Thread: Immigration Reform And The Food Stamps You're Paying For

http://vdare.com/guzzardi/060609_wic.htm

June 09, 2006

Immigration Reform And The Food Stamps You're Paying For
By Joe Guzzardi

Here’s a slice of life example of why HR 4437, the House of Representatives’ enforcement-first approach to immigration reform, must prevail over the Senate’s treasonous alternative, S.2611.

Earlier this week, I was shopping at Food-4-Less, a giant supermarket warehouse with stores throughout California’s San Joaquin Valley.

In front of me in the check out line stood a young Mexican couple and their two infants. The woman was pregnant.

Neither spoke English nor looked like they were, as our foes are so fond of saying about illegal aliens, "paying taxes and contributing to the US economy."

The couple paid their grocery tab with WIC coupons.

(Brief summary about what WIC is and who qualifies: WIC is the special supplemental nutrition program for pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, infants and children up to five years old—even, of course, the American-born children of illegal aliens, thanks to the “anchor baby” misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. Those who qualify automatically include any family members receiving Food Stamps, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as long as their income does not exceed more than 185 percent of the Federal poverty income guidelines. Others not already receiving these benefits may apply also. In 2006, approximately 8.5 million people participate in WIC at an estimated cost of $ 5 billion, up from $2 billion in 1990. The General Accounting Office has identified significant levels of fraud in WIC.)

I watched the checker arrange the groceries into different groups: dairy products, juices and baby formula, peanut butter, tuna and carrots—all covered by WIC.

Then, with the skill of a Las Vegas blackjack dealer, the checker shuffled through the coupons, sorted them according to category and initialed them without a hitch.

When the transaction was completed, I asked her how she got so efficient at processing WIC forms.

She replied:

"I’ve been doing this for twenty years."

And that is why we’ll triumph: "Enough is enough!"

Even though I have known about WIC coupons for ages, I felt a renewed sense of outrage and frustration as the scene at the grocery unfolded before me.

I’m lucky enough to be able to afford my own peanut butter but, at the risk of sounding beyond churlish, why should I pay for theirs? Who are they to me? Why is my generosity being taken advantage of?

America has plenty of needy cases among its citizens; my charity should go to them.

The WIC program is an interesting barometer of what’s going on in immigration, both legal and illegal.

According to the latest available data in 2004, Hispanics are the biggest WIC users at 39.2 percent versus 34.6 percent for whites and 20 percent for blacks.

But in 2000, Hispanics trailed whites by 3 percentage points, 38 to 35 percent. In a mere four years, Hispanic participation increased 4.2 percentage points and thus matched, and then surpassed whites and blacks as the largest ethnic group relying on WIC.

And if you analyze the ethnic WIC 2002 enrollment by state, the numbers are amazing. In California alone, Hispanic WIC users exceed whites by a 9:1 ratio and blacks by 10:1. Other states show similar, if not quite so dominant, patterns.

Breaking down the ethnic usage trends by percentage increase found in two-year intervals from 1996-1998; 1998-2000 and 2000-2002, Hispanic reliance on WIC is more evident:

Ethnicity
PERCENT CHANGE


1996 to 1998
1998 to 2000
2000 to 2002

Hispanics 8.5 6.8 10.0
Blacks 0.7 -6.6 -5.7
Whites
0.8
-2.1
-7.0


One of WIC’s special research studies arrived at this conclusion:

"The ethnic composition of WIC has been changing steadily since 1992 with the percentage of Hispanics rising and non-Hispanics falling."

Let’s return to my original point—that the WIC program is one reason among many why we will succeed in our quest for immigration sanity.

VDARE.COM has insisted for years that the U.S.’s current immigration policy imports poverty. The WIC statistics undeniably support that conclusion.

Poor people—mostly Mexican—with large families have become increasingly dependent on WIC for their most basic child rearing needs.

And the poverty cycle repeats itself because the mothers and daughters are fecund.

California has been hit harder by destitute aliens than any other state—as VDARE.COM’s Edwin S. Rubenstein reported here.

But what has also happened since 2000 is that other states across the nation have seen a huge increase in their poor immigrant population: Georgia, North Carolina, Connecticut, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania to name but a few.

When residents of those states go to their local market, look around and see WIC coupons being used while they dig into their wallets, they too say: "Enough is enough."

