Posted on 03/30/2005 10:09:24 AM PST by StayAt HomeMother
Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) signed a measure Tuesday that tightens laws prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits, including Medicaid and public assistance.
On the last day the governor could act on the nearly 950 bills that passed the Republican-controlled General Assembly, Warner waded into an issue that divided the legislature this year: what public benefits and other services the state should offer to illegal immigrants, a population that has nearly tripled in Virginia since 1996, according to federal estimates.
The legislation -- House Bill 1798 and Senate Bill 1143 -- requires state and local governments to verify whether anyone who requests non-emergency public benefits is in the United States legally. ... bills that would have banned illegal immigrants from the state's public colleges and universities and barred them from receiving workers' compensation benefits, but those measures failed.
Supporters of the legislation said Virginia's public resources should be used only for legal immigrants, particularly as the cost of many services, such as Medicaid, continues to rise.
Warner said the pair of bills … merely codified existing federal law, which prevents illegal immigrants from receiving certain public benefits.
The legislation … applies only to illegal immigrants 19 and older. Immigrants of any age still will be eligible for emergency aid, such as disaster relief and pregnancy tests.
… Many opponents also argued that there was very little evidence that illegal immigrants were raiding public services wholesale.
"There may have been some election-year activities surrounding the bill," Warner said.
Several activists said Warner's signing of the bill sent a dangerous message … "It serves no other purpose but to fan the flames of anti-immigrant sentiment . . . and that is simply wrong." … it will create onerous red tape for people here legally.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Note this does NOT apply to students. However, children of military pay out of state tuition rates to schools like William and Mary, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech.
The legislation … applies only to illegal immigrants 19 and older. Immigrants of any age still will be eligible for emergency aid, such as disaster relief and pregnancy tests.
Well it is a start! Keep up the momentum.
Not only that but Gov. Warner has gotten a lot of favorable press for signing this piece of popular legislation. Maybe the Republicans could gather a clue and figure out that this issue plays well with voters.
Gov. Warner had little choice but to sign this bill seeing as the Republican dominated Virginia legislature passed it with a VETO PROOF MAJORITY.
In the recent past, Gov. Warner has vetoed some other good anti-illegal alien legislation including not giving them instate college tuition.
The bills "that would have banned illegal immigrants ... from receiving workers' compensation benefits ... failed."
Eventhough we passed prop 200 in Az, the democrat Gov and democrat AG here have refused to enforce it. Tancredo for president.
Eventhough we passed prop 200 in Az, the democrat Gov and democrat AG here have refused to enforce it. Tancredo for president.
Richmond ping.
Our doofus governor gets one right for a change.
Damn missed that part.....
You mean like Timmy Kaine on his knees screaming "pleaaaaaaazzzeeee don't screw me on this one?"
So, if someone applies for aid and it is determined that they are not in the country legally are they deported?
Since when is a pregnancy test an emergency?
Which makes it all the more annoying that children of military pay out-of-state tuition rates. [The theory is that military dependents should go back to their "home" states for college - even if they they rarely, if ever, lived there.]
Yet "undocumented residents" get in-state rates. Go figure.
LOL - what a vision that conjures up!
ROTFLMAO ... Are you kidding? ... These good hearted people only came here to take the welfare aid that Americans don't want.
About the only way an illegal alien cam convince President Bush's ICE to deport them is to commit two or three felonies. Usually the second or third conviction as a child rapist will get an illegal deported. Not much short of that.
Oh, and single issue people like Tancredo do not national elections. (See: John Kerry. Vote for me, I'm not Bush.)
Disgusting.
There was a good article about this -- I think it was a letter to the editor in the Richmond Times-Dispatch -- just the other day.
Those schools want to be among the elite. They tax me in order to get there, then they deny admission to my neighborhood children in favor of others.
It would be better if the schools that do this were privatized. That way they can do what they want without making me pay for it.
I may need to go walk my dog so I can vomit.
I said it is a good start! ;)
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