Florida Becomes 1st State to Sue Over Welfare Reform

In an attempt to head off what Gov. Lawton Chiles called a “looming crisis,” the state of Florida filed suit against the federal government here Wednesday to block changes in welfare laws that would cut off cash benefits and food stamps to an estimated 100,000 legal immigrants, many of them elderly or disabled.

The suit is the first of its kind filed by any state and is designed to squash what Chiles labeled “a veiled attempt by Congress to balance the federal budget on the backs of Florida taxpayers.”

Estimates of the cost to Florida of picking up federal subsidies to state residents range from $300 million to $1 billion.

“The looming crisis that we are facing is not the result of true welfare reform,” said Chiles. “These cuts are cruel and will go directly to the heart of our state’s communities.”

The communities that would be hardest hit by the cuts, slated to take effect in August, are in South Florida, home to thousands of immigrants, many of them Cuban. Dade County, in which Miami is located, joined the state and two of its social service agencies as plaintiffs in the suit.

The suit asks the federal court to declare unconstitutional the federal government’s plan to withhold Supplemental Security Income and food stamps from those immigrants who are legal residents but who are not U.S. citizens. More than 75% of those affected are older than 65 and a majority of recipients would lose an average of $76 a month in food stamps and $342 a month in SSI payments.

“I can’t imagine what I would do,” said Dorita Hechemendia, 88, when asked how she would cope with the loss of her monthly benefits, which total $484 in SSI and $35 in food stamps.

Hechemendia is one of about 500 elderly Miami residents who show up daily at the Little Havana Activities Center on Southwest 8th Street for lunch and companionship. She left Cuba 13 years ago and has taken the citizenship exam three times, failing each time. She does not speak English and her ability to memorize is weak.

“I have no family, except for a brother in the hospital,” she said. “But I am a religious person. I am not thinking of suicide.”

Indeed, although Hechemendia keeps her faith, one South Florida legislator recently mused that the cuts would touch off calamity. “We’ll have people starving on the street or committing suicide while they’re waiting,” said state Rep. Steve Geller, a Democrat from Hallendale.

Whether or not that dire prediction comes to pass, the impending changes do provoke palpable anxiety among seniors, the disabled and state officials. “We’re talking about people who followed the rules,” Chiles told a Tallahassee press conference. “They came here legally, came with a green light from our government. We welcomed them and many have worked very hard. Now, the federal government is rewarding them with a push and a shove.”

As Chiles spoke in the state capital about midday Wednesday, elderly Cubans at the Activity Center in Miami danced to music played by an informal conga band, lined up for a black beans and rice lunch, or just sat in the midst of the hubbub, staring straight ahead.

Santos Camacho, also 88, who arrived here in 1980 during the Mariel boat lift, also has failed the citizenship exam several times. He and his 78-year-old wife stand to lose $373 each in SSI and $131 in food stamps.

Asked what he would do after the cuts, Camacho launched into an emotional retelling of his trip from Cuba that revealed his acute embarrassment over his loss of self-sufficiency. “What can I do?” he asked with tears in his eyes.

The Florida suit, alleging violations of the equal protection amendment to the U.S. Constitution, is similar to class-action suits filed by immigrant groups in California and New York.

Nationwide, of the more than 500,000 legal immigrants who could lose their SSI benefits, about 224,000 live in California, and 100,000 of those reside in Los Angeles. The California and New York lawsuits that seek to block the cuts mandated by the new welfare reforms were filed by immigrant advocacy groups in March and were the first to challenge the constitutionality of the laws.

The welfare reform law bases the denial of benefits to legal immigrants as necessary to discourage illegal immigration and to impel those immigrants already here toward economic independence.

In Congress, Democrats and Republicans have sparred over how to respond to the cutoff of funds. Republicans have proposed supplying states with lump sums to pick up the cost of supporting legal immigrants, while the Clinton administration and many Democrats have contended that plan would lead to varying policies from state to state. The administration has suggested restoring most benefits to legal immigrants, including those who are elderly and disabled.

Among those who would be helped by the administration proposal is Eduardo Marsans, a 21-year-old quadriplegic who appeared with Chiles at the press conference. A legal immigrant who came here from Cuba in 1993, Marsans now receives SSI and food stamps but is ineligible for citizenship because he has not been here for five years.

“I have a question,” said Marsans’ mother, Carmen Fernandez, speaking through an interpreter at the press conference. “What is going to happen to my son when he is denied his benefits? We came to this country legally and now they are treating us like they don’t want us anymore.”

Times researcher Anna M. Virtue contributed to this story.