Posted on 12/07/2004 3:54:01 AM PST by Liz
Since he arrived in Brooklyn as a refugee from Ukraine seven years ago, Boris Khrapunskiy, a 97-year-old widower, has subsisted on federal and state disability payments, as elderly or disabled poor people in New York State have done for the past 60 years. But in June, to his shock, he received a letter from the government saying his benefits would be cut off until he became a United States citizen.
The action was the result of a 1996 decision by Congress to eliminate Supplemental Security Income, or S.S.I., for most immigrants who entered the country after Aug. 22 of that year, and to set a seven-year time limit for others - mainly refugees - receiving the welfare payment. New York State echoed those restrictions in a 1998 law denying state aid to anyone ineligible for federal benefits because of immigration status.
Congress reasoned that seven years was long enough to achieve citizenship. But time is up for the first wave of refugees and those granted asylum, who number as many as 48,000 around the country, including 7,000 in New York. Most are refugees from the former Soviet Union; others fled persecution in Asia, Bosnia, Cuba or Africa. Hundreds have already lost their benefits.
Today, Mr. Khrapunskiy will be the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit expected to be filed in State Supreme Court, charging that New York State is violating the federal and state Constitutions by using alien status to deny impoverished elderly, blind or disabled residents the lawful standard of need, which in New York has been set at $651 a month.
The case, brought by a coalition of lawyers for the poor, argues that many refugees here have been caught short by the deadline because of growing backlogs in naturalization since the terror attacks of September 2001, and infirmities of age and illness that prevented them from taking the citizenship test.
Among the 20 plaintiffs who have signed affidavits in the lawsuit, some said they had been waiting for a citizenship interview for as long as four years, or that they had to reapply when immigration authorities lost their documents. Meanwhile, they are reduced to public assistance grants of $352 a month, too little to even cover their rent. Many are borrowing from hard-pressed relatives to stave off eviction.
"The state has established a minimum income level that is necessary for people who are elderly and disabled to live on, but it denies that same level of assistance to some people just because they're immigrants," said Barbara Weiner, a lawyer with the Greater Upstate Law Project, one of several legal-service programs for the poor involved in the lawsuit. "That violates the state's constitutional duty to take care of poor people without making distinctions that have nothing to do with their need."
The lawyers point out that in 2001, New York's highest court struck down a similar state restriction on nonemergency Medicaid coverage for the immigrant poor, saying that it violated the federal Constitution's guarantee of equal protection and the state Constitution's requirement that the state help the needy. The decision, which also said that the state had usurped the federal government's exclusive responsibility for regulating immigration, will dictate a similar finding in this lawsuit, they contend.
Jack Madden, a spokesman for the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said that Commissioner Robert Doar, who is named as defendant, would not comment before seeing the legal papers.
But the plaintiffs' lawyers themselves acknowledge that if they are successful, the long-term result could be expensive for the state, unless Congress extends aid to lawful immigrants. The court could require the state, which now adds $87 to the federal monthly share of an S.S.I. grant, to pay more than three times as much to fill the gap between the $352 basic grant for the able-bodied and the $651 standard of need set for the elderly, blind or disabled.
In addition to the special categories of immigrants granted seven years of benefits by Congress, the lawsuit also encompasses the growing number of other elderly or disabled legal immigrants in the state who were never eligible for federal S.S.I. at all because they entered the country after welfare reform and have not yet obtained citizenship.
Some states, including Illinois, recently created temporary special programs to fill the gap for refugees reaching the time limit, while pushing for Congress to reconsider the deadline. But bills that would have lengthened the time limit died this year.
"Of course all the states say this is a federal responsibility," said Daniel Lesser, a senior lawyer with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty, based in Chicago. "But still, what are we going to do? Who in the world wants to say that an elderly or disabled person who's fled persecution, in whatever form, should now be rendered destitute through no fault of their own?"
In New York, those already cut from benefits include Sura Simonova, who is 90 and almost blind, and Yelena Bragilevskaya, 76, who wrote in her affidavit, "I am very grateful if the judge can help me get more money so we can pay the rent and buy more food."
Another plaintiff, Marianna Popova, 67, said that her husband died of cancer while waiting for citizenship, and that she waited more than four years for a green-card interview. Now, six years after she first applied, she has yet to receive one. In July her S.S.I. was ended, and she is now four months behind on her rent of $406 a month.
"I do not know how I will survive," she wrote in her affidavit, adding that she was immobilized by two surgeries. "I cannot afford to cover my most basic needs. I am worried that I will be evicted and become homeless."
In Brooklyn, Mr. Khrapunskiy, a former baker who pointed out his favorite World War II medal - one for bravery in the battle of Stalingrad - said that he was now constantly fearful of eviction from his one-room apartment, and had suffered a stroke from the stress during the summer.
"I'm not planning to go back there," he added of Ukraine, recalling anti-Semitic attacks that kept him from speaking Yiddish for 70 years. "The United States is my country now."
Now, the NYT propaganda machine is at full tilt----using afflicted elderly as examples, when the facts speak otherwise.
One TV news report chronicled the lifestyle of an unemployed 30'ish Russian immigrant---a trained engineer--- picking up tax-subsidized government checks while his wife was lolling around getting her hair and nails done courtesy of US taxpayers......who are the bulk of Russians riding the US gravy train.
These Russian people are scary. They have a stranglehold on our government and our laws.
The Russians arriving here are treated like royalty, with tax-subsidized government grants, tax-subsidized housing, and job set-asides waiting for them......jobs that are taken from taxpaying born-Americans.
