Speech #1040203584

This bill also upsets the basic values of our social service system after years of community assistance. Outreach clinics. day care centers. schools. and other institutions will now become the menacing presence because they will be seen as a branch of the INS to determine who is here illegally. This is going to have a chilling effect on those immigrants again that are legally here. They are going to be members of families. They are not going to want to go out and risk getting involved in terms of the INS and put their principal sponsors at any kind of disadvantage. We are talking primarily about the publicin this instance public health kinds of issues that have a common Interest with all of us in making sure that their health care needs are going to be satisfactorily addressed. Mr. President. there are many misconceptions about immigrants use of public assistance. Here are just a few facts. The Urban Institute says that legal immigrants contribute $25 to $30 billion more In taxes each year than they receive in services. That is almost $2.500 per immigrant. and this figure is confirmed by almost every other study. The majority of legal immlgrantsover 93 percentdo not use welfare as it is conventionally defined. that is. AFDC. SSI. and food stamps. The poor immigrants are less likely to use welfare than poor native Americans. Only 16 percent of immigrants use welfare compared to 25 percent of native born Americans. Working age legal immigrants use welfare at about the same rate as citizensabout 5 percent. The only immigrant populations where welfare use is higher than by citizens is by elderly immigrants and refugees on SSI. We all understand why indigent refugees need help. so the only real Issue is elderly Immigrants on SSI. We ought to address those issues. We have seen deeming go into effect and that has a positive impact. That ought to be the focus. that ought be the area where we are looking at various alternatives that are going to be responsive to protecting the interests of the taxpayers and are humanitarian. to make sure that people who are parents are going to be treated decently in our society. Instead of addressing the specific problem of elderly immigrants. this bill broadly restricts the eligibility of all legal Immigrants for any governmental help. When it comes to public assistance. the consequences of this bill are threefold. First. it provides an Inadequate safety net for legal immigrants. We ask legal immigrants to work and pay taxes just like American citizens. Immigrants must also serve in the military if they are called. We have more than 20.000 of them in the Armed Forces today. a number of them in Bosnia. In fact. we expect legal immigrants to put their lives on the line for the safety of our country. but the safety net we provide for them and their families in return is all but gone under this bill. We expect immigrants to make the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield but under this bill America will not be there for them if they need medical care. school lunches for their children. or even their veterans pensions. Second. this bill passes the buck to the State and the local governments. Mr.