In an effort to ensure that illegal immigrants receive as little as possible, state and local governments around the nation, including Alabama, are willing to allow children who ARE U.S. citizens to suffer in the process.
The beef that these groups always claim to have is with the notion of illegal immigrants receiving government subsidies and taking jobs and costing citizens money. We can see, however, that its roots are in a racist and classist ideology. Do no be mistaken, the anti-immigration laws and practices instituted by these state and local governments have everything to do with race.
In a recent example of this foolishness, Alabama denied American kids food stamps because their parents are undocumented. The thing that annoys me most about this is these agencies aren’t necessarily required by law to do citizenship checks, so how does the issue of the applicant’s lack of “papers” even come up?
I’d be willing to bet that there are people who take it upon themselves to investigate the immigration status of applicants, despite it not being a part of their jobs. These are the same type who take up arms and sit on the U.S./Mexican border doing citizen patrols, hoping to shoot catch people crossing into the country illegally. Their self-righteous indignation is appalling!
Not only do they view themselves as superior to “those people” in terms of their worth as human beings–after all, they were born on the right side of a man-made border–but they also view illegal immigrants (especially Mexicans) as morally wrong and therefore morally inferior to themselves.
It is tragic that some folks’ egocentric views of the world don’t allow them to relate and empathize with people, people they could help if they chose to. I hope these children and their families, whether American or not, don’t have to continue to suffer at their hands.
In order for this to occur, however, it will require people like you and me to do something. What action you take is entirely up to you–speak out, protest, whatever you feel is right, just do something.
American kids denied food stamps in Alabama under immigration law
Some U.S.-born children with parents who are illegal immigrants have been denied food stamps under Alabama’s new immigration law, Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen told Yahoo News on Monday.
Five people have called into the group’s Alabama hotline to say they were denied food stamps because they couldn’t prove they were legal residents, even though the food stamps are for their children, who are citizens.
Cohen says the civil rights group, which has already filed two lawsuits against Alabama over the law, will most likely bring another suit over the denied food stamps.
The law makes it a felony for a government employee to engage in “business transactions” with illegal immigrants, which some government employees have interpreted very broadly. Illegal…d in an email to Yahoo News that it is not the agency’s policy to demand proof of citizenship from the guardians of Americans who need food stamps. “We are unaware of any violations of the policy,” Spear said.
Several parts of the law have been temporarily blocked pending the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on whether the law is constitutional or not. But the “business transaction” prohibition, as well as a mandate for local police to ask for proof of legal status during stops, were left to stand. Some Republican lawmakers say they want to amend the law this year, while a coalition of Democrats is trying to repeal it entirely.
Illegal immigrants are prohibited from accessing most welfare benefits, including food stamps, non-emergency Medicaid and cash welfare programs. Their children, if born in America, can access welfare programs as citizens. (The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that about 4.5 million American citizens under 18 years old have at least one undocumented parent.) […] Source: Yahoo! News
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