Russian television runs a nightly TV show that openly explains all the possible US giveaway programs, how to fill out the forms etc, which US offices to apply to, to get US tax dollars. The sense of entitlement is outrageous. There is no shame at all, just a free ride on the tax-subsidized gravy train. A little more devious is the technique of the 'stopover in Israel' in order to take advantage of the generous mortgage and grants for new residents (also subsidized by US taxpayers). Russians with dubious ties to the Jewish faith (one out of four grandparents does the trick) go to Israel, grab all the monies possible, rent or sell the house, and quickly move to the States and get on the gravy train here. And this is all legal.
Ask your Congressman or US Senator to give you the informaton from GAO reports, Congressional Record articles and the like, that have statistics on Russian immigration, and lists the benefits allotted under so-called "political asylum" laws.
And tell them the gravy train must be stopped, once and for all.
Since he arrived in Brooklyn as a refugee from Ukraine seven years ago
What was happening in Ukraine seven years ago that he's a refugee - something similar to what we now have in Sudan? Anyway, I cannot imagine a 90 years old Ukrainian going to the US on his own. I'm sure he was brought over by his relatives, and all this time they have, most likely, been simply using (or abusing) the refugee system.
Supposedly, these people are living in NYC on $651 a month.
This is so bogus.
They are obviously not revealing all their assets or sources of income in order to leech off the taxpayers for still more freee money.
And these leeches have the gall to sue the govt to keep the gravy train running.
......who are the bulk of Russians riding the US gravy train.
What the h-ll does this mean?
These Russian people are scary. They have a stranglehold on our government and our laws.
You must be really nuts to think that ANY immigrant in ANY country has a hold on that country's government and laws.
What happened to you? Lost a job to a Russian immigrant?
The Russians arriving here are treated like royalty, with tax-subsidized government grants, tax-subsidized housing, and job set-asides waiting for them......jobs that are taken from taxpaying born-Americans.
You are rally off the cliff here: take these words back, or name specific set-asides that you allege.
YOu are engaged in a blatant defamation of large group of people here.
And, you are incorrect to the point of being silly: the lare wave of immigration from the Soviet Union is one of the mode successful we have seen. Practically zero crime, almost 100% employment of working-age immigrants, etc. Incidentally, like Cubans, most Russians vote Republican.
Prejudice is a bad thing, Liz.
grrrrrrrrr
Most? How about all. Your tax dollars at play.
We are dumb enough to give it away with both hands...
Not to defend handouts, but this is probably true.
Now imagine what's gonna' happen when U.S. Immigration is swamped with those 12 million "guest worker" visa applications (there are purportedly about only 1 million various applications in the system right now).
What a joke.
As to this guy's family support, since he came as a refugee there is no need for an "affidavit of financial support" from a family member. Refugee and "family based" visas are entirely different visa categories, with different rules and requirements.
Duh. Just as soon as we get back up on the turnip truck, we the people, will have to forget everything we know and read, and go back to being silent suckers for these "paid victims." Duh.
We're such a generous country. Never mind we have a budget deficit in the trillions. Wouldn't want to thrust non-American geezers out into the cold. <sarcasm
ILLEGAL MEXICANS IN THE USA!!!
(Sniffle) Gosh, reading one of the posts here, I get the distinct feeling that the rest of us will never, ever know how wonderful it is to be as "perfect" as Russian immigrants.......like Ceasar's wife.....above reproach.....when every means to soak the taxpayers is justified because they're self-anointed "victims" .....(sob).
Top ten reasons for enforcing America's immigration laws
Anchor Babies: born in the USA - Enormous taxpayer costs
The Poverty of the Rest of the World
Illegal Immigration and America's Loss of the Rule of Law
Immigration's Riveting Question to Americans
Chilling Costs Of Illegal Alien Migration
Chilling Costs of Illegal Alien Immigration
Study: Immigration Biggest Contributor to Sprawl (87% of Growth Attributed to Immigrants)
Exactly.
As it should be.
Nice work. Thanks for the helpful links.
BTW, which link(s) dish the dirt on the Russian tax-suckers?
Unconscionable.
As I said up top, these people are scary.......the self-anointed "professional victims" have a stranglehold on our government.
And stupid politicians like Teddy sit still while they rape our government.
TW: You must be really nuts to think that ANY immigrant in ANY country has a hold on that country's government and laws,
Varon: ILLEGAL MEXICANS IN THE USA!!!
Illegal immigrants, whether Mexican or not, have no power. Their benefits and presently unlimited arrogance in using our country are not a consequence of their power: this all is happening because our own citizens have lost hteir traditional values. The country is paralyzed: one half of it, the conservatives, want to close our borders; and another half lives in the la-la land, where "we are one people and one world." As a result, the government does nothing. And this, in turn, is use by the illegals to their advantage. They are using OUR paralysis, but this is not power.
The statement is really ridiculous, if you think of it for a moment. It's like saying, "Children have a hold of their parent and control them in any way they want." Very silly. YOu sometimes see families like that, but this is only when the parents are lost and don't know how to do parenting (then they too become paralyzed, and the child takes advantage).
Neither you nor Liz probably know a single immigrant. As a group, people that do not know the culture and the language, and who do not have a support group that you have --- classmates, uncles, parents --- and who do not have capital CANNOT take advantage of a host country. Exceptionally talented individuals can (witness Schwarzenegger) but not a group. You are calling night a day.
What a wonderful place to live..Look at the headlines from last night.. The senate voted to override Pataki's veto and will raise the minimum wage..Erie county raising sales tax to 9.25% to cover cost of medicaid.
we're doomed....................to complete and absolute failure at the hands of the democrats and rino's........
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