Relates to the Alex R. Jimenez New York state military immigrant family legacy program

Immigration help for military families

New York’s Alex R. Jimenez program connects service members, eligible veterans, reservists, and their families with immigration help. Covered relatives include spouses, domestic partners, parents, stepparents, adoptive relatives, and children, including stepchildren and adopted children. Next of kin can seek posthumous citizenship for an eligible person whose death resulted from injury or disease caused or worsened by service. The Office for New Americans must refer recipients to existing programs, community legal services, and immigration lawyers. It must maintain a toll-free, multilingual hotline and website with program information and immigration resources. State immigrant, veterans’, and military agencies must designate staff contacts, coordinate resources, and share program information with veterans’ organizations. These three agencies cannot keep, share, publish, or otherwise release personal identifying information supplied by recipients. Annual referral counts are due to agency leaders January 1 after the first full year following the effective date. The veterans’ services commissioner must send the report to the Governor and Legislature by March 1 each year. The program helps people pursue lawful status or citizenship; it does not grant status or change federal immigration fees.