Rep. Christopher Shays, from a largely white, suburban Connecticut swing district and in a tough re-election race, returned to Washington and informed House leadership that, based on eighteen town hall meetings he attended, his voters are growing more "adamant" in their opposition to another amnesty and/or guest worker legislation. [Immigration Deal At Risk As House GOP Looks To Voters, By Jim VandeHei and Zachary A. Goldfarb, Washington Post, May 26, 2006]

Voters are "adamant" because, at the rock bottom minimum, they want to feel that Washington is aware of illegal immigration’s poisonous effect on the country and that efforts to end it—or at least control it— are underway.

They very correctly do not have that impression. Accordingly, voters have become more vocal to assure the outcome they want—border security—is the one that survives the House-Senate deadlock.

My conclusion: Elected officials who undermine the voters’ wishes will find themselves out on the street in November

In my hometown, in El Cajon, CA, in SD County, we have at least 6 WIC/AFDC Food Stamp/EBT voucher stores (actually the fastest growing type business in town), mostly used by illegals, mostly from Mexico, being as whenever I drive by, I see MEXICO LICENSE PLATES on their nice, new, trucks, mini vans and SUVs.

If they can't afford to make enough money to feed themselves, why do these poor illegals always seem to be able to have 18 kids? Oh yeah that's right, WE taxpayers pay for all their pre/post natal and delivery costs! And since these now American citizen ANCHOR BABIES are born, they of course, need to get food stamps, for them and their entire family of 20 or 30 illegals living in their one bedroom Section 8 subsidized apartment.

The other day, at the local grocery store, I'm standing in the checkout line, and ahead of me is a Spanish speaking woman with 8 kids all under the age of 7, none speaking a word of English of course. But when she gets to the register, she miraculously knows one term in English - EBT, Electronic Benefit Transfer - meaning welfare. So when I get my stuff, and go out to the parking lot, what do I see? Them packing their $350 worth of groceries, baby formula and diapers into a brand spanking new giant SUV, with... you guessed it... MEXICO LICENSE PLATES!

There's a definate outright abuse of this system. My husband worked at a Sav-A-Lot and on Sat. mornings that lot was jam-packed. Hundreds of people and this was a small store. He had to stock the meat and produce. He was literally attacked when he would wheel a cart out. They grabbed anything and everything they could put their hands on. No one looked at a price. By the armloads and cart loads they'd haul it all out. And everyone paid with the card. Here we were not able to afford a pound of decent hamburger and both working. I honestly wanted to film the fiasco of our new migrants and send a copy to the president years ago. I also wished I could show the American people where their tax dollars were going while they're counting pennies and balancing an ever increasing buget. My last trip to the health dept. to pick-up immunization records, I saw no black or white or korean or any other race but mexican in there for services. Black, white and Indian (India) WORKING there....and the only English speaking there. All the signs were in Spanish. They had huge brand new pick-ups in the lot and new vans. The kids had happy meals in there and it was a regular festival. I remember when I tried to get help and you couldn't have a glass of water when you waited. You couldn't own a new vehicle. They went through your purse and some even told you where the local pawn shop was if you had jewlery on. Not the same today!!!

What can we do to stop this insanity? What would happen if every single ALIPAC member chose one certain day to call IRS and say to them, we are no longer going to pay taxes because it has become unfair taxation without represensation? I wonder if it would make the headlines?
ALIPAC MEMBERS KICK IRS TO THE CURB!
NO LONGER WILLING TO PAY TAXES TO TAKE CARE OF MEXICO'S ILLEGAL INVADERS!

THE GREAT AMERICAN IRS SITOUT!

And to think WIC is just one entitlement program they are taking advantage of. Taking care of illegals is running us all into the poor house and will bankrupt social services. Thus country will falter under the tax burden the middle class is expected to shoulder. It will just get worse. I personally believe the whole idea of welfare needs to go anyway but I realize that is a different topic.

For now no illegal should be entitled to any social services. Anyone applying for any kind of welfare program funded by the government (American Taxpayers) should have to prove citizenship and if they cannot they get nothing. The fact is the government is giving them nothing, we are. We are funding this outrage. We are supporting another country. We are supporting the invasion through our tax dollars. Could you imagine the relief it would be on the system if all the social services were stopped to illegals. The benefit would be immediate and enormous.

nittygritty - I already have. Although I did not call them. We changed our W-4s and will not longer pay into the federal income tax. I refuse to support this take over of my country.

