Senate panel OKs citizenship proof for welfare benefits

Posted: 3:00pm on Mar 15, 2012; Modified: 3:24pm on Mar 15, 2012

Federal law prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving most forms of welfare, including Medicaid, food stamps, public housing and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Their U.S.-born children, if they have any, automatically are citizens and are eligible.


Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, said he has heard stories about illegal immigrants who used dishonest measures to get into the welfare system and collect benefits. He could not provide data or specific examples.

"We have no way of knowing how many that there are,"

Wilson said after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved his Senate Bill 118 and sent it to the Senate floor.

Wilson's bill would require the attorney general, by Aug. 1, to make public a list of acceptable state and federal documents to establish citizenship or legal residency. After that, state agencies granting public benefits would have to check those documents.

After the hearing, spokeswomen for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services said they could not immediately explain the state's existing procedure for screening applicants for public benefits.

Democratic senators on the committee voted for the bill, although they raised concerns about the availability of official documents. Some native-born Kentuckians do not possess driver licenses, passport or — in rare instances of people born at home — even birth certificates, they said.
Also Thursday, the committee approved:

■ Senate Bill 5, which would make the Office of Attorney General a nonpartisan post. The sponsor, Sen. Katie Stine, R-Southgate, said the state's top prosecuting job should not be political or a stepping stone for higher office. The current attorney general, Jack Conway, is a Democrat, but Stine said the bill is not intended to criticize him.

Read more here: Senate panel OKs citizenship proof for welfare benefits | Politics and Government | Kentucky.com