Posted on 01/09/2002 5:00:20 PM PST by RCW2001
January 9, 2002White House Shifts on Welfare Law; Food Stamps for Legal ImmigrantsBy ROBERT PEARASHINGTON, Jan. 9 The Bush administration proposed today to restore food stamps to legal immigrants, whose eligibility for benefits was severely restricted by the 1996 welfare law. The White House said that in the budget President Bush will send to Congress in early February, at least 363,000 people would qualify for food stamps under a proposal that would cost the federal government $2.1 billion over 10 years. The proposal, or something like it, has an excellent chance of becoming law. The Senate is considering such changes as part of a far-reaching bill to reauthorize farm and nutrition programs. The welfare bill passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 made immigrants ineligible for food stamps and many other forms of assistance financed with federal money. Supporters of the ban, most of them Republicans, argued that federal benefits drew immigrants to the United States and then discouraged their work effort after they got here. But today, with the country in a recession that is hurting immigrants, and fighting a war on terrorism that has targeted some immigrants, Mr. Bush is looking for ways to show his commitment to them as well as to addressing domestic problems a transition his father failed to make effectively a decade ago after the Persian Gulf war. Moreover, many of those who would benefit from the food stamps are Hispanic Americans, whom the White House is ardently courting. As Mr. Clinton did as well, President Bush is selectively disclosing parts of his budget in advance specifically, those proposals likely to win political support for the president. Antihunger groups and Hispanic groups were enthusiastic about Mr. Bush's proposal, without suggesting any ulterior motive. "This is an enormous step forward, for which the president should be congratulated," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group. "Mr. Bush did not speak out on this in the presidential campaign, and he had not done so since he assumed office." As governor of Texas and as president, Mr. Bush has taken pride in his good relations with Hispanic Americans, although the Republican Party is split on how aggressively to go after Hispanic voters. Some Republicans have alienated Hispanic voters with proposals for a restrictionist immigration policy. But Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser, said earlier this year that capturing a bigger share of Hispanic voters was "our mission and our goal" and would require assiduous work by "all of us in every way." Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the federal government has detained more than 1,100 noncitizens for questioning and has stepped up enforcement of the immigration laws. Mr. Bush has insisted that he is waging war on terrorists, not immigrants, and his food stamp proposal can be cited to support that claim. James D. Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, an antihunger group, said: "It's really positive that the administration wants to extend food stamp benefits to this group of legal immigrants. We are delighted the administration is supporting this." The economy is much worse now than in 1996, when Mr. Clinton signed the welfare bill. "Immigrants have been hit hard by the economic downturn," Ms. Munoz said, "and there's no safety net for those who arrived after 1996." Welfare and food stamp rolls have plummeted since 1996, and members of Congress express much less concern now about being overwhelmed with the programs' cost, even though budget surpluses have evaporated and Mr. Bush has emphasized holding down costs. Also, advocates for immigrants have made some progress on Capitol Hill by appealing to the American sense of justice. "This will restore justice to people who work hard, pay taxes and play an incredibly important role in our economy," Ms. Munoz said. "It is unreasonable for somebody who works hard and is laid off to have no access to food for his family." |
All those people who think immigrants are going to save the Social Security program need to read this, that what really will happen is the taxpayers will be supporting them instead. There should be no welfare or food stamps, the minute you do that they tell all their relatives and friends back home and then they come looking for the same.
I should have put my sarcasm tag in.
Anyway - we just started shipping welfare to Cuba as we speak. So we support them here and it seems like we are adding more places to where we send it.
Hope everyone is working harder. The wives have to work to help support the family. Maybe we should put the kids to work now.
Hey if GW see it in his political interests to further dilute the ethnic European majority in America by abrogating his responsibilities to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws then he can kiss off my vote and many other conservatives too. He better figure out quick which side he wants to be on.
He already figured it out. He just didn't count on 9/11 slowing him down on this issue.
WarHawk42
That seems to be the emerging picture. Remember a month before 9/11 when GW was talking about a full amnesty for illegal aliens? LOL. Even Regan fell into that trap and it resulted in even MORE illegal immigration. The Mexicans understand this game well. They know our politicos have no backbone because they don't want to be called racists and of course like that gravy train of corporate money in their coffers. So what do our politicians do? They sell us out and the media censors the news in the hopes that the average American Rube doesn't figure it out. What a racket.
I remember it very well. Don't be surprised when he stars pushing it hard again. As soon as the dust settles he will be at full song again.
Have you seen a serious effort to secure our borders? How about a serious effort to round up illegal aliens from all country's and deporting them? No? They don't seem to be able to even round up the ones from terrorist country's. Don't look for any serious efforts in any of this, not unless we have more terrorist attacks, which we may.
WarHawk42
It strikes me that President Bush's policy with regard to Hispanics has not been that different from his policy when he was governor of Texas. He came out against many of the ballot measures that Pete Wilson pushed in California. For that matter, Bush said, "I'm a uniter, not a divider" and bragged of being able to make deals with Democrats.
It doesn't seem to me that Bush isn't being much different of a President than he said he was going to be. Maybe someone from Texas say how accurate this assessment is.
Pure psychobabble. The problem is that you can't make a simple distinction between a factual claim and an endorsement.
I've been accused of worse.:) Of course it could all be cleared up if you made your position clear.
WarHawk42
That's pretty much the way I see it. And if we do have more terrorist attacks, this time around GW will rightfully get the blame for not applying the laws he was sworn to uphold. Even the duplicitous democrats will flame him if they see votes by doing so.
Excellent point Regulator. It would seem so. I'm making immigration my number one issue in future elections. If I can't tell the difference between either candidate I won't vote.
If it happens again he should get the blame. Only a fool thought it couldn't happen the first time considering the governments lax immigration control. It was only a matter of time and 9/11 was the time.
The first priority should have been the safety of this country from within. Afghanistan wasn't going anywhere. The borders and weeding out the bad seeds already here should have been the most important item on the agenda. Unfortunately it still isn't.
WarHawk42
Ditto.
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