Posted on 05/01/2013 6:25:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Gang of Eight’s immigration bill could make illegal immigrants eligible for state and local welfare benefits almost immediately after it is passed, according to Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), one of the proposal’s leading critics. Further, he contends, some particular categories of amnestied immigrants and their relatives would be eligible for federal benefits long before the 13-year waiting period usually cited by the bill’s advocates, such as Senator Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.), who challenged Sessions’s argument in a press release on Tuesday. These are just a couple of reasons why Sessions and others are calling on the Gang of Eight to allow amendments to the legislation.
Under the proposed law, millions of illegal immigrants would become eligible to apply for provisional legal status within six months, or once the secretary of homeland security has submitted a plan to increase border enforcement. Immigrants who are granted such status “shall be considered lawfully present” in the United States, per the text of the bill, at which point they would also be eligible to receive a variety of state and local welfare benefits. This is far sooner than the 13-year timeframe that proponents of the bill often cite as the time before beneficiaries of the bill could receive government benefits.
According to a March 2012 survey by the Department of Health and Human Services, “lawfully present” immigrants can qualify for cash-assistance programs in 22 states, health-coverage programs in 15 states, and food-assistance programs in 7 states. Sessions and other critics of the Gang’s bill are concerned about the strain on state and local budgets that a dramatic increase in the number of lawfully present immigrants might mean.
“Eligibility for state and local benefits could be immediate in the dozens of states that offer cash, medical, and food assistance through state-only programs to ‘lawfully present’ aliens,” Sessions said in a statement Tuesday. He also explained that legally present immigrants would begin building eligibility for federal retirement benefits: “The long-term costs, particularly for Social Security and Medicare, would be enormous, with millions of lower-income illegal immigrants receiving more in net benefits then they contribute.” A notable loophole in the Gang’s legislation explicitly prohibits DHS from considering the likelihood that an applicant for provisional legal status will become a “public charge” — defined as any individual who is “primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance, or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense.” Critics fear that if a significant number of immigrants meeting that definition are given legal status, state and local government could face an immediate financial burden, and one that could worsen over time.
Moreover, under the bill, millions of immigrants who are currently in the country illegally could also become eligible for federal benefits sooner than advertised. The law would also give “DREAM” deferred-action beneficiaries and agricultural workers a fast-track path to citizenship (five years), at which point they would be eligible for nearly all forms of federal assistance.
Agriculture workers in particular would be more likely to seek and qualify for such benefits, critics charge, due to their relatively low levels of income and education. DREAM beneficiaries are presumably slightly better off, since they are ostensibly required to have attended college for at least two years or served in the military for at least four years. However, the DHS secretary may waive the education or military requirement if she determines that an immigrant applicant has shown “compelling circumstances” for his or her failure to satisfy them. Further, the law does not contain an employment or income requirement for such applicants to be granted citizenship.
After the five years it would take those agriculture workers and DREAM beneficiaries to become citizens, their immediate family members would then be eligible to enter the country and apply for provisional legal status. Again, the “public charge” consideration would not apply to these relatives, and the DHS secretary would have broad discretion to ease the migration of family members in order to avoid “hardship” — a term that appears repeatedly throughout the legislation but is never defined. Critics of the bill worry that this could result in a “second wave” of immigrants who would be eligible for all federal benefits.
Senator Jeff Flake recently dismissed these concerns by arguing that illegal immigrants are already eligible for welfare benefits under current law. But that’s part of the problem, critics contend, and just another reason why immigration reform deserves needs a more thorough examination than it’s been given.
“These are only some of the many flaws in the legislation,” Sessions explained. And, to him, that’s “why the rush to pass it before people know what’s in it is so dangerous.”
— Andrew Stiles is a political reporter for National Review Online.
Maybe they, too, see that the only way to reform the system is to collapse it utterly.
All of the legalized immigrants will be allowed to bring in their extended families too.
Democrat vote buying scheme is a complete success. I’ll be preparing for the worst. It’s only a matter of time before the whole thing collapses.
“All of the legalized immigrants will be allowed to bring in their extended families too.”
They’ll also be able to vote in many local elections.
Add this to the parts above that explain how these amnesty recips will be getting state and federal tax-payer benefits under the Rubio scam bill.
Rubio : ‘ This bill is so tough on the undocumented who apply and qualify that they will wish they never came here.
They get NO government benefits for 10 years. My GOOD friends Sen Schumer, Durbin and McCain assure me of that’
Bye Rubio, you outright lied about these things and that rules you out to me.
The system won’t collapse until you’re paying the 100% rate on your income.
Besides, there’s always death panels. And sales to China.
Most will shrug long before 100% is reached.
Hope you’re right but I see no reason to believe it.
I have news for ya: They already are on welfare if they want.
Forged documents are easy to get.
The military does not allow illegal aliens to join. How can any "DREAM" beneficiary have legitimate military service?
The little bastard community organizer-in-chief knows how to impliment the Cloward-Piven strategy, and he’s doing it. When Pelicanosi said ‘we have to pass the healthcare law to see what’s in it’, she was lying, as all democrips do. She and Tom Daschund knew what was in it, they’d been putting it together for several years just waiting until they could clamp it onto the America they want destroyed so their new world order can ‘tackle’ hold.
In Jan. this year I had to take Mom to the local emergency.
We got there at 2 p.m. and didn’t see a doctor until 9:30 p.m.
THIS is a 90 yr old woman with a heart condition.
The place will filled with these freeloaders who got the message that it was OK to go and get treatment for free. The emergency room is THEIR new family doctor!
RE: The emergency room is THEIR new family doctor!
Hey, but it’s free !! /s
Drop calf a few kids and they are on EVERYTHING already.
The classic method is don’t get married but live together. The kids get everything from WIC to Medicaid to Foodstamps. The old man is there working off the books for cash and pays the difference for anything not covered.
I have seen plenty of them riding around in 40K SUVS at the grocery store pull out the food stamps to pay for groceries. 3-4 kids in tow.
It’s a total joke and taxpayers are footing the bill. You know, those taxpayers that are losing their houses and watching public services be devastated.
What laws?
Obomba will just x-out what he doesn’t like.
And issue a decree of EO-—to suckup to his voting blocs swimming the Rio Grande as we type.
“The classic method is don’t get married but live together. The kids get everything from WIC to Medicaid to Foodstamps. The old man is there working off the books for cash and pays the difference for anything not covered.”
And, IIRC the number correctly, the total they are sending back to good ol’ home country Mexico $20 BILLION per year. IMHO because of this, we’re supporting the families and anchor babies here AND their families in Mexico. Further, Obummer is advertising and working with the Mexican gov’t to advertise free foodstamps to illegals - just come across the border (there are articles/threads on FR regarding same). Lastly, as others have mentioned on this and other threads, it’s breaking our education and healthcares systems.
Fundamentally transforming America.
Someone send this to the useful-idiot libertarians for socialism who support amnesty.
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