Posted on 10/11/2004 3:33:19 PM PDT by LouAvul
WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) - Va Choua Vang, who fled Laos after the Vietnam War, couldn't sleep over worry about how he would support his family when the U.S. government stopped sending monthly checks. "I didn't want to live. I thought about suicide," said Vang, 74, through his son, Chue Neng Vang.
The elder Vang, who doesn't speak English, did not know that the reason he and his wife stopped receiving the $1,500 in checks was because they failed to become citizens within seven years of their arrival in America.
A Hmong, Vang felt betrayed. He and other members of the Laotian ethnic minority group fought for the United States in Laos during the war with the promise that America would take care of him, his son said.
"I see my mom and dad crying. I have had to work to help support them," Chue Neng Vang, 21, said in a telephone interview from the family's home in Madison.
The money was Supplemental Security Income, and the Vangs are among more than 1,600 elderly or disabled former refugees or asylum-seekers nationwide who the Social Security Administration says lost the benefit last year for failing to become citizens.
The Vangs recently became citizens, but not before friends, family and others pitched in with food stamps, rent assistance and other help. They intend to reapply for their benefits.
Supplemental Security Income gives money to low-income people who are 65 and older or disabled. Federal rules require refugees who came after Aug. 26, 1996, to become U.S. citizens within seven years or lose their benefits. When that happens, they also lose eligibility for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and elderly.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
This is bizarre. Most Asians save like crazy. And the son whining about helping his parents? Also bizarre.
I know people, American-born citizens, who don't get that much per month in their retirement.
They came what? 30 years ago, and no one noticed the extra 23 years?
My husband just applied for his social security benefits last month. He's worked hard for the past 40+ years and won't be getting anywhere near that amount after diligently paying his taxes year after year after year.
Why do we have congressmen and senators who do not address these issues? Perhaps they're too busy taking campaign donations from pharmaceutical companies. No wonder social security is going kaput. No one is watching the store. You were kind and thoughtful enough not to mention the free education and medical care these non-citizens also receive. So what if hospitals go belly up due to the financial load these people cause. Sorry for the rant. Our government could use a few FReepers to make some recommendations and a few politicians who could bring the recommendations forward.
I don't know where you're from, but that's a very hefty stereotype! Besides, what is an Asian? Indian, Bangladeshi, Thai, Korean, Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, Philippino, Burmese, Pakistani, Afghani, Uighur, Tibetan, Nepalese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Vietnamese, etc. etc. How do you lump all of these together? Is your name Hank Hill or are you his best friend and next door neighbor, Dale?
The reporter worked hard to find an Asian to work the story around. The bulk of non-citizen SSI recipients are almost certainly Hispanic.
Okay, the guy comes here during the 70's and is not a citizen, nor cared enough to learn the F'n language.....hopefully some immigration folks throw the deadbeat to the wolves.
Nah. The article says they became citizens. Now they'll reapply for bennies and, guess what, they'll get'em!
They were here all this time and never even learned our language. And this is one of my gripes, viz., they don't assimilate. They isolate.
Ah, just what we need, more Liberal leeches.
You would be surprised what entitlement does to people's work ethic.
I'm from California originally. I grew up with many Japanese, Chinese, and later Vietnamese. I am not stereotyping at all.
Additionally, having perused many many credit reports over the years, seldom did I have an Asian customer who carried much debt and did not have perfect credit.
Another 3000+ coming from camps in thialand to Wisconsin. We celebrate diversity.
ping
Yeah, how dare somebody attribute a positive trait to an entire group. Hang him!
At one time, even refugees needed sponsors and were threatened with deportation if they became public wards. Nowadays, immigration no longer serves the needs of the United States but instead we've become the world's charity ward.
Excuse me, but you sound like a whiny Dimocrat, with that point. It is one at the top of their talking points, along with Halliburton...
Maybe you ought to spend a little more time reading at the BC2004 site.
He's not supporting his family. The US taxpayer is. The only reason he will become a citizen is so that he can continue to stick his nose inside of the public trough.
For heaven's sake, the war has been over since 1975 -- when does our responsibility end? And every single one of them will go on and stay on some form of welfare
My 80 year old mother-in-law had to come to live with us she only gets $502.
He is 21 and has to work (to help support his parents)?
When did he think he would have to go to work, when he was 65?
I've said the same about these wild and crazy pint sized pests. And got abuse heaped on me by Freepers. Saying we owe them from a war that ended 30 years ago.
Can't wait to support these ingrates, too.
Great minds think alike, Dennis. And they'll keep coming -- the prospect of collecting welfare (a form of early retirement) in Madison, Wisconsin, certainly beats working on a substinence-level farm or in a grimy factory.
What the hay?!? We barely make that working full time at supervisor's pay. Of course that's take-home because the other half goes to non-citizen whinies like these.
Silly me...I thought we were fighting for them...
1500 bucks a month net and full benefits with 52 weeks a year vacation...Not bad...
