The Fear of Access to Public Benefits for Undocumented Immigrants with Celia Valdez from Maternal and Child Health Access (MCHA) and Immigration Attorney Nora Phillips On the 38th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Celia Valdez and Nora Phillips. Celia Valdez has been working in health outreach for over 25 years as the Outreach and Education Director with Maternal and Child Health Access (MCHA). She has worked diligently with local and state government groups ranging from community-based organizations to government agencies to improve access to free and low-cost health insurance programs. She has advocated on behalf of hundreds of clients, provided testimony on their behalf before government boards, and has made numerous health policy recommendations at state and local levels. MCHA (MCHA) improves the health of low-income women and families through advocacy, education, training, and direct services. MCHA provides information, support, and technical assistance to health and social service organizations, assists individual women to achieve healthy pregnancies and obtain quality health care for themselves and their children, and educates policymakers and the general public to improve the health and social services systems to benefit the entire community. Nora Phillips is the founder of the Law Office of Nora E. Phillips, APC, in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. She has been practicing immigration law since 2007 and is graduate of the DePaul University College of Law. Nora's practice focuses on immigration remedies for survivors of violence, disabled immigrants, and individuals who have been deported from the U.S.. Prior to starting her own practice, she co-founded Al Otro Lado, a binational legal services organization, in 2011. While at AOL, she ran the Deportee Program the Healthcare-Legal Partnership while co-supervising the Case Management Program for holistic client advocacy. Prior to that, Nora co-founded Phillips & Urias, LLP, a community immigration law firm in East Los Angeles. Prior to Phillips & Urias, LLP, Nora was a Staff Attorney at the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Los Angeles. Nora is fluent in Spanish, French, and English. Some of her recognitions include winning the National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles Chapter Annual Award, 2019; East Los Angeles Women’s Center Mujer de Paz Award, 2019; YWCA San Gabriel Valley Racial Justice Award, 2018; American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), 2018; Child 10 Award and Courageous Luminaries Award presented by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), 2018. Celia became passionate about public benefits while in college when she heard a presentation about prenatal healthcare access for immigrant women. She found a job opening at MCHA and has been there for 27 years since! On the other hand, Nora moved to New York in her early 20’s and started becoming involved in civil rights work involving Muslim populations after the 911 attacks. Eventually Nora landed in Chicago and went to law school and has been doing immigration work since. Celia and Nora work together as they both sit at the intersection of public benefits and immigration work. Whether its sending VAWA approved or U Visa approved cases to access public service benefits at MCHA or Celia sending over immigrant populations to seek legal services back to Nora, they both share a passion in making sure everyone is educated about the resources they can access so that no one falls through the cracks. LISTEN NOW   Angeline Chen (213) 417-5169 [email protected] Celia Valdez  Outreach and Education Director Maternal and Child Health Access Nora Phillips  Immigration Attorney Law Office of Nora E. Phillips, APC "There isn’t enough education about immigration status and access to public benefits. For example, MCHA serviced a women that had dropped all her benefits recently. Her child’s benefits, health benefits, social benefits, SSI benefits, everything because she was so afraid of becoming a public charge. Now, after she wound up in the hospital, she ended up with a huge medical bill and we had to advocate to get all their benefits reinstated. This is just one example of the misinformation among immigrant populations and their right to get public benefits."  – Celia Valdez MCHA has training available for people that want to know the in and outs of public benefits in LA county. You can access those trainings here. They are always in need of donations. Please consider donating via this link. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with their work! Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 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