Megrabian v. Saenz

• Decision Date: 20 June 2005
• Docket Number: No. A104819.,A104819.
• Citation: 30 Cal.Rptr.3d 262,130 Cal.App.4th 468
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Kima MEGRABIAN et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. Rita SAENZ, as Director, etc., Defendant and Appellant.

30 Cal.Rptr.3d 262

130 Cal.App.4th 468

Kima MEGRABIAN et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. Rita SAENZ, as Director, etc., Defendant and Appellant.

No. A104819.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 3.

June 20, 2005.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General; James M. Humes, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Thomas R. Yanger, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Douglas M. Press, Supervising Deputy Attorney General; Karin S. Schwartz, Deputy Attorney General, for Appellant.

Gerald A. McIntyre, National Senior Citizens Law Center; Richard A. Rothschild, Western Center on Law & Poverty; Tanya Broder, National Immigration Law Center; Linton Joaquin, National Immigration Law Center; Patricia G. Price, Legal Assistance for Seniors; Grant R. Specht, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, for Respondent.

PARRILLI, J.

Welfare and Institutions Code sections 18938 and 18940 determine eligibility for benefits under California's Cash Assistance Program for Aged, Blind and Disabled Legal Immigrants (CAPI). (Welf. & Inst.Code, §§ 18937 et seq.)¹ An immigrant is eligible for CAPI benefits based in part on whether he or she "entered the United States on or after August 22, 1996." (Welf. & Inst.Code, § 18938, subds. (a)(2) & (a)(3).) There are no California cases construing section 18938 or the phrase "entered the United States" as used in that statute.

Rita Saenz (Appellant) is director of the California Department of Social Services (DSS), which is charged with supervising CAPI. (Welf. & Inst.Code, § 18937.) The DSS has construed "entered the United States" in section 18938 to mean the date an immigrant attained his or her current immigration status. (Cal. Dept. of Social Services Manual of Policies & Procedure § 49-020.4 (MPP).) Kima Megrabian, Norair Chitechyan, Ji Qun Shi and Jin Kan Zhang (Respondents) were denied CAPI benefits under the DSS's construction. They contend interpretation of the phrase should be governed by a federal regulation interpreting the same phrase in a non-analogous federal statute to mean physical entry on or after August 22, 1996. The trial court ordered the DSS to use the federal interpretation and granted Respondents's petition for a writ of mandate; the DSS appeals. We conclude the DSS's interpretation of section 18938 is entitled to our deference. We reverse.

BACKGROUND

I. Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.

In 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). (8 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq.) PRWORA severely restricted the eligibility of legal immigrants for federally-funded benefits otherwise provided to needy persons, including benefits under the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for the aged, blind, and disabled. Many legal immigrants lost their eligibility for such benefits as of August 22, 1996, the effective date of PRWORA. (Teytelman v. Wing (2003) 2 Misc.3d 608, 773 N.Y.S.2d 801, 803-804 (Teytelman); 8 U.S.C. §§ 1612, 1613; Kurzban, Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook (9th ed.2004), p. 676 (Kurzban).) In particular, with limited exceptions, immigrants who were not "qualified aliens"² as of that date were denied eligibility for any federal public benefits. (Teytelman, supra, 773 N.Y.S.2d at p. 804; 8 U.S.C. 1611, subd. (a).)

Congress enacted PRWORA in part to promote self-sufficiency and to discourage aliens from immigrating to the United States just to avail themselves of welfare or other public resources. (8 U.S.C. § 1601; Aliessa ex rel. Fayad v. Novello (2001) 96 N.Y.2d 418, 425 .) In PRWORA, Congress expressly authorized the states to fund their own public benefit programs for immigrants who no longer qualified for federal benefits and authorized them to establish their own eligibility criteria. (8 U.S.C. §§ 1622, 1624, 1632; Kurzban, supra, at p. 676.)

II. CAPI.

In 1998, the California Legislature enacted CAPI to provide benefits to qualifying aged, blind and disabled legal immigrants who, as a result of PRWORA, are no longer eligible for federal SSI benefits due solely to their immigration status. (Welf. & Inst.Code, §§ 18937, 18938, subd. (a); Stats.1998, ch. 329, § 38.) CAPI provides a monthly subsistence grant to low-income persons who would have been eligible for federal SSI under the immigrant rules in effect before enactment of PRWORA, and who otherwise meet the criteria for SSI benefits. (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 18938, subd. (a)(1), 18941.) Eligible immigrants include (1) LPRs; (2) immigrants permanently residing in the United States under color of law (PRUCOLs), i.e., residing in this country with the knowledge and permission of immigration authorities who do not plan to deport them (MPP, supra, § 49-005(p)(3)); and (3) other "qualified aliens."³ (MPP, supra, § 49-020.12.)

