State Court Upholds Cuts In Aid To Disabled Legal Immigrants

Sorry, poor elderly, disabled and/or blind legal residents of New York State; the Court of Appeals has ruled that you're still limited to $352 a month in public aid, about half of what lower courts ruled you should get. Of course, since many of you have died since lawyers filed the class action lawsuit in 2004, Tuesday's decision might not matter much. But thousands of poor legal immigrants desperate for public assistance are shattered by the 5-2 ruling, which held that the state had no duty to fill in for a federal program that ended benefits to most disabled legal immigrants in 1996. Since the early '50s, legal NY residents who fell on hard times were entitled to a higher level of aid if they were elderly, blind or disabled, but when D.C. took over the program in the '70s, the state supplemented the benefit to reach the higher level it had set earlier. That's over now. The NY Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance applauded the ruling, saying it could save the state and local governments $100-270 million. But in a strongly worded dissent, two judges wrote that "the majority today has turned its back on the history of New York’s commitment to protect its most fragile and vulnerable populations."

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By John Del Signore in News on May 15, 2009 1:35 PM

Comments [rss]

isla

No they didn't. This city has long survived and thrived on the backs of immigrants with very little credit. And it still happens to this day (what is it, 40% or 45% of NYCers are foreign born). These people have paid taxes, they have been part of their community and mostly they are inhabitants of the (once) great state of New York. Beyond the fact that we and they are human beings, and we do have a social and ethical obligation to help those in need, they are just as much NYCers as anyone else is.

slipperywhenbrent

Tough shit.

Regardless of whether they're immigrants or natural-born citizens, nobody's entitled to handouts here.

Spirit of 76

Did you fail to notice that this decision only applies to immigrants who are elderly, disabled and/or blind? Just what do you expect such people to do for livelihoods?

Polite New Yorker

People who immigrate to the U.S. are supposed to promise that they will not become wards of the state or dependent on public assistance. During the so-called "golden age" of immigration to the U.S. in the 1800s, immigrants were deported for even applying for any kind of welfare. The court ruled properly.