President. this amendment is the outgrowth of a bill I introduced with Senator KOHL this year. As many of my colleagues know. Congress modified the Supplemental Security Income Program to include a 7year time limit on receipt of benefits for disabled refugees and asylees. This policy was intended to balance a desire to have people who immigrate to the United States to become citizens. with an understanding that the naturalization process also takes time to complete. Unfortunately. the naturalization process often takes longer than 7 years. Applicants are required to live in the United States for a minimum of 5 years prior to applying for citizenship. In addition to that time period. their application process often can take 3 or more years before resolution. Because of this time delay. many individuals are trapped in the system and faced with the loss of their SSI benefits. In fact. we know that to date. more than 7.000 elderly and disabled refugees have lost their SSI benefits and another 16.000 are threatened to lose their benefits as well in the coming years. Many of these individuals are elderly refugees who fled persecution or torture in their home countries. They include Jews fleeing religious persecution from the former Soviet Union. Iraqi Kurds fleeing from Saddam Husseins regime.
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immigrate naturalization refugees