Proposed welfare bill denies benefits to noncitizens
By Bert Eljera
Asian Pacific American advocates have reacted with outrage to the passage this week by the U.S. Senate of a welfare reform bill that could devastate legal immigrants.
"This legislation is extremist," said Gen Fujioka, managing attorney of the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus. "It would punish the elderly and disabled and prevent children from receiving basic medical care."
The Senate voted 74 to 24 to pass the bill that would prohibit legal immigrants from receiving virtually all safety-net programs. Noncitizens would be barred from Medicaid, supplemental benefits for the elderly, and food stamps, and would be restricted from job training and community health center services.
California senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer voted against the bill, saying the welfare reform legislation would throw thousands of indigent Californian immigrants into the streets.
"Forty-two percent of all legal immigrants in the United States who are on SSI reside in California," Feinstein said. "Nearly a million California residents-more than the entire populations of many states-who are blind, aged, disabled, or poor, would lose SSI, AFDC, and Medicaid benefits. Where would they turn?"
The House passed a similar welfare reform bill on July 18. The two bills would be sent to a conference committee to reconcile the differences. Republican congressional leaders say they hope to send the final bill to President Clinton by Aug. 2.
President Clinton has expressed doubts over some provisions of the bill-which he called "poison pills"-but did not say whether he would veto it. He has vetoed two other welfare reform bills passed by the Republican Congress, claiming the cuts were excessive.
He has promised to support legislation that would "mend, not end" welfare as we know it.
At a recent Clinton fundraiser in San Francisco, immigrant rights advocates showed up carrying placards urging him to veto the welfare reform bill.
"President Clinton has repeatedly said that this bill is unreasonably harsh on legal immigrants, especially children," said Matthew Finucane of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. "It is time for him to show his leadership and veto this bill."
In San Jose, Calif., the Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services also urged the president to veto the bill.
Under both the House and Senate bills, able-bodied welfare recipients must find work within two years-or sooner-at each state's option.
Recipients will collect benefits for a lifetime maximum of five years, although the state may exempt up to 20 percent of its clients who continue to experience unusual hardships.
"Welfare will no longer be a way of life," said Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican National Committee, who is trying to use welfare reform as an election issue against Clinton and prop up Bob Dole's presidential bid.
But, Democrats insist that denying benefits to legal immigrants is bad public policy.
According to a recent study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, as many as 830,000 noncitizens in California would lose government-funded health insurance.
"This legislation would accelerate the growth of California's pool of uninsured residents, which already includes nearly one-fourth of the state's nonelderly residents," said E. Richard Brown, lead author of the report and the center's executive director.
He said that with a large number of people without preventive health care, "There will be more communicable disease, more problems for U.S. citizen babies born to immigrant mothers ... and greater strain on emergency rooms."
An immigration bill now under a House-Senate conference committee also would deny Medicaid and other health-care benefits to legal immigrants.
In California, about 92,000 elderly immigrants are on Medi-Cal, the state-funded health insurance. All could lose medical coverage if the welfare bill is approved.
According to the UCLA researchers, nearly one in five immigrants under 65 in California is covered by Medi-Cal. About 1.1 million immigrants are on Medi-Cal.
"This Congress is balancing the budget on the backs of immigrants," said Karen Narasaki, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Health Forum. "Legal immigrants currently receive 5 percent of all welfare assistance, yet over 40 percent of the cuts are being made by denying them any help in time of need."
Feinstein and Boxer offered the amendment to soften the blow. They proposed to apply the immigration provision of the bill to future immigrants, but it was defeated 46 to 52.
Two proposals by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts to exempt immigrant children and at least defer the Medicaid ban on immigrant children for two years were also defeated.