DATE: Tuesday, August 26, 1997              TAG: 9708260346

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   56 lines

NEARLY ONE MILLION LEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO LOSE FEDERAL FOOD STAMP BENEFITS

Faced with the removal of nearly 1 million legal immigrants from the federal food stamp rolls, some states are moving to fill the gap.

So far, 10 states have taken steps to extend benefits to some of the 935,000 noncitizens cut off as part of the federal welfare changes enacted a year ago. By month's end, the last of them will have received their final federal food stamps, which average $172 a month per household.

The cuts hit particularly hard in four states - California, Florida, New York and Texas - which account for three-quarters of all noncitizens on food stamps. Of the four, only Texas has taken no steps to provide relief to the 168,000 immigrants there who were receiving food stamps earlier this year.

While applauding the states that took action, immigrant advocates worry the help doesn't cover all of the noncitizens who had been on food stamps, typically covering just the elderly, children or disabled. They worry that impoverished immigrants ineligible for federal or state assistance have few avenues for help.

Food pantries and soup kitchens say they cannot possibly make up for the welfare law's food stamp cuts - estimated at $22 billion over five years, including $3.7 billion for immigrants.

``The law really is harsh on most legal immigrants,'' said Sister Christine Vladimiroff, a Benedictine nun who is president of Second Harvest, the nation's largest charitable emergency food provider.

Not all of the 1.4 million noncitizens who were receiving federal food stamps earlier this year are losing them.

Exempted from the cuts are legal immigrants with U.S. military service, their spouses and dependents; those who can prove they worked at least 10 years in the United States; and refugees and those granted asylum for their first five years in the country.

A Tufts University study commissioned by Second Harvest estimates the food stamp cuts for citizens and noncitizens are equivalent to taking nearly 24 billion pounds of food from the poor over five years.

Second Harvest, which provided 1 billion pounds of food last year to the poor, would have to increase its output by 425 percent to make up the difference, the study estimated.

Authors of the 1996 welfare overhaul turned their attention to noncitizens while looking for ways to curb growth in programs such as food stamps, Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid. The cutbacks in noncitizens' benefits accounted for nearly half of the $55 billion in savings envisioned over five years under that law.

Proponents of the cuts noted that immigrants must sign a pledge upon admission promising not to become public charges. Those who sponsor immigrants into the United States - often family members - must be the first recourse for needy new arrivals, they said.

But advocates for immigrants contend the cuts are unfair, both in their size and because they amount to a mid-game change in rules for people who came to the United States legally and who work and pay taxes. The working poor comprise most of the immigrants on food stamps, they say.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu