[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 30 (Tuesday, March 11, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2126-S2127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE HARSH IMPACT OF THE WELFARE BILL ON IMMIGRANTS.

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, last year Congress passed a comprehensive 
welfare reform bill that drastically restricted the ability of legal 
immigrants to participate in public assistance programs. It prohibits 
legal immigrants from receiving food stamps, SSI, and Federal non-
emergency Medicaid benefits. The bill also gives States the option to 
ban legal immigrants from State Medicaid services and temporary 
assistance to needy families (formerly AFDC).
  In the past 2 months, we have begun to see the harsh impact of this 
bill on legal immigrant families in all parts of the country. Many face 
being turned out of nursing homes, and cut off from disability 
payments. These human tragedies will only continue to grow in number 
and severity without congressional action.
  Last month, President Clinton proposed some changes to the law to 
prevent these harsh effects. I urge Congress to act quickly on these 
proposals, and I ask unanimous consent that recent news stories on this 
crisis may be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                     [From Newsday, Feb. 28, 1997]

On their Own--Elderly, Ailing Noncitizens Face Loss of Federal Benefits

                          (By Geoffrey Mohan)

       Gladys Boyack will be 106 by the time tough new federal 
     regulations on welfare go in to effect in August.
       She'll also find herself cut from the rolls of a federal 
     program designed to be a safety net for the elderly, disabled 
     and blind.
       A British citizen who has lived in the United States for 40 
     years, working most of those years as a nanny, Boyack never 
     applied for U.S. citizenship. Now, the Islip resident regrets 
     her omission; welfare regulations enacted by Congress are 
     expected to cut nearly 5,000 elderly, blind and disabled 
     immigrants on Long Island from Supplemental Security Income 
     rolls. All of them are legal permanent residents, a status 
     that is a step below citizenship.
       Among them is Lucrecia Lopez, 75, of Freeport, a Dominican 
     immigrant who has been in Freeport for 17 years and labored 
     for eight years in a local factory assembling artificial 
     Christmas trees.
       Boyack and Lopez received letters this month saying they 
     will lose their monthly payments--$556 and $570, 
     respectively--because neither became a citizen during their 
     stay in the United States.
       ``I couldn't believe it when I got that letter,'' said 
     Susan Levin, Boyack's granddaughther, who takes care of 
     Boyack in a first-floor apartment at Levin's house. ``There's 
     nothing we can do. The last check will come in July.''
       Boyack and Lopez face a difficult choice at a late juncture 
     in life: struggle through the forms, tests and language 
     requirements of naturalization, or enroll in local aid 
     programs.
       Boyack is household and nearly deaf. Lopez, who speaks only 
     Spanish, would have to learn English at 75.
       So both will probably apply for less-generous state aid, 
     and depend on their families or charities to make up the 
     difference.
       ``She's 75 years old,'' said Lopez' son Jose, an import-
     export businessman from Miami who supports a wife and two 
     children. ``Who's going to take the load? As we say in the 
     Dominican Republic, we have to put more water in the soup.''
       Boyack and Lopez are just two of 4,929 immigrants on Long 
     Island considered likely to lose their SSI benefits as part 
     of Congress' get-tough welfare policies, adopted in August 
     and scheduled to take effect Aug. 22.
       The changes, aimed at saving the federal government $9 
     billion over four years, will cut off all but a narrow sector 
     or noncitizen immigrants from SSI.
       Similar cuts are looming in the food stamp, Medicaid and 
     Aid to Families With Dependent Children programs.
       Congress enacted the cutbacks in an effort to slow so-
     called chain migration, which occurs when immigrants who 
     obtain citizenship petition to bring elderly family members 
     to America from their home country. The elderly relatives 
     often have a few wage-earning and taxpaying years ahead of 
     them and little means of support from their sponsors.
       ``We are paying for the sinners who abuse the system,'' 
     Jose Lopez said.
       Congress also made sponsors' pledges of support as legally 
     binding as a contract and increased the period of time in 
     which the sponsors' income can be considered in calculating 
     the new immigrant's need for federal aid.
       In part, the moves were inspired by statistics showing that 
     the number of immigrants using welfare programs has greatly 
     increased. For example, the number or immigrants receiving 
     SSI quadrupled in a decade ending in 1993, and immigrants 
