Lincoln Chafee: “as I say, this is an amendment that is far narrower than any other amendment that has been brought up in connection with…”

“as I say, this is an amendment that is far narrower than any other amendment that has been brought up in connection with this matter that we have been discussing. I hope that the floor managers of this legislation will accept this amendment. What it does is it says in those areas where illegal aliens--illegal--who have come in unauthorized into the country are entitled to certain benefits in four categories--emergency Medicaid, prenatal and postpartum Medicaid services, short-term emergency disaster relief, and public health assistance for immunizations, all of these are emergency health matters--all of these are granted to illegal aliens, and I am saying they ought to be granted to legal aliens. If we let those who have come into the country illegally have these services, then certainly they ought to be available for legal aliens who properly came in under all the right procedures. There will be considerable discussion, I suspect, about deeming, about saying, ``Well, their sponsors ought to pay for these things.'' First of all, in a straight matter of equity, if you are illegal, you get them for free or you are able to qualify under whatever the qualifications are under these programs, and it seems to me if you are legal, you should be entitled to the same thing. You do have situations where a legal immigrant is reluctant to go to his or her sponsor for support in certain matters.…”