Did you know that disabled and senior refugees get SSI? Fort Wayne, IN Somali case is illustrative
And, some receive it virtually upon arrival in the US.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program that provides cash to low-income people who are either aged (65 or older), blind, or disabled.
This story is from the Fort Wayne New-Sentinel.
A few years ago we wrote extensively on Ft. Wayne and its huge Burmese refugee population. In fact it is the first place we learned that refugees are admitted to the US with TB. The Ft. Wayne (Allen County) health department was struggling with a large number of cases in 2007 (and may still be).
So, now comes a story about a Somali who hasn’t been able to work and has been receiving kidney dialysis. But, he is up against the little-known ‘seven year rule’ which says an immigrant must become a citizen within 7 years of arrival in order to continue to receive taxpayer-funded services like SSI.
The focus of the story is Sugow Said who was resettled in Ft. Wayne in 2004 and is illustrative of the consequences and cost of resettling refugees who will make no contribution to America.
After arriving in Fort Wayne, Said first worked at a cemetery, then later for an office cleaning company.
Said’s life now revolves around dialysis treatments. He has end-stage renal disease, likely due to living for years with untreated high blood pressure before coming to the United States. Since starting dialysis in 2010, he has been physically unable to work at the cleaning job or another one that accommodates his stringent three-days-a-week dialysis schedule and his limited labor and very limited English language skills.
We are told that Nyein Chan, refugee resettlement coordinator for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, helps run the only resettlement program in Ft. Wayne at the moment.
Because of his disability, in early 2011, Said applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In an April 11, 2011, letter, Social Security informed Said: “We have carefully reviewed the facts of your case and have approved the claim for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits that you filed on Jan. 18, 2011.”
SSI initially provided a lifeline of $535 a months for the family, which includes the Saids’ three youngest children, all now teenagers. By 2014, annual adjustments by the Social Security Administration (SSA) had increased Said’s SSI monthly check to $721.
[….]
The SSA operations manual states qualified aliens with disabilities are told when first receiving SSI about the seven-year time limit in which they must gain U.S. citizenship or lose their SSI. An annual reminder about the seven-year rule is also to be mailed to each recipient.
Only in Said’s initial 15-page approval letter, which he was never able to read on his own, was the rule mentioned and explained.
[….]
Health department clinics see a growing number of older refugees with physical and mental disabilities, McMahan [Allen County Commissioner of Health Dr. Deborah McMahan] said.
“I recently had an 80-year-old who was seeing and hearing things,” she noted. “How am I going to teach him English?”
Congress in the past has addressed the seven-year rule, with National Senior Citizens Law Center, now called Justice in Aging, helping lead those efforts for nearly two decades, said Gerald McIntyre(cq), directing attorney for the agency whose mission is to fight senior poverty through law.
[….]
“No one is spending time on this now,” he said. “It is really hopeless. There is such hostility,” he said, even for humanitarian immigrants.
No kidding! Too many refugees with too many needs will eventually sour initially welcoming and generous Americans on the whole scheme. Concerned citizens and taxpayers are asking—-what about our own poor and disabled people?
There is much more, read it all here.
Catholic Resettlement Programs throughout the US—resettling refugees and ‘Unaccompanied alien children.’
I just discovered this handy list at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website of all their resettlement offices in the US!
Maybe the Bishops could pony-up the money needed by Mr. Said?
See our Ft. Wayne archive, here. This post is filed in our ‘where to find information’ category and in our ‘health issues’ file. New readers might want to check those out.
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