Is it your opinion that anyone not looking like an 'immigrant' using an EBT is automatically "Valid" and "Deserving"?
So are you convinced that people that "appear to be not eligible " are automatically not citizens?
So you only see South Americans, Asians, East European? You did not see anyone of African origin and if you did did you automatically assume they are legal?

No, my opinion is that it is the responsibility of DFaCS to verify the citizenship eligibility of each and every applicant for public assistance, as is required by Title 4, H.R. 3734 of 1996, the federal law that governs those programs.
State DFaCS was advised by one of the Atlanta Television investigative reporters of their violating of federal law, and they did not seem to care and stated that they were not aware of such regulations. I personally looked up the legislation for myself, and sure enough Georgia DFaCS is in violation of Federal Law.

The reason I did not mention those of "African" origin is that I cannot really tell the difference by sight of someone from African descent from those from the Caribbean Island nations, which are also people of color. But The law is the law and the Law states that Illegal Immigrants are not to receive ANY benefits from federal public assistance programs, nor are most legal immigrants. Thant is the simple and plain truth. Our State is paying these benefits illegally and we the taxpayers are having to pay for this, while we have to look at our children having to suffer due to drastic cuts to our states educational system.
Which is more important for Georgia: providing illegal funding to illegal immigrants who are in our nation in violation of the law, or funding our children's education? Georgia has the 49th ranked education system in the United States and to cut more from education is plain insanity

I agree with your assessment for more education funding. For some reason that seems to be the first thing the states cut. Libraries and teachers can be on furlogh but dont you dare touch my golf course!! LOl

Which public assistance program are you talking about? I was looking at somethings and I havent seen any evidence of WIC needing citizenship. It is upto the states to decide how the program is implemented.

I looked up the H.R 3734 you had mentioned and nowhere did I see the provision enforcing the checking of "citizenship" status. If you could provide me with the section, I'd appreciate it.

Here is what I found

Quote:
(Sec. 742) Provides that an individual eligible to receive free public education benefits under State or local law shall not be ineligible to receive benefits under the NSLA school lunch program or the CNA school breakfast program on the basis of citizenship, alienage, or immigration status.

Declares that nothing in this Act shall prohibit or require a State to provide to an individual who is not a citizen or a qualified alien benefits under: (1) NSLA and CNA programs other than the school lunch and school breakfast programs; (2) specified provisions of the Agricultural and Consumer Protection Act of 1973; (3) the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983; and (4) the food distribution program on Indian reservations under the Food Stamp Act of 1977.
End-quote

It does not matter where the illegal comes from. What matters is that they be removed from our nation. Any other country would not have an issues removing illegal’s from their nation.

People complain about education cuts, law enforcement cuts, EMT cuts and fire department closings. The first cuts all states should make across the board is for all services to end for anyone, I mean anyone who is in our nation illegally, on an expired visa, be work or school and or have anchor babies.

It makes me ill to see that local and federal government will cater to these people and leave their state and our nation at great risk for financial ruin, which had started a long time ago.

America and Americans should come before all others here in our nation. Other nations have always put their people first.

Our nation, the United States of America has failed to do so for a very long time and that should begin to change.

When should it change?

How about right now.

Ilivehere: In other words neither you nor the original poster have any proof to backup the claim of that there is any violation of any federal law. Why dont you take some time off from your rants and actually see what the law says? Legal immigrants have a lot more rights than many assume. The original poster claims violation of Federal law if the state programs fund Legal immigrants. I couldnt find any verbiage in the Law quoted to support the claim. Was the TV interviewer misinformed or just twisting facts... I dont know. If there is a violation that we should protest against... we need to see for certain that there is a violation! Loose interpretations or worse wrong interpretation of laws can be very bad for the society.

devilsadv: Your rant is toward the legal immigrant. Mine was towards illegals in our nation. Get your facts straight.

Better check your medications and take them as directed, they appear not working for you.

@ILIVEHERE and MPMcMAHON:

How is it that either of you KNOW that all illegals are NOT paying taxes??? Are you implying that the workers at our local (or US) fast food establishments, picking up our garbage or working at Wal-Mart are not having taxes taken out of their checks?? Are you aware that even though those taxes are taken out of their checks that they will never be able to retrieve that money?
How about those US citizens who have never worked, but are just as capable as myself and other Americans of working??? They and their families receive benefits that many of us on unemployment do not. Now that is the "unequality" we all should be ranting about.
In my opinion, anyone who comes to our country, is willing to work hard, and eventually take their oath for citizenship, is contributing much more to this country than those who would rather bask in the benefits they can receive from NOT contributing.

startouched, it is because illegal immigrants are not working at a fast food joint or Wal-Mart. They are the ones you see take jobs that only pay cash because illegals don't have valid SS cards which are required to be employed in the state of GA. And if an illegal is employed by one of these chains, it is because they are using a fake or stolen SS card - which is a felony. So no, illegal immigrants are not paying any taxes with the notable exception of state and local sales tax which everyone pays.

devilsadv, Title IV of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, does bar both legal and illegal immigrants from receiving welfare and yes if Georgia is allowing this to happen, they are in violation of federal law. A simple Google search of this act and immigration will bring you the analysis of this act and will show these exclusions.

