Schwarzenegger Wants to Strip Benefits from Immigrants

California has always been a mecca for immigrants. In part, that's because it's a diverse state anyway, meaning new residents are likely to have family there or at least someone who speaks their language. But a major reason is that friendly, progressive California has historically welcomed immigrants with open arms and helped them find footing in their new country. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, himself an immigrant, wants to change that.

The details of Schwarzenegger's plan are grim. He is proposing cutting almost all public services for new immigrants: emergency food aid, cash assistance, job training, child care and health care. Wow. Let's be clear: we're talking about immigrants in the country legally, working (if they can find a job) and paying taxes. They would receive many of those public services through the federal government, just as million of other low-income families do, but in 1996 Congress voted to deny them that aid until they had lived in the U.S. for five years. At the time, California and a handful of other states stepped up to help, but now the Golden State is pulling the rug out from under immigrants. The plan would throw tens of thousands of people into poverty and instability in order to save less than 1.5 percent of the state's $20 billion budget gap.

As with so many short-sighted budget decisions, Schwarzenegger's plan would actually cause the state to lose money in the long term because of what will surely be an increased burden on emergency services. As a new report from the California Immigrant Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, concludes, "California will not be well-served by budget decisions that increase homelessness, emergency room use and put vulnerable seniors, the disabled and children at risk."

Or maybe fewer immigrants will come to California in the first place -- which would be a problem too, because they make up one-third of the state's workforce and contribute one-third of its revenue. But make no mistake: the most damaging effects of Schwarzenegger's proposal will not be financial ruin, but human catastrophe. The California Immigrant Policy Center research shows that thousands of people would become homeless, go hungry, get sick and die. Cutting desperately needed services to some of the state's poorest, most vulnerable residents is not only bad policy, it's downright cruel.

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