What is required to get WIC?? It must not be hard anymore. How do they drive new cars and get this ?

I think WE ought to bombard the WIC and other programs with applications from lower middle class and poor US CITIZENS. NOW. Maybe the gov't would see how crazy and abused it is. Maybe if we BREAK it down and quickly this crap will stop.

I know so many folks who struggle and could really use this assistance.

Maybe we should help educate true citizens on how to get these benefits and beat the illegals to the punch.

Sort of like a voters registration.

Citizens need to demand the services of the US before letting these parasites take everything from us.

Please explain to me the MEXICO PLATES??

I'm in shock up here.......they're getting US subsidies driving with another country's plates in the USA?

Stories like this piss me off. My husband is a police offices of 2 yrs. and I currently do not work. I am a stay at home mom of 2 girls. My oldest, who is my husbands step-child, is a special needs child. I receive state medical insurance for her which is a blessing due to all her medical and medication bills. My youngest was on the insurance also but was kicked off due to my husband, her biological father, getting a small raise. Our insurance rates are so high through the police dept that we can not afford to put her on his insurance, it would cost additional $350 mnth. He makes like $50 to much now. I am currently back in college so that I can help support my oldest when she is out on her own and needs some financial help. Anyway my youngest is uninsured and yet we play by the rules and these non-citizen, law-breakers get all the help they claim they need. Hell, when I was a single mom of 1 with a special needs child, I did not use the system. I could have gotten WIC and my daughter could have been on SSI from birth due to her extreme pre-term birth which she has never received.

This stuff makes me angry. My friend who works at a motor bike/ATV shop had one come in and put the down payment of a quad on her card. Not sure what kind of card just know it was a government funded card per my friend. She was so mad about the cituation she had to leave the building for fresh air. I told her she should have written down the illegals info and reported it to DES.

What is required to get WIC?? It must not be hard anymore. How do they drive new cars and get this ?

I think WE ought to bombard the WIC and other programs with applications from lower middle class and poor US CITIZENS. NOW. Maybe the gov't would see how crazy and abused it is. Maybe if we BREAK it down and quickly this crap will stop

It has to be easier now than when I tried to get it years ago. Number one you could not be married. Number two if you could name the father they went after him first before you could get anything. Back then you could not own a house and it had just changed to allowing you to have a car but it had to be an old one that didn't cost more than 1,000. If you had a roommate all their financial records were required too. You had to live in a low rent place or they'd tell you to move. No cable, no long distance phone etc. etc. I had to bring in receipts for EVERYTHING. They had some chart of acceptable expenses and boy yours best not be over any of it. You couldn't have a checking or savings account or any type of stocks or IRA or anything like that. Notorized letter from your landlord, etc

A few years later I did get temporary help because I have epilepsy and my daughter was pre-mature and I had alot of food allergies and she was allergic to milk and needed soy formula. The Dr. filled out all the papers so it was considered medical need. I don't know if I would have been accepted if it wasn't for him and it was only till she reached a certain weight. I think it was for just about 3 mos.

Now after that I know it eased alot. You could own a home and you didn't have to have all the receipts and stuff. You were still supposed to be unmarried and it was with the understanding that they would be going for child support or a raise in the support if they didn't think it was enough. They were real big on having you get your tubes tied after the 2nd child and really pushing birthcontrol if you didn't. Then I think they got harder by putting age limits etc. because they wanted everyone off.

Then bam....seemed overnight and it was huge families with brand new trucks and vans and it went to the card and obviously 100% easier than ever! I think they automatically are given the free breakfast and lunch at school. You could go to any church and just show the card and tell them how many people were in your house and they'd pack up boxes. Without the card you had tons of papers to fill out and got maybe a loaf of bread, a bag of beans and maybe 3 cans of vegetables. They got cereal and peanut butter, cakes mixes, tuna, veg, fruit, spag, taco stuff, dry milk, flour, sugar, salt, dish soap, milk, juices, jello, kool-aid, baby food, diapers, toliet paper etc.. Quite a load on top of what their card got them. I was shocked. And then off to the next church.... Some organization supplied all the school supplies and another would give them a card to buy clothes for the kids for school even though I never saw the money spent on the kids. The school my kids went to took donated uniforms and card holders were given uniforms if they wanted them. Usually it was just the boys because they liked the little girls dressed up in all the lacy and frilly dresses.

It's defiantely easier now.

It's just getting more and more obvious that illegal aliens are above the law.