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Immigrant Victims of Abuse Are Illegally Denied Benefits, Suit Says
New York Times ^ | December 13, 2005 | NINA BERNSTEIN

Posted on 12/13/2005 5:29:24 AM PST by infocats

Hundreds of battered immigrant women and children are being illegally denied food stamps and other aid because of programming errors in New York welfare computers and faulty staff training, according to legal papers that poverty lawyers plan to file in federal court today.

The lawsuit is a last resort, the lawyers said, because city and state officials have failed to fix systemic problems that force many women to choose between staying safe and feeding their families, despite government policies aimed at supporting them until they can get on their feet.

At its most basic level, the problem lies in the pull-down computer menu that caseworkers use when they enter information about a noncitizen applying for aid. The list of eligible immigration categories mistakenly omits "battered qualified alien," the category in which these women and children fit. So workers systematically reject them, with faulty state training manuals compounding the problem, the lawyers said.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS:
Will the madness ever end?
1 posted on 12/13/2005 5:29:25 AM PST by infocats
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To: infocats
Sure. If Uncle Sugar is denying illegal immigrants benefits, it must be a defect in the system.
2 posted on 12/13/2005 5:31:54 AM PST by Doohickey (If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice...I will choose freewill.)
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To: Doohickey
Re-read the article. The DV victims are in the US legally on work visas, but can only be entered into NY's database being as here illegally.

Believe me, I'm as anti-illegal-immigrant as anyone.

3 posted on 12/13/2005 5:40:15 AM PST by gieriscm
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To: infocats

"Immigrant Victims of Abuse Are Illegally Denied Benefits, Suit Says"

Aw-w-w!


4 posted on 12/13/2005 5:40:24 AM PST by RoadTest (Religion never saved a soul - that's Jesus' job.)
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To: Doohickey

In this case, these are not illegal aliens. There is a viswa class specifically for victims of domestic abuse. It's primarily for women and children who are abused by their spouses. Domestic violence is one grounds for deportation for legal immigrants and can get their green cards cancelled, too. Since the immigration status of the spouse is often attached to the immigration status of the violence purpetrator, there is relief from deportation for the victims so these people don't have to get shipped back with the abuser where it would be even worse for them. The strange loophole in the law is that illegal aliens cannot be deported on domestic violence because they have to be legally admitted into the country in order to be deported under the 1996 immigration changes. Someone goofed with the wording.


5 posted on 12/13/2005 5:40:35 AM PST by doc30 (Democrats are to morals what and Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
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To: infocats

a noncitizen applying for aid


------Hey, you got to become a citizen to sponge off of us United States taxpayers. And then stand in line. Sorry. (sarc)


6 posted on 12/13/2005 5:41:10 AM PST by WasDougsLamb (I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man)
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To: infocats

So all one has to do is to claim that they are battered and they can collect benefits?


7 posted on 12/13/2005 5:49:40 AM PST by sportutegrl (People who say, "All I know is . . ." really mean, "All I want you to focus on is . . .")
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To: infocats

WGAS? Not me...


8 posted on 12/13/2005 5:52:52 AM PST by add925 (The Left = Xenophobes in Denial)
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To: sportutegrl

We really are idiots...We CAN"T take care of the world....just a few will do


9 posted on 12/13/2005 5:53:01 AM PST by Youngman442002
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To: infocats
If they are here illegally then they should not receive ONE DIME of tax money. Let the left-wing lawyers give them their money that they are collecting for filing this law suite.
10 posted on 12/13/2005 6:02:03 AM PST by YOUGOTIT
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To: YOUGOTIT
Didn't Jimmy Carter initialize and pass a bill allowing illegals to be eligible for SS benefits?
11 posted on 12/13/2005 6:04:34 AM PST by poobear (Imagine a world of liberal silence!)
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To: YOUGOTIT
If they are here illegally then they should not receive ONE DIME of tax money.

Agreed. That's not the case here. These are legal immigrants who are victims of DV, doing the right thing for themselves & their kids by trying to get away from their abusers, who need help and are being denied it.

12 posted on 12/15/2005 5:52:33 AM PST by gieriscm
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