National Perspective : POLITICS / Immigrants and Welfare

The House is considering legislation this week that would deny legal immigrants access to federal programs for the poor, including cash benefits, Medicaid, aid for the elderly and disabled, and food stamps (illegal immigrants are not eligible for most welfare programs).

Under the plan, legal immigrants remaining eligible for benefits would be those older than 75 who have lived in the United States at least five years, those who are military veterans or are now serving in the armed forces, and political refugees who have lived here less than five years.

Information about the proposal’s likely impact is spotty because government organizations that collect data about public programs have had little reason to draw distinctions between citizens and legal immigrants--people who are in this country legally but have not become U.S. citizens. But enough information could be obtained from various sources to answer some basic questions. The most detailed data is available from Supplemental Security Income rolls.

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Are immigrants more or less likely to receive welfare than citizens?

More likely. Nationally, about 6% of immigrants received aid under two major categories for which information is available: Aid to Families With Dependent Children and Supplemental Security Income for the elderly and disabled, according to the General Accounting Office. That compares to 3.4% of U.S. citizens.

Although precise figures are not available, political refugees--those who enter the United States fleeing persecution in their native countries--are much more likely to receive benefits than other immigrants. Refugees often arrive with few assets and no family here, immigration experts say. Most came from Cuba, the former Soviet Union and Southeast Asia.

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How many immigrants nationwide would be cut off from AFDC, SSI, Medicaid and food stamps?

In 1997, 670,000 immigrants receiving a combination of AFDC and Medicaid would lose their benefits, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. About 520,000 receiving a combination of SSI and Medicaid would be denied benefits. An additional half million immigrants who receive Medicaid alone would lose their benefits. Also, 1.1 million people--including many in one of the three previous categories--would be cut out of food stamp program.

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How many immigrant children would lose benefits?

The CBO estimates that 230,000 children nationwide would lose AFDC and Medicaid in 1997.

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How much would this change save the federal government?

About $21.4 billion over four years, according to CBO estimates.

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Do immigrants pay taxes?

They pay taxes and males must register for military service, but they cannot vote.

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How do poverty rates and income compare for immigrants and citizens?

In 1993, 29% of immigrant households nationwide reported incomes below the poverty level, compared to 14% of households of American citizens, according to the GAO.

In California, 19.6% of immigrants were below poverty level, compared to 10.4% for citizens, based on the 1990 census. Per capita income in California was $12,956 for immigrants and $17,378 for citizens in 1990, according to Hans Johnson of the nonpartisan California Research Bureau.

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How many of those who would be cut off from benefits have worked in the United States?

The only indicators available are from national SSI rolls and California AFDC rosters.

About one-fourth of the immigrants nationwide age 65 to 74 who receive SSI also receive Social Security, indicating they worked in the country at least 10 years before retiring.

In California, 56% of immigrants receiving AFDC are in families where one or both parents recently worked, although they are now unemployed.

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Would California save or spend more money if the legislation is approved?

California is home to over half of all immigrants nationwide who receive SSI or AFDC, according to the GAO.

Unless state law is changed, California would have to pay an additional $800 million over four years, the CBO estimates, because the state’s general assistance program would step in to fill the void if federal aid declines.

According to those estimates, California would save $2.5 billion by no longer paying its share of a state supplement given to SSI recipients. But the state would spend an additional $3.3 billion from 1997 to 2000 to assist immigrants cut from federal programs.

The state might also face higher health care costs for emergency care for people no longer eligible for Medicaid, as well as indirect costs resulting from increased hunger, poorer health and homelessness.

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How many immigrants receive SSI, and who are they?

The number of immigrants in the SSI program has sharply increased, going from 320,000in 1988 to 683,000 in 1993--rising from about 7% to about 12% of all SSI recipients. The percentage of AFDC and food stamp recipients who are immigrants increased slightly during that same time, according to the CBO report.

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Why the surge in immigrants on SSI?

The GAO has reported that the growth probably resulted from a gradual increase in the number of immigrants admitted to the country over the last decade, along with legalization of almost 3 million people under the 1986 immigration reform law.

A portion of the recent immigrants were elderly people who joined family members residing here and applied for SSI soon after they passed an initial three-year period of ineligibility.

What is AFDC?

Created in 1935, it provides cash to poor households with children whose father or mother is absent, unemployed, disabled or dead. Approximately 13.6 million people received AFDC in 1992.

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How many immigrants receiving benefits are recent arrivals to the country and how many are long-term residents?

Figures are available only for SSI. The CBO estimates that about four-fifths of immigrants receiving SSI have been in the country at least five years, while almost a third of those receiving SSI were in the country 10 years or more before applying for benefits.

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How many immigrants in California have become citizens? Why don’t all become citizens?

One-third of California’s immigrants had become citizens, according to 1990 census data. The rate of naturalization is lower for elderly immigrants.

Immigration experts say that some, especially the elderly, have difficulty meeting English language and U.S. history requirements for naturalizing. Lack of access to English language classes and backlogs in processing citizen applications also delay those seeking to naturalize, they say.

It is expected that a ban on public benefits for immigrants would prompt more to become citizens, but how many is unknown.

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California File

More than half the immigrants nationwide who receive SSI or AFDC reside in California, according to the General Accounting Office.

Percentage receiving assistance in California Legal immigrants: 11.7% Citizens: 8.8% *

Immigrants who would lose SSI and Medicaid in California Would lose: 230,000 Would not: 63,000 *

Immigrants who would lose AFDC benefits and Medicaid in California Would lose: 320,000 Would not: 65,000 *

How many immigrants in California have become citizens?

The 1990 census found one-third of California’s immigrants had become citizens.