AFDC. SSI. food stamps and Medicaid are programs which are especially critical to childrens health and development. Banning legal immigrant children from these programs puts their wellbeing at stake. and it puts the public at risk. too Legal immigrants can get sick like everyone else. Their families can fall on hard times. They can become disabled. Banning them from basic assistance programs means that when their sponsors cant provide support. immigrants wont get the help they need. Their medical conditions will go untreated and their disabilities will worsen. These children are future citizens. Like all other children in America. they need and deserve to be assured of good health and good nutrition. If the Federal Government abandons them. communities will suffer. When immigrant children get sick. they infect other children. By banning them from Medicaid. we are also banning them from schoolbased care under the Early and Periodic Screening. Detection. and Treatment Program. which provides basic health care to schoolage children. It is part of Medicaid in most states. Under this bill. legal immigrant children will be banned from going to the school nurse when they feel sick in school. If they try to see the nurse. the nurse cannot treat them because they are immigrants. They have no private insurance and they are banned from Medicaid. If the illness gets worse. their parents may take them to the local emergency rooma very expensive alternative and not likely to be pursued unless the illness seems severe. Suppose a child has tuberculosis. In the time it took for the illness to worsen enough to be covered by emergency Medicaid. many classmates have been exposedall because no early help was available. In addition to Medicaid. the Republican bill bans legal immigrant children from SSI. which provided assistance to the blind and disabled. Nine thousand legal immigrant children are blind or disabled. They have some of the most complex and lifethreatening needs of all. As a practical matter. such cases often involve tragic accidents. where expensive longterm care is needed to deal with debilitating conditions. If SSI is not available. children literally will die. The Republican bill also bans legal immigrant children from food stamps. which could sentence them to a lifetime of health problems due to poor nutrition. Parents will have to turn to soup kitchens and food pantries Just to feed their children. Yet. soup kitchens are already stretched beyond their capacity.
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immigrant immigrants