Dispute Delays Benefits for Elderly Immigrants

A dispute with the Wilson administration over paperwork has forced Los Angeles County officials to delay benefit checks for hundreds of poor, elderly immigrants in early December.

The catalyst for the disagreement is a new $14-million program, known as Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), created by the Legislature to provide benefits to poor, mostly elderly noncitizens who lost their eligibility for federal aid when Congress adopted a welfare reform act in 1996.

Many immigrants in Los Angeles County who had been scheduled to receive their first payment Dec. 1 won’t get that check because state officials now say the county followed improper procedures.

County officials contend that they followed the procedures, but the state at the last moment imposed a new requirement never intended under the law: a formal application for and denial of federal benefits before an individual can get the state funds.

“All of this is such a shame because these are folks who don’t have other resources,” said Tanya Broder, staff attorney for the National Immigration Law Center in Northern California. “The whole point of this program was to try and fill in the gaps the federal government created and provide benefits . . . to people who desperately need them.”

The program, expected to affect only a small number of people, has been flooded with applications, especially in Los Angeles, where most of the state’s immigrants reside. State officials originally projected that it would draw about 60 applicants a month, but in the first month of operation Los Angeles has received more than 1,800 applications and Orange County, 629. Statewide, applications have reached 2,754.

Los Angeles County officials began accepting applications the first week in November but didn’t learn until mid-November that the state was requiring the additional step.

“There must be some sort of verification in the file that the applicant is ineligible for SSI,” the federal Supplemental Security Income program that aids the aged, blind and disabled, said Sidonie Squier, spokesperson for the state Department of Social Services.

County officials argued that the extra step is unnecessary and that the state is misreading the law.

“There is no legitimate policy justification for the state to create this additional hurdle,” said Margaret Quinn, human services administrator for Los Angeles County.

For Los Angeles County, which has not required applicants to first apply to the federal government, Quinn said each immigrant must now be notified that checks will be held up until a denial from the federal government is obtained.

Eventually, all of those who qualify will receive full assistance, even retroactively, she said, but the first check could be delayed for weeks or months.

Elena Lopez-Gusman, an aide to state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the assistance program law, said she will ask the state to rescind the new requirement.

Legal experts at the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Los Angeles said their reading of the legislation establishing the program did not support the state position.

“I think it’s [the state requirement] illegal and really just makes no sense,” said Gerald McIntyre, the center’s directing attorney.

He said he was concerned that elderly immigrants would find the requirement onerous and be discouraged from applying for the state program.