     rose from 4 percent of all SSI clients to more than 11 
     percent over that time period, according to the General 
     Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm.
       ``The SSI system is available to people who come to this 
     country and never pay into the system and didn't work,'' said 
     Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American 
     Immigration Reform, which supported the welfare revisions.
       But Stein acknowledged that Congress may not have intended 
     to pull the safety net away from unemployable immigrants over 
     age 64 who worked and paid taxes.
       ``The fact that there are tough cases out there has 
     underscored the need for some grandfathering of hardship 
     cases,'' Stein said. ``But we won't support this if we 
     encourage more chain immigration.''
       On this point only, Stein agrees with activists like Margie 
     McHugh, executive director of the New York Immigration 
     Coalition. ``We still don't believe the American people 
     really intended to throw elderly people out onto the street 
     in the name of welfare reform,'' she said.
       ``No one that I know of argues with the idea of people 
     being responsible for the folks they bring into the country, 
     but I think that for immigrants, like everyone else, 
     unforeseen things happen,'' McHugh added.
       Federal officials have since loosened citizenship rules for 
     the disabled, but have not moved to reinstate benefits to 
     unforeseen hardship cases, McHugh said.
       Pro-immigration activists like McHugh worry that the 
     philosophical shift from federal to local responsibility 
     implied in welfare overhauls is not accompanied by a shift 
     of money from federal to local coffers.
       Such may be the case for SSI. Current state budget 
     proposals would provide a maximum of $350 in vouchers to 
     people like Boyack and Lopez, according to Terrance McGarth, 
     spokesman of the State Department of Social Services.
       So if both qualify for the maximum, their families or 
     charities would have to bridge the $200-plus gap between 
     their SSI benefits and the new state benefits.
       Not all noncitizens face this peril. Immigrants granted 
     asylum and refugees were excluded, and anyone who can show 
     roughly 10 years of work, even combined with their spouse's 
     work history, can remain on the rolls.
       SSI benefits are administered by the Social Security 
     Administration, but they come from general tax revenues, not 
     Social Security taxes.
       Boyack, who worked off the books as a nanny, never paid 
     federal income taxes. Lopez did, but not for the required 10 
     years. Neither woman's husband ever came to the United 
     States, so they cannot be counted in the work experience 
     minimum; both men are deceased.
       Activists say women like Lopez and Boyack are victims of 
     flawed reasoning behind welfare cuts for immigrants, a 
     population that frequently works off the books or has not 
     been in the United States long enough to draw meaningful 
     Social Security benefits, SSI becomes their only alternative, 
     by default.
       That option is about to disappear.
       ``I feel very worried and sad,'' said Lucrecia Lopez. ``I 
     asked myself, `How am I going to support myself?' And so many 
     people are having the same thing happen.'' SSI and Welfare 
     law.
       Supplemental Security Income was established in 1974 to 
     provide monthly payments for the aged, blind and disabled. It 
     is run by the Social Security Administration, but draws its 
     resource from general tax revenues. SSI pays out about $2.4 
     billion per month to nearly 6 million beneficiaries.
       Nationwide, 12 percent of those recipients are legal 
     immigrants, or were when they applied for SSI benefits. On 
     Long Island, 19.8 percent of recipients are legal immigrants, 
     or were when they applied.
       Nationwide, 522,000 immigrant SSI recipients could become 
     ineligible under welfare revisions to take effect in August. 
     On Long Island, 4,929 are likely to lose SSI. An additional 
     2,552 will be asked to show evidence of eligibility, but are 
     not considered in jeopardy.
       According to the Social Security Administration, welfare 
     changes will cut off all noncitizen immigrants from SSI 
     benefits except:
       Refugees and immigrants granted asylum, who are eligible 
     only for the first five years after arrival.
       Immigrants whose deportation has been suspended; 
     eligibility is limited to the first five years after arrival.
       Certain active-duty military personnel, including honorably 
     discharged veterans, their spouses and dependent children.
       Permanent residents who can document 10 years of work by 
     themselves or in conjunction with a spouse. * * * Immigrants 
     and SSI Percent of SSI recipients who are classified by the 
     Social Security Administration as legal immigrants:
                                  ____


