Date: 1995-03-01
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I thank the gentleman for the opportunity to be here tonight and talk about some of the issues involving legal immigration. I am glad you differentiated between illegal and legal immigration. Because the two stories you told of thefamilies. I think anyone in this chamber. not just tonight but when we are actually here. could relate to that because we all have family or friends who we know who have come here as legal residents and worked their way into becoming fullfledged citizens. During that time that they are legal residents. they also experience the same thing as someone who is here as a citizen. They experience job growth. as you have shown. They pay taxes. They raise their children. But they also may have problems. They may be laid off. whether they be in Texas or California or anywhere else. And be.cause of that. they are here legally. they should also benefit from the services of the system that we have. You and I sit on the Economic and Educational Opportunity Committee that considered and marked up a portion of the welfare reform bill last week and the Republican version of the welfare reform bill I had an amendment during that time that we did not get to that would have said. the bill obviously exempted anyone from any public service who is a legal resident. who is not a full citizen. I had an amendment that would have exempted legal immigrants. would have allowed them to be eligible for these programs if they at least paid taxes for five years over and above being a legal resident We did not get to consider that amendment because. one. we had a twoday markup on probably the most important bill that we may see this session. and so our amendment was cut off. and I hope when we do get to that legislation in the next two weeks. we will see it. We also had an amendment that was available that maybe the Ways and Means Committee. in their section. will deal with it. But even a legal immigrant who is in the United States. who laid their life down maybe for our country would be ineligible for benefits under the bill that. came out of our committee. I know the other committees may be addressing it. I hope they do so we do not have to tell a veteran in my district in Houston that may have fought in World War II. may be a legal citizen and yet they cannot go and have a senior citizen nutrition meal because they are not 79 years old. I think there are some -travesties in that bill. I am glad you asked for this time tonight to talk about it. I wanted to add to a little bit of what you have said. In that bill. a legal immigrant would be ineligible for Pell grants. for example. even though they pay taxes and theirfamilies may have paid taxes to the Federal Government. As you said. 240 billion in earnings and 90 billion in taxes and only 5 billion in social services or welfare. So they have paid taxes. A good example of that bill. 111 legal residents in Houston participating in Pell grants right now would be ineligible for those programs. These are legal residents who very well may have paid their taxes. and we were trying to provide that ability for Like I said earlier. it seems ironic that we would. in our bill that came out of committee. that a legal immigrant would be ineligible for a hot meal at a senior citizen center or a meals on wheels. Under the bill. they would be eligible if they are 79 years old. I believe. Hopefully. wewill be able to address that again when that bill comes up next week or the week after Or maybe it could be addressed in the other committees that have jurisdiction. But these centers. I have a number of them in my district. they do not check peoples citizenship much less whether they are legal or illegal. because that is not their job. They are mainly concerned about providing a hot meal and the social contact that we need for these seniors that is provided under the Older Americans Act. Let me remind my colleagues that we are not talking about someone who broke the law We are not talking about somebody who came here illegally We are not talking about somebody who is just taking jobs as we are worried about. We are talking about somebody who has admitted. who may have waited. as you said. for many years to gain legal residence. who obeyed the rules and still is not allowed to partake of some of the good things that maybe our country may provide them. whether it be low income housing. income energy assistance. or even job training for adults and disadvantaged youth. Someone who comes here legally and because of the Mlarch 1. 1995 downsizing that we see all over our country. they may be out of a job and they would not be eligible for some of the job training that we have and that we are trying to expand more and even consolidate so it is more effective. I guess the difference is we are trying to ask Congress. to differentiate between someone who is here legally who obeyed the rules. and someone who is not here legally. And that is all we are saying. Do not tell a senior citizen that you cannot have a hot neal even though you may have lived here 30 years and raised your family and have. like you said. some great examples of young people who have grown up in the country and obviously product~ve citizens. And their family would not be eligible to have a hot meal at their local community senior citizen center. Several times during the discussion. members of the committee. particularly from the majority side. said that we have limited resources and we should provide for citizens first. And. of course. that assumes we are pitting our citizens against legal residents. As if any of us would say. we are going to support withholding assistance to citizens to help a legal immigrant. I think that is not what we are all about. We are about providing the services to people who are here legally whether you are born here or whether you are here as a legal immigrant. We should not argue with the citizen. argue citizen over legal immigrant. We should try to discuss the needs of the people on- our committee. particularly when we are talking about a welfare reform bill or a reform bill that deals with social services. If a person cannot afford their electricity bill during the summer or their heating during the winter. we should not mandate that the local agency play the INS agent. For one thing. if that person is here legally. whether it be in L.A. or Houston or anywhere else. are we really going to ask that HLNP in Houston or some agbncy to verify their papers? That is just not the case. It could work. and work efficiently. I think we are building even more cost into our cost. and particularlyafter November 8 we surely do not want to build more government bureaucracy. Restricting legal immigrants from assistance als6 does not affect that they pay into the system. again. as you said. they pay taxes just like everyone else. They: pay sales taxes in Texas. they pay school taxes. If they rent. I have people all the time who say they do not pay any taxes. The last time I looked. even rental property has to pay property taxes. and if they pay whatever they pay per month. their property taxes are built into it. because as someone who owns property. hopefully I do not lose money on renting that property.