Several times during the discussion. members of the committee. particularly from the majority side. said that we have limited resources and we should provide for citizens first. And. of course. that assumes we are pitting our citizens against legal residents. As if any of us would say. we are going to support withholding assistance to citizens to help a legal immigrant. I think that is not what we are all about. We are about providing the services to people who are here legally. whether you are born hero or whether you are here as a legal immigrant. We should not argue with the citizen. argue citizen over legal immigrant. We should try to discuss the needs of the people on our committee. particularly when we are talking about a welfare reform bill or a reform bill that deals with social services. If a person cannot afford their electricity bill during the summer or their heating during the winter. we should not mandate that the local agency play the INS agent.
Keywords matched
immigrant