There has been little activity in either House of Congress of major consequence this past month except that Senator Abraham, Chair of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, in marked contrast to last session’s more ant-immigrant committee activities, held hearings on immigrants’ contributions to America. The only other Congressional activity of major note was that the House Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary’s Appropriations Subcommittee held an April 10th hearing to review the budget of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Readers may remember the American Immigration Lawyers Association petition letter we printed a few months ago. The petition called for Congress to pass a technical corrections bill that will ameliorate some of the harshest provisions of the new immigration law. AILA reports that more than 4,000 people have signed on to the petition.
The major developments related to the new welfare law seem to be taking place in the courts. The State of Florida and New York City are both suing to contest the cutoff of welfare benefits to legal immigrants. More than 100,000 immigrants in Florida will be denied Supplemental Security Income, food stamps and other benefits unless they become citizens by August 1st. The Florida suit alleges that denying benefits to such immigrants violates the equal protection clause of the US Constitution since it discriminates against noncitizens living lawfully in the US by singling them out for the cutoff of benefits. Florida also contends that it will disproportionately bear the economic liability for people who lose their benefits. Florida Governor Chiles’ counsel, Mark Schlakman, recently told the New York Times, “These people are legal immigrants and are already here. And, by definition, those that receive SSI are the indigent, the elderly and the disabled, those that cannot work.”
In New York City, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani continues to build his reputation as a leading pro-immigration advocate. Last fall, he sued the US government to block provisions in the new welfare law that would force the city to turn in illegal immigrants seeking city services such as police protection and public schooling. Now he is filing suit on the same equal protection grounds as described in the Florida suit.
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