They are future citizens trying to make new lives for themselves and their families in this country. I commend the committees for working so hard to come up with a bipartisan proposal. This bill allows legal immigrants who are already receiving SSI to continue their SSI payments. It preserves SSI coverage for immigrants already in the United States who become disabled in the future. and for future immigrants who are too severely disabled to go through the process of naturalization to become citizens. It extends the exemption for refugees from 5 to 7 years. It exempts children from the 5year ban on Medicaid eligibility. There is still much more to be done to correct the problems created for immigrants by last years welfare reform law. But. overall. this bill makes worthwhile progress toward restoring a safety net for immigrants who fall on hard times. I hope that Senators will do all they can to see that the immigrant provisions in this bill are retained in the SenateHouse conference and final bill.
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naturalization immigrant refugees immigrants