ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609230073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Virginia will begin turning down noncitizen legal immigrants who apply for food stamps starting Monday as part of the federal welfare overhaul, officials said.
For those immigrants already receiving food stamps, state officials will review their cases as their benefits expire; if they are no longer eligible under the new, stricter criteria, they will lose their food stamps.
Under the welfare measure signed into law a month ago, legal immigrants are barred from receiving food stamps until they become citizens, unless they fall into certain exempt categories.
Those exceptions include refugees in their first five years in the country, veterans, and legal residents who have worked 10 years without receiving any federal means-tested benefits.
In Fairfax County, where 12,500 families receive food stamps, an estimated 4,000 legal immigrant families were receiving food stamps in early August. Local officials do not know how many of those families will eventually lose their benefits, but they are scrambling to alert recipients to the changes.
``We hope to send out letters next week,'' said Juani Diaz, who heads Fairfax County's benefits program. In addition to mailing out letters in English, the county also is trying to translate the information into Spanish, Vietnamese and Persian, she said.
In Arlington, where the total food stamp caseload was 4,678 in July, officials said 10 percent to 30 percent of the cases could be affected.
Even though some community groups knew the changes were imminent, some were nevertheless taken by surprise.
``Wow. I didn't know it started on Monday,'' said Kim Oanh Cook, who heads the Falls Church-based Vietnamese Resettlement Association, which works with refugees and immigrants. ``People are constantly applying for food stamps, and I'm sure it's going to hit them.''
Like many community groups in the area, her association has been trying to get assistance from area food banks and other resources to help supplement those who would lose their food stamps. ``But it has been very tough,'' she said. ``We are competing with the other ethnic groups who are poor.''
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