I agree that some legal immigrants have a better work ethic than some of our own natural born citizens, but laws are laws and must be followed. If we don't agree with them, then work to get the law changed. I agree - given our current fiscal crisis in this state - that DFACS should take a close look at who is receiving assistance and pull assistance to those who don't meet eligibility requirements. I also know first hand that people abuse this system and should not be receiving this aid - actual state and U.S. citizens - and they should be purged as well, but that is a total reform that needs to be done for the longer fiscal outlook.

Coop: I did look up the act. Thanks for the link. I did notice that the law does provide limited benefits for qualified aliens. I am not one to say that all immigrants work harder than citizens. If that was true we would not the #1 country in the world! I am just troubled by the implications of the original post that people that don’t ‘look like’ they belong are not eligible. Very soon a majority of Americans might look like they don’t belong here. If the original post was a simple ‘lets check citizenship/eligibility’ for people on welfare I would have been happy. But when one describes physical features or race as criteria of possible ineligibility it hints of prejudice to me. Forsyth is changing. We have people of all races and nationalities in our county and not all are illegal. Did you know that legal aliens on payroll pay SS taxes and medicare even though they might never use them?
As for the necessity of the programs I am pretty mixed. On the one hand you have the indigent, the disabled and people with bad luck and on the other you have those that exploit the system. I cannot call for an end of such programs mainly due to those that genuinely need it.
Whether or not illegals are paying ‘taxes’ is a subject on its own. When you think about it they are actually subsidizing labor. Who are the beneficiaries?... the companies that employ them. Who benefits from lower prices?... the consumers. Yes the govt doesn’t collect taxes but the businesses can survive in a lower cost environment. Do you really want to send more ‘taxes’ to the govt by employing higher cost labor and paying more for your services? I would like to know the ratio of cost (Welfare programs) to benefit (to businesses and consumers). There are millions of illegals here… they all (or most of them) have to be doing something to put food on the table.
As far as one’s poster’s islamophobic rants… it scares the bajeezes out of me. Not about muslims… but about people like the poster.

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@coop3635 & devilsdadv:

I appreciate and understand both your comments. However, anyone can work for a business on a "cash" basis up to X$ before having to report that as income. The payer records that as an "expense". And to be perfectly honest, I would rather pay cash for a job well done by an alien standing out on the street corner (these "aliens" are in most cases are excellent craftsmen) than to a non-alien who could care less whether or not they provide you with quality service.

The real issue is more basic than complex. Lack of resources tends to cause solutions to be more complex than simple. Our planet simply cannot support our population. I don't dare imagine that there is an answer for any of the issues that exist today. However, I do believe that people are people and all a part of the Great Spirit. Simply put, who goes to what soup kitchen, stands out on what street corner, or who gets care at a local health department isn't very important in the bigger picture. As I said before, anyone who comes to this country, works hard, takes a citizenship oath is the same as a natural born citizen. Those who are hired by employers who choose not to follow Federal/state/local employment guidelines are not the ones who are in error. And if the employers do so, they should be reported and be dealt with appropriately. Maybe a citizens group should be started to provide volunteer services to agencies who should be regulating this practice :-)

Most individuals who work on a cash basis, do not report their incomes, as it is an underground economy, along with the process of bartering. It is the two most common ways to attempt to keep the Government from knowing your income, and thus avoiding taxes, or in some cases, falsely reporting the income to the SSN's of unsuspecting individuals, who then get the notices from the IRS that they have to appear to explain why they didn't report all their income on their tax returns. And that happens more and more every year (It is a common form of Identity Theft).

But one of the solutions to this is to make it very uninviting for the illegal immigrants to come to Georgia, by immediately cutting off their illegally given welfare benefits (SNAP (what used to be Food Stamps), TANF (Used to be AFDC) Section 8 Housing and Medicaid) We pay for the taxes that pay for the benefits, but then Georgia turns around and gives the benefits to the illegal immigrants. We should not have to discuss this, as it is FEDERAL LAW that prohibits granting those benefits to all illegal immigrants and most legal ones as well.