Budget Proposal Threatens Aid for Immigrants

WASHINGTON — Federal benefit checks for about 300,000 of the nation’s elderly legal immigrants could be cut off for at least six months because of an apparent oversight in the pending budget agreement, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) warned Wednesday.

The agreement, reached in negotiations between White House officials and congressional leaders over the past several weeks, was supposed to restore benefits to the vast majority of elderly, legal immigrants whose assistance checks had been jeopardized by the new federal welfare law. But on close examination, Feinstein said, the terms of the agreement will force those now receiving aid to reapply and prove to the government that they are disabled.

That process will take six months at least, officials say.

“What is an 83-year-old woman who speaks little English supposed to do when her SSI is interrupted for six months while her application is processed? Get a temp job? Pay the rent with IOUs?” Feinstein asked.

The problem is the latest in a confusing blizzard of changes that have left many elderly immigrants panicked over the future of their benefit checks.

Because of the new problem, nearly 111,000 elderly residents of California, which has the largest population of legal immigrants in the country, are in danger of losing their benefits even though as many as two-thirds may still be fully eligible to receive assistance, according to the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security Administration.

For decades, legal immigrants who were either low-income elderly or disabled have been eligible for the federal Supplemental Security Income program. Some immigrants have family members who are able to support them, but many do not and are dependent on the monthly benefit checks.

Immigrants could retain eligibility for benefits if they were to become citizens, but many of the elderly SSI recipients are unable to pass citizenship examinations.

The welfare reform law that was passed last year would have cut off those benefits starting Aug. 1. Congress is in the process of extending that deadline to Oct. 1.

Under the budget agreement, elderly immigrants who can show that they are disabled--in addition to being elderly and poor--would be able to keep their benefits. Government officials believe that as many as 70% of the elderly legal immigrants would qualify.

First, however, they must submit an application and proof of disability. Until that is processed, they would be cut off from SSI. That, according to Feinstein and advocates for the immigrants, could lead to unnecessary hunger and homelessness among one of the country’s most vulnerable populations.

“The Social Security Administration has a horrible track record and can sometimes take up to two years to determine benefits based on disability,” said Yolanda Vera, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles. “These people cannot wait that long.”

Among those who would probably not survive a lapse in benefits, family members say, is Julia Alvarez of Alhambra, a 94-year-old Cuban immigrant with Alzheimer’s disease. She is cared for by her son, Marco, a baker who is a legal immigrant from Cuba.

Because of her disease, Alvarez says, his mother is unable to answer questions or assist in the process of applying for citizenship. She receives $640 a month in combined SSI and supplementary state payments. She could theoretically requalify as disabled, but her family fears that even a temporary cutoff in aid could have catastrophic effects.

“I don’t know what we’d do for my mother without the SSI, even for a few months,” a distraught Alvarez said last week at a state legislative hearing in Los Angeles, where an emotional videotape of his ailing mother was played for legislators. “She may die before this comes into law, but I’m worried about other people who could lose their aid.”

In Sacramento, state officials said they had recently urged the California congressional delegation to continue to provide federal benefits for elderly legal immigrants while disability applications are processed.

State Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), chairman of the budget subcommittee that oversees welfare expenditures, said that if federal funds are not available then the state would be forced to provide for disabled legal immigrants at a huge administrative cost.

“It’s a bureaucratic nightmare to shift these folks back and forth and the cost would really be a pittance to the federal government,” Thompson said, “but it would be a budget buster for California. It’s a lot of money we’re talking about.”

Feinstein and Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.) have proposed legislation to restore SSI and food stamp eligibility to all legal immigrants who were in the United States as of Aug. 22 of last year, but passage of that bill would be an uphill fight, aides say.

Two possible faster solutions were floated this week by the Congressional Budget Office.

Under the first proposal, benefits would be cut off Oct. 1 as planned, but once a person requalified as disabled, he or she would receive a retroactive lump sum in lieu of the checks that were withheld. Advocates for the immigrants say that solution could be devastating to elderly people with no savings to sustain them in the meantime.

The second proposal would be to continue to pay all the elderly now receiving SSI benefits and only stop checks once a recipient has been deemed unqualified. That solution would cost an estimated $600 million because some ineligible recipients would be paid until they were weeded out.

Either way, legislation is required to keep the checks flowing. And even if the apparent glitch is fixed, 30% or more of elderly legal immigrants--those whose benefits were not restored by the budget agreement--would still be left out, Feinstein said.

“I continue to believe the right thing to do is to continue benefits for all elderly and disabled legal immigrants who were receiving SSI prior to the passage of the welfare bill,” she said.

Fiore reported from Washington and McDonnell from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Virginia Ellis in Sacramento contributed to this story.