It ain't just ILLEGAL immigration.
Reauthorization of the 1996 welfare and immigration reform laws is long overdue, as best I can tell from some hard googling. There have been two Congresses and the only thing done was to extend the original laws and the changes that softened their impact. The House wants to keep the restrictions in place and the Senate wants to open the Treasury to legal permanent residents again(!).
The 1996 laws ended virtual automatic SSI, etc. for those coming after August, 1996 and there were time limit restrictions placed on SSI, food stamps, etc. etc. for those receiving government money prior to enactment in August, 1996. The time limits have been set aside already, i.e., benefits were to have been terminated after a set number of years but have been extended and extended as the years passed.
By 1996 almost one-third of the elderly getting SSI* (not the same as SS) were aged parents and other elderly relatives of legal immigrants. The elderly were sponsored and then put into SSI, food stamps, subsidized housing*, etc. etc. What a deal!
American taxpayers should celebrate and feeeeeeeeeeel good?
We concentrate on ILLEGAL aliens getting a pass via the "guest worker" plan. But the Bush administration and the Senate also want to undo some (all?) of the 1996 welfare restrictions placed upon legal permanent residents. What percentage of the world's population would like to get a U.S. government check each month?
* Note 1 - SSI Aged Noncitizens, from a Ways and Means immigration report (Green Book), 2003
Year. Number.. Percent of Total Aged SSI
1982 91,900 5.9
1983 106,600 7.0
1984 127,600 8.3
1985 146,500 9.7
1986 165,300 11.2
1987 188,000 12.9
1988 213,900 14.9
1989 245,700 17.1
1990 282,400 19.4
1991 329,690 22.5
1992 372,930 25.4
1993 416,420 28.2
1994 440,000 30.0
1995 459,220 31.8
1996 417,360 29.5
1997 367,200 27.0
1998 364,980 27.4
2000 364,470 28.3
2001 364,550 28.9
2002 364,827 29.1
The 1996 reforms stopped the practice of legal immigrants bringing their elderly relatives here for their SSI, etc. "golden" years. A little googling reveals that the immigrants often had very fine incomes, thank you.
* Note 2 - I cannot find the article but a year or two ago there was a S.F. Bay area news article about the local government wanting to relocate an apartment building full of elderly to a newer building. All were getting subsidized apartments. Plans had to be slipped because the government was having problems locating interpreters -- none of the elderly spoke English -- and the government did not want to alarm the elderly who might fear that they were being kicked out of their homes.
What is your point? That when the government offers benefits, people will take them up on their offer? Why don't we keep our doors open to immigration, yet reduce or elminate these welfare benefits for all. That way we'll benefit economically from the immigration, culturally from the diversity and we'll also save a few bucks.