Speech #1040125558

On a perchild basis. some States would receive five or six times the amount received by lessaffluent States. These stark disparities raise fundamental questions of fairness which I am hopeful the conference committee will address. Second. my second reservation about this bill deals with its unfair treatment of legal immigrants. Mr. President. most people of this Nation trace their heritage to somewhere else. My family came here from Scotland. This Nation has benefited from a long tradition of legal immigration. Let me repeat: Legal immigration. We set out rules and expectations for legal immigrants to become citizens. Under this bill. we are saying to legal immigrants who have followed the rules that we are going to change the rules. retroactively. on their way to citizenship. Again. this raises fundamental questions of fairness. Denying benefits to legal immigrants would unfairly impact certain communities in this Nation that have attracted a large number of newcomers. I will leave for another day the discussion over how Florida currently picks up the Federal tab for illegal immigration. to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Permit me to focus on the dollars that are spent today for legal immigrants. In Florida in November. 1994. there were 34.224 legal immigrants on the welfare rolls. and 149.732 on the food stamp rolls. The estimated annual costs associated with these groups are $39 million and $133.5 million. respectively. In addition. Medicaid costs for legal immigrants in Florida in 1994 was greater than either AFDC or food stamps. This represents a substantial sum of money which Florida spends and which Florida might be asked to absorb under certain versions of this welfare reform legislation. This is a significant issue which must be addressed in conference. Furthermore. changing the rules for legal immigrants would be unfair to the newest Americans. I am particularly concerned about access to education. One of the great principles of America. that has bound us together as a diverse people and provided a foundation for the American Dream. is access to education.