Mike Levin: “in exactly 100 days many thousands of elderly and disabled legal immigrants in our country will lose their only source…”

“in exactly 100 days many thousands of elderly and disabled legal immigrants in our country will lose their only source of financial support, SSI, unless this Congress acts. This is not about welfare reform, it is about community responsibility. It is not about moving a young parent from welfare to work, but about elderly people who cannot work. It is not about people who came here illegally, but people who came here under our laws, who now find themselves disabled, most often because of age and illness: Asian-Americans caught up in the Vietnam war, often fighting on our side; Arab-Americans, many of whom fled the land of Saddam Hussein; people who, despite in numerous cases having defended their native land against Nazi invaders, left because of Soviet persecution against Jewish families; Hispanic-Americans dislocated by war or in pursuit of family reunification. When the President signed the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, he made it completely clear he would propose legislation this year to correct the provisions on legal immigrants. Today I am introducing the bill that the President has proposed.”