Federal District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan has rejected a suit by New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and upheld the constitutionality of the 1996 Welfare bill that cut off need-based federal benefits for most legal and illegal immigrants. The judge acknowledged that the law would create hardships, but ruled that Congress would need to make any decisions related to the new law. The judge did rule, however, that elderly and disabled aliens who had applied for benefits before the law went into effect in August 1996 are entitled to benefits. The impact of the decision has been somewhat diminished now that it appears that Congress will restore many benefits to aliens under the new budget bill. However, whether the restoration of benefits will be for persons in the US and disabled at the time the law went into effect or whether it would cover persons who later become disabled is still being debated in Congress.
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