"Food Stamps in Four Hours" (Mexican consul+USDA)

From the LAT:
Though it goes against the conventional wisdom of anti-illegal immigration supporters, those who enroll the poor in the federal food stamp program say they've struggled for years to get immigrant Latino families signed up.

Now a Spanish-language news report and television ad campaign have spurred thousands of immigrants in Orange County over the last several weeks to contact a nonprofit organization that offers a Spanish-language class called "Food Stamps in Four Hours." [offered at the El Modena Community Center in Orange]

..."They won't come on their own," said Jerry Sanders, food bank manager of the nonprofit Community Action Partnership of Orange County in Garden Grove.

...A Los Angeles County Department of Social Services task force is looking at ways to find eligible families to enroll. County workers have signed up families at food banks with only minor success.

...In 2004, Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service and the Mexican Embassy agreed to jointly disseminate brochures and create the public service announcements.

The agreement led Mexican Consul Luis Miguel Ortiz Haro to tout the food stamp program on Univision's KMEX Channel 34 six weeks ago. The newscast included the partnership's phone number. More than 1,200 people called the partnership in the following days, Sanders said.

Then, two weeks ago, the Department of Agriculture [lead by illegal immigration supporter Mike Johanns] began to air a monthlong series of ads on Spanish-language television in Southern California and three other markets in the U.S.

...In Orange County, several of those attending a recent "Food Stamps in Four Hours" class said they were convinced it was legitimate when they saw Ortiz Haro on television.

[The Mexican consul said on TV:] "This program is not welfare. It won't affect your immigration status... The program is a right, and if we don't use it, it's a privilege that will pass you by."
One of the selling points/lies that cheap labor pimps use is that mentioned in the first paragraph: that illegal aliens are not big users of public welfare. You've probably heard something like, "we're/they're just here to work, not to get welfare." This article shows that it's not because they won't take it, they're just afraid of being deported or of jeopardizing an immigration application. But, once someone they trust (a Mexican leader) tells them it's safe, they'll take it. As I type this, some of the pimps are scratching yet another lie off their list of talking points.

What this program boils down to is a massive subsidy to those who employ those illegal aliens at low wages. It's also a massive subsidy to the Mexican government which doesn't have to take care of their own people, they can push them off on the sucker country next door. And, it's also a boon to the Democratic Party, which has a new set of people who'll become dependent on the welfare state and who will vote Democratic in order to keep their "rights" flowing.

While there's probably little that can be done to stop this program, it and all the other points raised at this site can and should be used to discredit those who explicitly or implicitly support illegal immigration. Discrediting them is easy, the only problem is finding a way to do it in as public a fashion as possible. The current campaign season provides a wonderful opportunity to try to ask tough questions of candidates, so please tell everyone you know to get out there and start discrediting those on the other side.

Comments

This reminds me of 2 things:

1) The Welfare Rights movement in the 70's that more or less trapped several generations on welfare whereby young women (or mere girls, depending on your viewpoint) decided that they were "entitled" to welfare and embarked on a lifetime of government support by having their first baby at 15 with no means or idea of how to support it.

2) The aged parents of well-educated immigrants, who were brought to the US by children who promised faithfully IN WRITING that they would support these parents while at the same time they were filling out papers to put them on SSDI. These parents, who were brought in as a part of family reunification, often lived hundreds of miles away from the children who had promised to support them. In other cases, they lived with the children and put the funds in a bank account as a "gift" to the children or grandkids on their death. Unfortunately it was a "gift" from US taxpayers. When, in a survey, some of them were asked about this SSDI, the parents indicated that they thought that it was a given - come to the US, get SSDI as a benefit. Some even said that they knew about it before they came (which violated their childrens' agreement to support them) and WOULD NOT have come otherwise. You see, they didn't want to BURDEN their children.....

Kaus covers this as well, and between the two of you just about everything that ought to be said about this is said.

perroazul del norte is right about that one.

Food stamp expenditures for illegal alien-headed households are trivial(and would be even if they all signed up for food stamps) compared to Medicaid and non-reimbursed medical care. In most states Medicaid accounts for about three-quarters of public assistance expenditures. The non-reimbursed medical care is, of course, paid for by increased insurance premiums for the insured. BTW, in my experience(about 30 years of it) illegals are never shy about applying for Medicaid.Most of the time they have no choice because the hospital requires them to apply for it. I guess technically they could refuse to apply, but why waste time arguing with the hopital social worker-especially when there is nothing to lose.

Food Stamps in four Hours? why not at the Border? Cheap Labor is a well known joke here in so cal, most Mexicans work from $10 per hour to $ 30 per hour as day labor guys, not $5 per hour.
most Mexicans and third world people come here for the pay not freedom and not to join us in our ideals of Freedom and Laws, Hell boy's most so called Americans don't know U.S. History that is why the Mexican Rich ( Read drug dealers ) will rule our once Great Nation within 10 years if we have 10 years?

ASK WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN FREE MONEY FREE FOOD DISAPPEAR? You will become the target of the third world's people when free becomes a non thing and this nation becomes just like Mexico.

Think About your future think what will be soon.