Like all other children in America. they need and deserve good health and nutrition. If the Federal Government abandons them. communities will suffer. When immigrant children get sick. they infect other children. I assume that our good friends on the Ways and Means and Finance Committees understand what happens in every schoolroom in America. When children get sick. they still communicate. Anybody who has children understands that when a bug gets into second. third. or fourth grade kidsmost of his or her classmates will also get sick. By banning immigrant children from Medicaid we are also banning them from schoolbased care. which is part of Medicaid in most States. These children will not be able to go down to the nurses office. get some attention. and perhaps be sent home to avoid serious illness and to avoid infecting other children in the class. They will not even be able to get in the door. 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 severewhich will add to the costs of our health care system. This is welfare reform under this bill. The Republican bill also bans legal immigrant children from SSI. which provides assistance to the blind and disabled. Nine thousand legal immigrant children suffer from those conditions. 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 their debilitating conditions. If SSI is not available. children literally will die. Nutrition is vital to the development of a child. Immigrant children are no exception. Without access to food stamps. some immigrant children will suffer a lifetime of anemia. stunted growth. and even permanent brain damage. This bill is not welfare reform for legal immigrants. It is cruelty written large into law. It will push families deeper into poverty with no chance of escape. and the victims will be innocent children.
Identified stereotypes
Immigrant children are portrayed as disease carriers who will infect other children in schools.