Additionally. Mr. President. the next Congress must work to address issues of concern for food stamp recipients and legal immigrants. These food stamp cuts will be disproportionately borne by families with children. In fact. these families will absorb twothirds of these cutbacks. Also. as we speak. Mr. President. legal immigrants are being cut off from their food stamp benefits and SSI insurance as well. Many have no idea what is about to happen to them. The poor. the elderly. the disabled will simply lack the means to care for themselves. and. what is worse. they have no grace period to prepare for these changes. Mr. President. to give you an idea of the practical impact of these provisions. I want to bring to my colleagues attention the plight of some 2.000 Cambodians. legal immigrants--legal immigrantswho live in my home State of Connecticut. Of those 2.000 Cambodians. at least 250 of them suffer from concentration camp syndrome. from living under the murderous Khmer Rouge. Due to this legislation. they will lose access to SSI. food stamps. and health care benefits. What is worse. many of them do not meet the criteria for naturalization. The local Khmer health advocates estimate that people may well die as a result of this elimination of care. Mr. President. is this how we treat the downtrodden and vulnerable legal immigrants we brought to this country because of the circumstances they faced in Cambodia? The number may not seem high. only 250 out of 2.000. but these are people we brought to America because we wanted to give them a better chance and to get away from the murderous regime of the Khmer Rouge. And now we are going to cut them off from SSI benefits and health care?
Keywords matched
naturalization immigrantswho immigrants