Re: Vote YES on Rep. Baca's Motion in Favor of Restoring Food Stamps to Children and Legal Immigrants with Five Years Residence
Dear Representative:
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a non-partisan, non-profit organization with approximately 300,000 members dedicated to preserving principles of equality as set forth in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, we urge you to vote YES on Representative Baca's motion to instruct the House conferees on the Farm Bill, H.R. 2646.
The Baca motion would urge conferees to support making food stamps available to lawfully present immigrant children, refugees, persons with disabilities, and those who have been legal permanent residents for 5 years or are credited with 16 quarters of work.
Legal immigrants pay taxes to support the food stamp program, toil in our fields as agricultural workers, serve in the armed forces, and are often barred for this most basic assistance simply because they immigrants. As President Bush has recognized, restrictions on food stamp eligibility enacted in 1996, have had severe consequences for poor children.
The Bush Administration's welfare reform plan, Working Towards Independence, says that since 1996, "[r]esearch . . . suggests that immigrant children have experienced an increased incidence of difficulty in obtaining the resources to purchase nutritionally adequate food" (p. 33). The Bush plan says restoring food stamps for legal immigrants with five years residence will help "ensure adequate nutrition among children and other immigrant groups . . . ."
Restrictions on access to food stamps also hurts U.S. citizens. According to the Urban Institute, out of confusion or fear, many non-citizen parents do not seek the government assistance for which their citizen children are eligible, and thus these children do not receive the vital services they need for survival.(1) We urge you to support the Baca motion to restore food stamps to legal immigrants.
Sincerely,
Laura W. Murphy
Director, ACLU Washington Office
Timothy H. Edgar
ACLU Legislative Counsel
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