Eligibility for CAPI benefits is determined in part by section 18938 — the statute at issue in this case. Section 18938 sets forth three eligibility groups based in part on whether the applicants entered the United States before August 22, 1996, or on or after that date: (1) immigrants who entered before that date; (2) immigrants who entered on or after that date and whose sponsors are dead, disabled, or abusive; and (3) other immigrants who entered on or after that date. (Welf. & Inst.Code, § 18938, subd. (a)(1)-(3).) The group an immigrant falls into is relevant because it determines which sponsor-deeming rules for income apply. (Welf. & Inst.Code, § 18940, subd. (b).) A sponsor is a person who signs a contract or "affidavit of support" agreeing to support an immigrant as a condition of his or her admission for permanent residence in the United States. (MPP, supra, § 49-005(s)(1).) Under sponsor-deeming rules, the income and resources of an immigrant's sponsor are added to that of the immigrant in determining whether the immigrant is eligible for CAPI (or federal SSI) benefits. (MPP, supra, § 49-037.1; 20 C.F.R. § 416.1160, subd. (a).) These rules can render an immigrant ineligible for CAPI for a specified number of years by attributing to him or her a greater income than is allowed under the program.

CAPI provides that applicants in the first two groups — immigrants who entered before August 22, 1996 or whose sponsors are dead, disabled or abusive — are governed by federal SSI sponsor-deeming rules. (Welf. & Inst.Code, § 18940(b).) Under the federal rules, the number of years of sponsor deeming depends upon the type of affidavit of support the immigrant's sponsor signed. Depending on the affidavit, immigrants are either (1) subject to three years of sponsor deeming (old affidavit of support), or (2) subject to deeming until they become citizens or secure credit for 40 quarters of work history (new affidavit of support which is required for all applications for immigrant visas or for adjustments of status filed on or after December 19, 1997). (42 U.S.C. § 1382j, subd. (a); 8 U.S.C. 1631, subd. (a),(b); MPP, supra, § 49-005(a)(1); see also Wheeler, Immigration Act Imposes New Sponsorship Requirements, Modifies Restrictions on Benefits, Bender's Immigration Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 13, pp. 6, 8.) Because many immigrants eligible for CAPI may never become citizens or be able to complete 40 quarters of work due to their age or disability, those whose sponsors signed the new affidavit of support could be subject to indefinite sponsor deeming.

Immigrants in the third group — immigrants who entered on or after August 22, 1996 and whose sponsors are not dead, disabled or abusive — are not affected by which federal affidavit of support their sponsor signed. Instead, they are subject to ten years of deeming of their sponsors' income and resources, regardless of the affidavit signed. CAPI's ten-year deeming period starts from the date the sponsor signed the affidavit of support or "the date of the immigrant's arrival in the United States, whichever is later." (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 18940(b).)

The DSS determines when an immigrant "entered the United States" for purposes of determining eligibility for CAPI under sections 18938 and 18940 based not on the date an immigrant physically arrived in the United States, but on "the effective date of the non-citizen's current immigration status as determined by the Immigration and Naturalization Service." (MPP, supra, § 49-020.4.) There are two exceptions. First, if the immigrant is a current CAPI recipient whose immigration status was adjusted after he or she began receiving CAPI benefits, then the DSS continues to use the same entry date that was used to determine his or her initial CAPI eligibility. (MPP, supra, § 49-020.41.) Second, if the immigrant was a "qualified alien" (e.g., LPR)⁴ as of August 21, 1996, and has maintained continuous residence in the United States since that date, then the effective date of the "qualified alien" status held on August 21, 1996 will be deemed to be his or her "entry date" even if he or she later adjusts his or her immigration status. (MPP, supra, § 49-020.42.)

The DSS implemented the CAPI program in December 1998. Since May 2000, the interpretation set forth above of section 18938 has consistently been DSS policy. By September 2002, the DSS's interpretation had appeared in an administrative decision not involving Respondents. The DSS designated the portion of the decision containing its interpretation a "Precedential Decision." (Gov. Code, § 11425.60, subd. (b) ["An agency may designate as a precedent decision a . . . part of a decision that contains a significant legal or policy determination of general application that is likely to recur"].) The interpretation became an emergency regulation about four months later. By October 2003, it had become a permanent DSS regulation. (MPP, supra, § 49-020.4.)

III. Facts Relating to Respondents and Their Administrative Records.

The facts relating to the Respondents are undisputed. They are two elderly, immigrant couples, each of whom physically arrived in the United States on tourist visas before August...