Purpose and Legal Authorities. ED seeks access to the information contained in the DHS-USCIS database (referred to as the Verification Information System (VIS)) under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), Pub. L. 99-603, section 121. ED seeks this information for the purpose of verifying the immigration status of applicants for assistance, as authorized by section 484(g) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1091(g), consistent with the requirements of section 484(a)(5), 20 U.S.C. § 1091(a)(5). ED is authorized to participate in the matching program, which is the subject of this agreement, under the authority of section 484(g)(3) of the HEA, 20 U.S.C. § 1091(g)(3). DHS-USCIS is authorized to participate in this immigration status verification system under section 103 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, 8 U.S.C. § 1103, and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009, as amended, 8 U.S.C. § 1373(c).
Purpose and Legal Authorities. A. Purpose
Purpose and Legal Authorities. Section 121 of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, Public Law 99- 603, as amended by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), Public Law 104-193, 110 Stat. 2168 (1996), requires DHS to establish a system for the verification of immigration status of alien applicants for, or recipients of, certain types of benefits as specified within IRCA, and to make this system available to state agencies that administer such benefits. Section 121(c) of IRCA amends Section 1137 of the Social Security Act and certain other sections of law that pertain to federal entitlement benefit programs. Section 121(c) requires state agencies administering these programs to use DHS-USCIS’s verification system to make eligibility determinations in order to prevent the issuance of benefits to ineligible alien applicants. The VIS database is the DHS-USCIS system available to the CA-DSS and other covered agencies for use in making these eligibility determinations. CA-DSS will access information contained in VIS for the purpose of confirming the immigration status of alien applicants for, or recipients of, benefits it administers in order to discharge its obligation to conduct such verifications pursuant to Section 1137 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1320b-7(a) et seq.). Pursuant to Section 840 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, verification of applicants for Food Stamps or SNAP through DHS/USCIS is optional for CA-DSS. CA- DSS has elected to use the VIS for all alien applicants for Food Stamps or SNAP for the length of this Agreement.
Purpose and Legal Authorities
Purpose and Legal Authorities
