THOUSANDS of legal Irish immigrants in the US can be deprived of social benefits under the controversial welfare Bill which has been signed by President Clinton. This will increase pressure on immigrants to become US citizens after the five year residence requirement.
Even harsher restrictions will apply to future legal immigrants. But the precise effects of the Bill on immigrants will vary from state to state. New York, for example, has a special obligation to help the needy, while other states may use their rights to withdraw Medicaid and further benefits from immigrants who are less than five years in the US.
The Bill will bar legal immigrants from supplementary security income (SSI) and access to the Food Stamp programme because both are federally financed schemes. The SSI helps people who are disabled or elderly, of whom about 200,000 are immigrants of various nationalities.
Leading Irish American newspapers which support Mr Clinton for his role in the Northern Ireland peace process are strongly critical of his backing for the welfare Bill. The Irish Voice, which gave the President an award last year, now says in an editorial that his action is "cowardly and self serving."
An editorial in the Irish Echo says his action is a "slap in the face" to legal immigrants and that even if the measures are modified "the sense of insult will remain."
Cardinal O'Connor of New York has described the measures affecting immigrants and poor children as unfair.
The embassy and immigrant organisations here lobbied successfully against a proposal to end the visa lottery system under which Irish people now enter the US. The welfare Bill was given a lower priority as it was not certain that the President would sign it and it kept changing in its later stages.
The immigrant restrictions are included in a Bill which affects most of the 13 million people on welfare and almost all the 25 million people on the food stamp programme. Up to now the federal government had an open ended responsibility for benefits for poor families, but this is being transferred to the states which will be given annual block grants.
The President said yesterday he opposes the measures aimed at legal immigrants and promised to try to change them. But if Congress retains a Republican majority after the November elections, it is not clear how Mr Clinton could make changes in the legislation assuming he is re elected.
The welfare Bill was forced through Congress against the objections of many prominent Democrats, such as Senators Teddy Kennedy, Daniel Moynihan and Chris Dodd. But Mr Clinton said he felt obliged to sign it to keep his pledge "to end welfare as we know it".
The new legislation ends the 60 year old federal safety net for poor families and will save the government $55 billion over six years. The anti immigrant measures were inserted in the Bill by Republican Party legislators to implement the promise in Speaker Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" to deny federal assistance to "non citizens".
Meanwhile, President Clinton may today sign an order to regulate tobacco products.