[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 23, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ONE HUNDRED DAYS UNTIL ELDERLY AND DISABLED LEGAL IMMIGRANTS LOSE SSI 
                                BENEFITS

  (Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, in exactly 100 days many thousands of elderly 
and disabled legal immigrants in our country will lose their only 
source of financial support, SSI, unless this Congress acts.
  This is not about welfare reform, it is about community 
responsibility. It is not about moving a young parent from welfare to 
work, but about elderly people who cannot work. It is not about people 
who came here illegally, but people who came here under our laws, who 
now find themselves disabled, most often because of age and illness:
  Asian-Americans caught up in the Vietnam war, often fighting on our 
side; Arab-Americans, many of whom fled the land of Saddam Hussein; 
people who, despite in numerous cases having defended their native land 
against Nazi invaders, left because of Soviet persecution against 
Jewish families; Hispanic-Americans dislocated by war or in pursuit of 
family reunification.
  When the President signed the Personal Responsibility Work 
Opportunity Reconciliation Act, he made it completely clear he would 
propose legislation this year to correct the provisions on legal 
immigrants. Today I am introducing the bill that the President has 
proposed.

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