on the share of adults in immigrant families who avoided noncash government benefits in the past year because of concerns that receiving benefits would affect their or a family member’s ability to obtain a green card in the future.

We find that adults in immigrant families continued to avoid safety net programs because of immigration concerns in 2022, and adults in mixed-status families were more likely than other adults to report this program avoidance. Ensuring equitable health and economic well-being for immigrant families will require efforts to reduce program avoidance because of these immigration-related fears.