Why Are Illegal Aliens on U.S. Welfare?

Why Are Illegal Aliens on U.S. Welfare?
May 8, 2009
Some people mistakenly think that immigrants are not eligible for welfare. Several years ago, Congress did attempt to render immigrants ineligible for most forms of welfare. However, subsequent backpedaling by Congress and the executive branch has undone most of those reforms. Furthermore, many immigrant families get welfare through the eligibility of their U.S. citizen children. (It is also important to realize that even when immigrants are ineligible for federal welfare programs, the burden of their support is simply shifted over to the state and local welfare agencies.)

Refugees, asylees, and all amnestied illegal aliens are exempt from the public charge requirement.3 Congress has decided that the American people will serve as the sponsors for these immigrants and pick up the tab for their support.

All other immigrants must pass a public charge test and have a U.S. sponsor or sponsors willing to pledge their income to support them. Before a potential immigrant receives an immigration visa, American consular officers are supposed to evaluate whether he or she is likely to become a public charge, and, if so, to deny the visa. The consular officer is supposed to take into account a variety of factors: the amount of support the sponsor can give, the resources and skills of the applicant, and any special conditions (such as age or infirmity) that might affect the applicant's need for support. The Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 set the new legal standard for the evaluation: the sponsor of the applicant must have an annual income of at least 125 percent of the federally designated poverty level. There are several problems with this standard:

The sponsorship income level, only 25 percent higher than the poverty level, is so low that it does not prevent immigrants from going on welfare; in fact, it almost guarantees it. Say a sponsor begins with an income of 200 percent of poverty level and is, therefore, not considered "legally poor." But after splitting that income with the immigrant, each will be at 100 percent of the poverty level. Where before we had one non-poor person, now we have two poor people. Since eligibility for some welfare programs kicks in before one's income drops to 125 percent of poverty level, immigrants can easily wind up on welfare.

While immigrants who receive welfare can be deported for violating the conditions under which they were admitted, this provision is rarely enforced; in fact, only twelve people have been deported under this provision since 1980.4 Administrative rulings have held that an immigrant cannot be held responsible for receiving welfare unless the welfare agencies have sent the immigrant a bill for their services, demanded payment, and been refused payment.5 Since welfare agencies do not do this, it is virtually impossible for an immigrant to be charged with violating the public charge provisions that can lead to deportation.

Furthermore, numerous forms of welfare are not considered under the public charge test, including food stamps, pre-natal care, nutrition programs, housing assistance, energy assistance, job training programs, child care services, free or reduced school lunch, public shelters, health clinics, Medicaid, and any cash welfare programs that are not the family's sole source of income.6 This insulates immigrants from being considered public charges unless they are completely dependent on welfare.

http://www.rightsidenews.com/2009050846 ... lfare.html

Thanks for posting this. It is an example of what gubbernment intervention has done. And it just proves that one size (as far as income) does not fit all. And in the wisdom of so many gubbernments, there are always loopholes where the really smart can figure out how to cheat.

The Welfare System, or the Social Services System, was originally set up to provide temporary aid to all U.S. Citizens who have paid into the system through their SSI deductions of income tax. Social Security deductions were meant to provide retirement income for all U.S. Citizens who have paid into the system through SSI deductions of their income tax. Those benefits were meant for no-one else except for those who have paid into the system.

Note that the keyword here is "temporary." Welfare Assistance was not meant to go on forever, even if the individual paid into the system. The Social Services System was a program that was designed to assist the U.S. Citizen until that individual returned to the work force and it could only be applied for after Unemployment Insurance ran out. Social Security, on the other hand, was meant to be a savings of earnings so that the individual would have a permanent income upon retirement.

Over the years, however, legislation was created to impact the Welfare System in such a way that money would go out where it was not meant to be spent. I'm sorry to say that most of that legislation had been passed by Democrat lawmakers.

The abuses of the Social Services System by Illegal Migrants are numerous and have been illustrated in countless articles in ALIPAC's website. The Anchor Baby situation and the Identity Theft incidents are primary examples of how Illegal Migrants have abused the Social Services System over and over again and all at a high cost to the U.S. Taxpayer. There are even some legislators today who want to open up the Social Services System, inclusive of the Social Security System, to Illegal Migrants, that is, those people who have not paid into it, thereby creating a severe drain on the system itself. And of course Mexico wants their Illegal Migrants to have access to our Social Security benefits... even though they have not paid into it. It all has to stop.

Unfortunately, Social Services abuse does not stop with Illegal Migrants. Even some factions of Legal Immigrants have accessed Social Services benefits even though they have never paid into the system. This usually happens if those immigrants are refugees from their own countries who would face danger if they returned to those countries. This is a different situation than that of the Illegal Migrants, but nonetheless, the income that has been deducted into the Social Services System from U.S. Taxpaying Citizens should be held in trust only for those U.S. Taxpaying Citizens. If we must provide refugee assistance to those who immigrate into this country with the true desire of becoming citizens, then that assistance should come from other funding, if at all. After all, most immigrants of the past came into this country and supported themselves... and learned the English language, too!

The U.S. Social Services System is now seen by many non-American citizens as a means by which to have a free ride; as opposed to its original intent of providing temporary assitance to the U.S. Taxpaying Citizen. That, too, is not limited to non-Americans, for unfortunately, there are many American citizens who would prefer to stay home and let the U.S. Taxpayers take care of them. In a way, the welfare system has inadvertently fostered the desire of many non-Americans and some Americans to become indigent, purposeless leeches of society, rather than promoting the desire to become responsible, self-sufficient and productive citizens.

This is why it is important for our government to initiate dramatic overhauls in the system itself... for the benefit of the U.S. Taxpaying Citizens who have paid into it... and for no-one else.