Wei-Min Li, 63, clutched her citizenship handbook tightly, the lines around her eyes deepening in concentration as she tried to pronounce the name of Revolutionary War-era statesman Patrick Henry, and then let out a sigh of frustration.
This class at the South-East Asia Center in Uptown, said Li, remains her only chance at a better life.
Li is among the thousands of immigrants in Chicago who have flocked to citizenship classes since passage of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which denies federal benefits to non-citizens, including legal immigrants.
Under the five-year balanced-budget agreement passed by Congress last week, some of those facing a cutoff of benefits on Oct. 1 will be spared. Non-citizens who already receive Supplemental Security Income, the main federal welfare program for the elderly and disabled, will continue to get it.
But that news has been met with confusion, skepticism and distrust. And for the Southeast Asian immigrant community, virtually all of whom came to the U.S. as refugees, the future is especially unclear.
One provision of the balanced budget accord says non-citizens already receiving SSI won’t lose it, explained Edwin Silverman, manager of refugee and immigrant services for the Illinois Department of Human Services. But another says refugees are eligible to receive federal benefits for only seven years (up from the current five).
“So if you’re a refugee who’s been here more than seven years, do you keep your benefits or lose them?” asked Silverman.
Under welfare reform, Wei-Min Li will not qualify for SSI when she’s 65 because she wasn’t already receiving it when the act was signed on Aug. 22, 1996. She is “too old” and doesn’t know enough English to support herself, said Li, who lives with relatives in Wilmette.
“I don’t think I should be punished because I am old,” she said. “I just want to be a citizen. I try so hard, but I get very nervous when I take the test.”
Li, who comes from Taiwan, said she has tried unsuccessfully twice this year to pass the citizenship exam.
Another newcomer who could fall into the gulch created by welfare reform is Xin Li Li, a Chinese immigrant. Although she is 65, she does not qualify for SSI benefits. Her only source of income is her husband’s $484-a-month SSI check, more than half of which goes to pay for a tiny one-bedroom apartment.
Her husband, Cheng Huang, a U.S. citizen, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, about the same time he was naturalized. If he dies, Xin Li Li said, not only will she lose her companion, but she will lose her livelihood.
“It is not fair,” Xin Li Li said through an interpreter. “I worry every day. I cry every day. I have no future, no hope.”
Although current SSI beneficiaries are grandfathered in, those who turned 65 after Aug. 22, 1996, remain ineligible, unless they can prove disability–or become citizens.
But becoming naturalized is difficult even for those who can learn enough English and history to pass the test, said San O, director of programs at the South-East Asia Center.
Although she has been taking classes since March, Xin Li Li doesn’t know when she will be ready to take the test.
“I’m old and it’s hard to remember things. I learn one thing one day, but the next day I forget it,” she said.
Hoi Ly, a 73-year-old Vietnamese refugee, said he was happy about the news that he will continue to receive his $484 SSI check, but he is still uncertain about his future.
“Next year the government can change the laws again,” Ly said. “I still need to study and take the test to become a citizen.”
Ly said he thought being refugees meant the government would protect them, not “leave us out in the streets for cars to run over.”
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According to Rosemary Gemperle, executive director of the non-profit Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly, two Southeast Asian refugees took their own lives in the past year because they didn’t know how they would cope with the loss of welfare benefits.
Gemperle called the decision to let seniors keep their benefits a major victory. Some of them “can finally relax after a year of worrying and stressing out,” she said.
Barbara Otto, executive director of the SSI Coalition for a Responsible Safety Net, an advocacy group, agreed. “This is great news for the bulk of the people,” she said, “but unfair to others.”
Under welfare reform, more than 38,000 legal resident non-citizens in Illinois will lose their federal food stamps, and no state replacement program exists. About 22,000 Illinoisans faced cutoff of SSI on Oct. 1, but most of them apparently will be spared under the new budget bill.
Indigent non-citizens in Illinois are still eligible to receive Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families if they had legal resident status before Aug. 22, 1996. Medicaid and TANF are financed by the state and federal matching funds.
Thanh Tu, 70, said the new policy discriminates against elderly immigrants.
Tu, who arrived in America in 1991, said he received “on and off” $154 a month for five years, but then it was cut off.
“I really would like to have SSI. I don’t have any money, so I go out and beg to pay for food and rent,” Tu said.
“I’m not asking for special treatment because I am a refugee,” he said. “I only want what is fair. I’m an old man. I would work, but no one will hire me.”