CNS STORY: Poor, elderly refugees said to face unreasonable demands to get aid

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CNS Story:

REFUGEES-SSI Mar-27-2007 (780 words) xxxn

Poor, elderly refugees said to face unreasonable demands to get aid

By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Poor, elderly refugees in the United States are being held to unrealistic and overly restrictive standards that result in their losing Supplemental Security Income benefits, known as SSI, witnesses told a House hearing March 22.

Candy Hill, senior vice president for social policy for Catholic Charities USA, told the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the House Ways and Means Committee that despite efforts to qualify for citizenship many elderly refugees simply can't meet the requirements for English fluency and other standards.

A seven-year limit on SSI benefits to noncitizens falls hardest on people who fled persecution or torture in their home countries and came to the United States empty-handed, Hill said in her testimony. The group includes Jews who fled the former Soviet Union, Iraqi Kurds, Cubans, Hmong and Kosovar refugees --all of whom are now disabled or too elderly to support themselves and who rely on SSI to survive.

"We invited them here because of the conditions in their own country where they were suffering devoid, in many cases, of their dignity -- leaving behind the only life they know -- and suffering beyond our comprehension," Hill said. "We offered them hope -- and a place where they could be treated with dignity and respect."

K'Keng, 75, a Montagnard refugee from the central highlands of Vietnam, was trained by U.S. Special Forces and served alongside American soldiers during the Vietnam War. He was injured by artillery fire and later spent six years as a political prisoner for collaborating with Americans, he told the committee.

In 1992 he and his wife applied for a refugee resettlement program for former political prisoners. They were admitted to the United States in 1996.

Though both K'Keng and his wife worked for a while in the United States, he was laid off because of his disabilities and then she lost her job due to her age, he said. Though both are permanent legal U.S. residents, their SSI benefits were cut off in 2003 because of the time limit.

He explained that the majority of Montagnard refugees came to the United States when they were over 60 years old. He said that to this day Montagnards are persecuted for their Christian faith in Vietnam.

"Having had little or no formal education in the central highlands of Vietnam and being much older when we finally had access to education in the U.S., learning English in order to take the naturalization exam has been very difficult," he said.

Since he and his wife lost their SSI benefits, the only government assistance they receive is $280 a month in food stamps, K'Keng said. Their son has quit attending school full time to help them financially.

"At the young age of 20, our son has had to delay his own educational goals to help us provide food, shelter and other necessities for our family," he said.

Hill said naturalization requirements are simply impossible for some SSI recipients to meet.

Like K'Keng, some are illiterate in their own languages, let alone in English, and it's extraordinarily difficult to get past that hurdle to pass an English proficiency test, she said.

Hill told Catholic News Service that although the law provides for individual exemptions from the requirements the experience of agencies affiliated with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network is that "no one can point to a situation where a single person was actually granted a waiver."

Another witness, Doua Thor, executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, said SSI provides the bare minimum for many, no more than $623 per month for an individual and $934 for a couple, to cover basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. The average monthly payment in January 2007 was $466.70.

Thor said that, according to the Social Security Administration's 2004 SSI Annual Statistic Report, refugees and humanitarian immigrants account for 9.7 percent of all SSI recipients. She added that an estimated 12,000 refugees and other humanitarian immigrants have lost SSI benefits and another 40,000 will lose benefits over the next decade.

Hill said there appears to be support within Congress for legislation granting an extension of eligibility for SSI for refugees, those granted asylum and certain other immigrants. A Senate bill, S. 281, would extend benefits until 2010.

Beyond that, what Catholic Charities and other church-related organizations would like, Hill said, is a more permanent solution: "de-linking" citizenship and eligibility for SSI benefits.

"We want people to become citizens because they want to become citizens, not because it's the only way to hold onto benefits," she said.

END

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