I take no position in the immigration debate. I understand how people are drawn to the United States risking life and limb to be exploited for a couple cents more than they would make in their own country. It’s all a part of the American lie that has brought cheap labor to our shores to be taken advantage of for the entirety of our history. I also understand how the problem drives wages down for everyone and engenders a large indigent population in affected areas. Too many illegal Mexicans willing to work for peanuts in Arizona (and there aren’t, Arizona is just overreacting) will turn Arizona into Mexico economically as well as culturally. Too many illegal immigrants will simply create what they are attempting to escape, a labor market flooded with unskilled laborers competing for a dwindling number of jobs, driving down wages. Hopefully, this will simply find its equilibrium and the wages, becoming poorer; will cease to draw as many people. This labor market being illegal and thus separate from the legal labor market shouldn’t affect wages for legal workers who have a much greater variety of employment opportunities afforded them.
But this isn’t my point. The thing that bothered me about that unbelievably stupid facebook post isn’t the implicit racism and the amazingly stupid comparison of the American border to North Korea and Afghanistan (is that what you want, really? Really?). What bothered me and continues to bother me is that people have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to welfare benefits. They use the welfare argument as an excuse to classify people who they might have a pre-existing prejudice against as leeching off the benefits our government provides. Having worked at the welfare office for a year, distributing benefits through federal programs governed by federal code, I feel I’m in a good position to explain how one qualifies for and receives any government benefit. And I can assure you all of three things:
Illegal immigrants can’t get welfare benefits.
Illegal immigrants can’t get welfare benefits.
Illegal immigrants can’t get welfare benefits.
Ok, before you go to the comments section and tell me about how your brother worked with people who he assumed to be illegal and told you about how they received welfare benefits, remember: illegal immigrants can’t get welfare benefits. Before you tell me about how I’m full of shit because I’m contradicting your preconceived notions of how the welfare system works, remember I spent 40 hours a week for a calendar year less than a year ago using welfare policy to administer benefits to those who qualified; I am a reliable source of information on this topic.
In order to receive welfare benefits (SSI, Food Stamps, TANF cash welfare, or Medicaid), an applicant must provide the office which administers these federal programs (the office which handles these programs varies state to state, sometimes multiple offices handle them, sometimes they’re consolidated) with identity, residency and enumeration verification. If your ID looks nothing like you then you’re not getting benefits. There are provisions to allow for third party contact as verification of a person’s identity, but that is only used in extreme cases and under the direction of a supervisor. Ok, so the illegal immigrant gets a fake ID, not the most insurmountable task in the world (I had one in college). He’s free and clear, and the benefits are his? Not by a long shot. An applicant for any of these programs is required to provide a SSN. That social security number is sent to the SSA for verification (verification against the name and DOB also inputted into the welfare office’s system). If the social security number is invalid, or does not match the DOB or name of the applicant an alert will pop up on the caseworker’s screen and the case will be closed summarily (that kind of alert is called a critical alert and is usually dealt with quite quickly). Ok, so the illegal immigrant finds out my SSN, steals my ID, happens to look just like me, now he can get benefits. No. He’d also have to steal my mail. An applicant for any of these programs is also required to establish residency, most commonly with a piece of mail addressed to them at the address given on the application. There wouldn’t be any mail addressed to me at the illegal immigrants address so he’d have to think up something really clever, like setting up cable service at his house in my name, or he’d have to steal my mail consistently, supply the welfare office with my address and steal my mail to receive any caseworker communication/ renewal forms/ semi-annual reporting forms. If he ignores those his case will be closed due to non-response or to returned mail. It would take severe identity theft for an illegal immigrant to receive welfare benefits.
And that’s just for the programs that allow a signature on the application’s affidavit of citizenship to count as verification of citizenship. TANF (the only federal welfare program that actually provides people with cash) or state GA, (cash for people who are verified unable to work for a period of time due to disability) for those states that have it, require a birth certificate as proof of citizenship or, in the case of a qualified non-citizen, immigration papers.
So the next time you’re working your minimum wage job and looking at your suspicious co-workers with mistrust and envy (really?) at the welfare benefits you think they’re receiving. Remember. You don’t know their immigration status. You don’t know what benefits they receive and for whom. Hell you probably can’t talk to them. And above all, remember:
Illegal immigrants can’t get welfare benefits.
Illegal immigrants can’t get welfare benefits.
Illegal immigrants can’t get welfare benefits.
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