                   Welfare Reform Starts Hitting Home

                          (By Kathy Matheson)

       Changes mandated by federal welfare reform are beginning to 
     ripple slowly through Montgomery County, but not slowly 
     enough for Silver Spring resident Marta Medina.

[[Page S2127]]

       Medina, who came to America in 1987 after fleeing civil war 
     and communism back home in Nicaragua, received notice earlier 
     this month that her Supplemental Security Income benefits 
     will end in August unless she becomes an American citizen or 
     meets one of five other narrow criteria.
       Medina has received SSI checks for three years since 
     breaking her arm and injuring her back while working at a 
     hotel in San Antonio. SSI, which is run by the Social 
     Security Administration, is a federal assistance program for 
     elderly and disabled people with low incomes.
       Through an interpreter, Medina said she needs the monthly 
     $484 SSI check she receives from the government to buy 
     medication for lingering physical and emotional problems she 
     suffered as a result of the accident. She is currently 
     unemployed.
       To find out how she may still qualify for disability 
     benefits, Medina and her husband, Luis, met with SSI 
     officials last week at a special office in Wheaton Plaza.
       ``We want to know what we can do,'' said Luis Medina.
       The Medinas are not alone. Under the Welfare Reform Act 
     signed by President Clinton last year, most legal immigrants 
     are no longer eligible for SSI.
       Approximately 4,000 Montgomery County immigrant residents 
     receive SSI checks each month, and they, too, will be getting 
     notification letters soon. About 400 letters are going out 
     each week, and recipients have 90 days to respond and have 
     their eligibility re-evaluated.
       To meet the anticipated response, officials at the Wheaton 
     Social Security office have leased a former Crestar Bank 
     facility at Wheaton Plaza and staffed it with five new 
     workers to evaluate cases like Medina's.
       Rich Fenton, manager of the Wheaton office, said the 
     temporary site currently handles about 25 to 30 people per 
     day. But he expects visits from as many as 50 to 60 people 
     each day as more residents are notified.
       ``I'm expecting that the volume will increase pretty 
     substantially,'' Fenton said.
       SSA spokesman Tom Margenau said out of 6.5 million SSI 
     recipients nationwide, approximately 900,000 are legal 
     immigrants. Benefit checks will stop flowing to an estimated 
     500,000 of those, according to federal officials, resulting 
     in government savings of $9.9 billion through 2002.
       The government also will save money by cracking down on SSI 
     fraud, officials said. SSA's Office of the Inspector General 
     closed 833 fraud cases in fiscal 1996, spokesman Dan Devlin 
     said.
       States also may save money when immigrants lose their SSI 
     benefits. As non-citizen residents are removed from SSI, 
     Margenau said most also will lose Medicaid benefits, which 
     come from a state program administered through the county 
     Department of Health and Human Services.
       Local officials are unsure how many people may be dropped.
       ``We don't have a good sense yet of what the numbers are,'' 
     said Corinne Stevens, chief of Montgomery County's Crisis, 
     Income and Victim Services. ``So many people, if they're able 
     to, are really moving toward citizenship.''
       Marta Medina said she would like to be a U.S. citizen, 
     especially since Helane DiGravio, an interpreter and manager 
     of the temporary SSI site in Wheaton, said it doesn't look 
     like Medina will qualify for SSI any other way.
       ``She's going to apply for citizenship, but she knows it'll 
     take a while,'' DiGravio said.
       Medina, who holds a college degree from a university in 
     Guatemala, has lived in the United States for 10 years, twice 
     as long as needed to become a citizen. Her husband, who is 
     unemployed but does not receive SSI, has been here since 
     1989.
       Marta Medina said she knows education and work are needed 
     to get ahead in America, and she'd like to take training 
     courses for home health care workers offered by the county's 
     Workforce Development Corp., formerly called the Private 
     Industry Council.
       But Medina said that as a result of her emotional problems 
     and injuries from her hotel job, she hasn't felt well enough 
     to enroll in job training or English classes, or to study for 
     the citizenship test.
       Some experts argue that the test, which requires knowledge 
     of the English language as well as American government, is 
     not difficult to pass--especially for someone who has been 
     here as long as Medina.
       ``The language exams are extraordinarily easy,'' said 
     Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative 
     think tank based in Washington. ``The language exam does not 
     pose much of a barrier, partly because you can take it over 
     and over and over.''
       Rector was a major congressional adviser during the welfare 
     reform debate in 1996. When the law was finally signed, 
     Clinton was criticized for excluding legal residents from SSI 
     benefits, since many have worked and paid taxes for years 
     just like U.S. citizens.
       Some states, including Maryland, are considering picking up 
     the tab for immigrant residents denied SSI. Margenau said 
     there are 9,645 immigrant SSI recipients in Maryland--about 
     half of whom live in Montgomery County--receiving average 
     monthly benefits of $345.
       Gov. Parris N. Glendening has said he wants to continue 
     food and medical support for children of legal immigrants who 
     would otherwise be cut off, Glendening spokesman Ray Feldmann 
     said.
       The governor appointed a Task Force on the Loss of SSI 
     Benefits for Legal Immigrants in Maryland, which issued a 
     draft report Feb. 6. Its findings have not yet been made 
     public.
                                  ____