If this guy's entitled, I'd say ALL veterans are entitled to that amount, especially the American veterans...
Because they're by far the bulk of the immigrants --- there are plenty of non-Hispanics here to collect their government handouts --- a good number of Russian immigrants also are content to live with the taxpayers providing for them. Immigration with the Great Society programs is a disaster.
What a bunch of crybabies --- and $1500 is way too much --- many Americans live on far less than that. These people are quick to assimilate when it comes to the welfare mentality but not very quick to assimilate when it comes to learning the language or getting some kind of work ethic. What happened to that Asian trait of taking care of your own parents? At 21 this guy could be working, paying their bills, paying their health insurance premiums and all the rest.
They haven't paid into social security - they shouldn't be getting it.
From pharamcuetical companies?
Trial lawyers have the larget lobby on the hill.
This isn't a study on Asian culture, so your knee-jerk PC assessment missed its target.
If you want to discuss the actual story, have at it.
And in this case it looks like the whole bunch of them are nothing but parasites --- they pitched in with food stamps? That's the kind of help they give each other?
$1,500 a month? That's complete BS. We should never EVER give a non-citizen any money let alone that much a month.
$1,500 a month? That's just the cash handouts -- don't forget they would have HUD housing subsidies, food stamps, Medicaid --- any time they cough, they want to be able to run to a doctor and get Americans to pay for their medications. What kind of refugees are these? Are they escaping Communism because a Communist government would have them working for a living? They obviously are very much Socialists who believe the government should confiscate whatever the working Americans earn to redistribute to them because they don't feel like working for a living.
These are refugee Hmong who came here recently. They have been sending them to Minnesota, Wisconsin, the San Joaquin, all over. They are not part of the boat people wave of the 1970's, which was primarily Vietnamese.
The Hmong are brought here now because they fought alongside Special Ops forces (mainly CIA) against the Pathet Lao Communists in Laos, similar to the Montagnard hill fighters in Vietnam. Many are old and never had anything to start with, so it's not surprising that they have nothing but handouts to live on. Just prior to coming to the U.S. in the 1990's, they were probably living in a refugee camp in Thailand or a subsistence village in Laos.
It was an attempt to be fair to people who took a lot of heat for fighting the Communists. But the reality of it can backfire - old people living in a place they utterly don't understand without any history or savings to fall back on.
Undoubtedly, the professional refugee industry will swing into action to help them. And they will end up living better than many Americans, even veterans. At least with the Hmong there was some reason for them to be here in the first place, unlike many elderly "immigrants" who come here simply to get on Social Security (my wife has a co-worker from mainland China whose mother recently arrived and....just got on Soc Sec after never paying a thin dime into it).
If there weren't millions and millions who have no reason for getting in on this scam, people probably wouldn't feel bad about a few genuine refugees from the Vietnam war getting help. It's another reason that the whole immigration swamp should be drained and we start over.
Exactly. Of course, when there are free handouts, everybody in the world (literally) is going to come here to get them. The Great Society must inevitably collapse under it's own weight.
The big question, though, is will it take the US with it.
That "Wausau" article should be required reading for all bleeding heart freepers.
As for the article, its not only Asian aliens that are abusing the social secutity system, it is all other aliens and native born U.S. citizens. There are no checks in the system to prevent abuse by all. Except of course, you are a disabled veteran. Then there are checks in place that will allow the Social Security Administration to notify the Veterans Administration when a veteran, who has been granted Individual Unemployability due to service connected injury, has earned over $9K per year.
I'm sorry your academic knowledge of the world is so small that my comments were labeled as PC.
"Elderly, disabled refugees lose benefits"
Ah....you're breakin' my heart....they should have become citizens.
I got news for everyone.....Elderly, disabled AMERICAN citizens have lost their benefits, too.
Read some of the comments from signers of the petition below if you want to understand what's really going on in the SS system, and I'm not talking about the welfare SSI program, I'm talking about the one we pay into for decades...and BTW....illegal Mexicans, when they return to their country, will now get full SS benefits with 6 work credits where YOU will need 40. Nice deal, huh?
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SSDC/petition.html
Here's a couple:
"My wife is 57 and has a multitude of problems, fibromyalgia, degenerative joint, arthritsis, neuro problems from 2 bad accidents, cannot do hardly anything for more then 5 minutes at a time and then has to rest for hours. I am unable to get any help for her, I am 72, retired and no insurance. We should stop paying for our government officials medical when no one will help us."
"I have four diseases. I have applied for SSD twice and been denied twice. I am told that yes, while they believe my disease is bad enough and I need to be under constant doctor's care HOWEVER they feel it isn't bad enough for me to get any form of assistance b/c of my age and my work experience. Okay then YOU FIND ME A JOB that will hire me with my work restrictions!!! "
" I had 5 hospitalizations between application and approval...it took 2 years and I lost my moble home, my car, and my self-esteem"
It may be a democrat talking point, but like a broken clock, they are even correct once in a while.
Truth hurts.
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