New York City mayor announces legal challenge to welfare reform (04/06/97)

New York City mayor announces legal challenge to welfare reform

NEW YORK - Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on March 26 that the City of New York has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging provisions of the Welfare Reform Act that deny Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and food stamps to legal permanent resident aliens residing in New York City prior to the date of the enactment of these laws.

In the lawsuit, New York City charges that the new law violates the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

"The purported justification for this policy by Congress is that removing the SSI benefits of aged, blind and disabled people, and eliminating food stamps for low income and elderly individuals, will 'encourage self-sufficiency' and discourage illegal immigration," Mayor Giuliani said. "This justification makes no sense. The affected SSI class is, by definition, unable to attain self-sufficiency. And those who receive food stamps are already living on the margin."

"Removing benefits from this population is unfair and cruel. The new law is more of a flawed effort by the federal government to reduce its budget at the expense of states and cities than a means of achieving real immigration reform," he added.

The city's corporation counsel, Paul Crotty, said, "The Supreme Court has held that Congress has the right to draw a line between aliens and citizens, and that legitimate distinctions between the two may justify benefits for one class not accorded to the other. But the place where that line is drawn cannot be wholly irrational as it clearly is in this instance."

The class of legal immigrants affected are those who have met all the stringent legal requirements necessary to become permanent legal residents but have not yet become citizens. They pay the taxes that support the SSI and food stamp programs. Failure to attain citizenship is often a result of mental or physical infirmity or illiteracy, and can be an impossibility in the case of severely mentally disabled individuals because they are incapable of taking the oath of allegiance.

While recipients of SSI and food stamps will most likely be eligible for local assistance, provided at a lower level than SSI by New York City and New York state pursuant to the Home Relief program, not all those legal aliens removed from the federal benefits programs will necessarily obtain such public assistance. Because of their physical and mental impairments, a significant number of legal immigrants are likely to become destitute and homeless, thereby affecting the health, welfare and social fabric of the entire city.

New York City is filing its lawsuit at the same time as a consortium of legal services groups in New York City. A similar class action is being filed on the West Coast. New York City will continue to cooperate with these groups so that legal immigrants are not deprived of benefits.

The mayor was joined by representatives from the New York Legal Assistance Group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Disability Advocacy Rights and the Legal Aid Society.

In addition to Mr. Crotty, New York City is represented by Lorna Goodman, Gail Rubin and Hilary Klein of the Affirmative Litigation Division of the Corporation Counsel's Office.

| Home Page |