More complete definitions of each category are provided in Table 2 of the report. In determining eligibility, the income of those who sponsored immigrants will be deemed available to them, making it more difficult for immigrants to qualify as sufficiently poor. However, the elderly and disabled immigrants arriving after August 1996 will not qualify for SSI or Medicaid unless they become citizens or meet other exemptions. In general, the immigrant-related rules no longer apply for those immigrants who naturalize into U.S. citizenship. The discussion above describes the basic federal rules under welfare reform.
States have leeway to customize rules.
Texas has announced that it intends to continue to extend the bar for post-enactment immigrants beyond five years, until they become citizens. Other states, such as Washington and Hawaii, have chosen to partially protect immigrants, using state funds to cover some benefits lost under the federal law. Although California's governor proposed changing the rules to match the basic federal guidelines, the legislature did not enact these changes. Thus, prior state eligibility rules still apply. The governor will probably propose these changes again in 1998, so that the policies may change in the future.