The New Leaf, No. 7, Article 5

September 1997 • No. 7, Article 5

Congress Restores SSI to Legal Immigrants

On August 5, 1997, President Clinton signed into law the "Balanced Budget Act of 1997." This new law reverses some of the damage done by last year's welfare law with respect to legal immigrants. The law restores SSI disability and Medicaid benefits to large numbers of noncitizens.
The 1996 welfare law would have caused many legal immigrants to lose SSI disability benefits and Medicaid. Roughly 500,000 legal immigrants were expected to lose benefits. Approximately 8,000 children were at risk for having their benefits terminated. Most of the people who were at risk are elderly (41% over the age of 75, 18% over the age of 85). An estimated 39,000 of immigrant SSI recipients are in nursing homes.

Since last August, lawmakers have been under mounting political pressure to help these noncitizens. Several legal immigrants are reported to have committed suicide after learning that they would lose Federal aid. Elderly immigrants and refugees who have been in the United States for many years faced a life of destitution. Many said they would be forced out of nursing homes.
The Balanced Budget Act revises the 1996 welfare reform law most significantly in the following two ways:

All noncitizens who were receiving SSI on August 22, 1996 and were "lawfully residing" in the U.S. (i.e., "qualified aliens") will have benefits continued indefinitely.
All noncitizens who were not receiving SSI on August 22, 1996 will be eligible if they (a) were lawfully residing in the U.S. on August 22, 1996, and (b) are blind or disabled as defined in the Social Security Act.

The second provision helps noncitizens with applications pending on August 22, 1996 and noncitizens in the country before the passage of the welfare law who file SSI disability applications on or after August 22, 1996.

The new law softens the blow dealt to noncitizens last year when President Clinton signed the welfare reform bill. The changes brought about by the new law resulted both from President Clinton's proposals and the bipartisan support for such proposals. However, Congress rejected the President's plan to offer benefits to legal immigrants who arrive in the U.S. after August 22, 1996 and later become disabled.

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