            [From the Nogales International, Feb. 21, 1997]

          Hundreds of Non-Citizens Here Legally Face Aid Loss

                         (By Kathy Vandervoet)

       Hundreds of non-citizens living legally in Nogales or other 
     Santa Cruz County communities will lose their supplemental 
     Social Security income this summer under the new federal 
     welfare reform law.
       They will no longer be eligible for food stamps, cash 
     welfare, Medicaid and disability.
       Roberto Mendez, manager of the Nogales Social Security 
     Administration office, said there are 1,300 individuals 
     receiving the supplemental payments.
       Of those, 475 are legal residents, but not citizens of the 
     United States. All are subject to losing their monthly 
     benefits checks in about four months, he said.
       ``But there aren't going to be that many. There will be 
     exceptions,'' Mendez said.
       It's up to the men and women to visit the office, located 
     at 441 No. Grand Ave., to determine if they fit under the 
     exceptions clause.
       The 475 recipients are being notified by a letter, which 
     are being sent out in weekly batches. Some will receive their 
     letter earlier than others, Mendez said.
       They then have 90 days to comply if they want to retain 
     their monthly check.
       Those who will qualify for continued aid have worked and 
     earned 40 quarters of coverage, Mendez said.
       It can be the individual, a parent, a husband, a wife or 
     the combination of a couple's work to arrive at the 40 
     quarters total, he said.
       Mendez said he is urging concerned recipients, some of whom 
     have lived in the United States for 20 or 30 years, to earn 
     their U.S. citizenship.
       ``I refer a lot of them to the public library for their 
     citizenship program,'' Mendez said. He's been told it takes 
     about eight months from the time a person applies until he or 
     she meets the citizenship requirements.
       As well, the person must have been a permanent U.S. 
     resident for five years. Those married to a citizen can apply 
     after three years.
       Mendez said he's heard from worried residents who say they 
     will have to give up their independence and move in with a 
     family member, while others will be left with no choice but 
     to leave Nogales and move to Mexico.
       For additional information, call the Social Security 
     Administration at 1-800-772-1213.

                          ____________________