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Budget Cuts Target Elderly and Disabled Refugees (2/6/2008)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
PORTLAND
– Many elderly and disabled refugees who have sought asylum in Maine could lose
their only source of income under proposed budget cuts that will be presented
Thursday to a joint meeting of the Appropriations and Health and Human Services
Committees. The budget cuts proposed by Governor John Baldacci would
change current law, which has allowed the state to help disabled refugees who
are here legally but who are not eligible for federal SSI benefits.
The proposed budget cut would remove the sole means of
financial support from many Maine
families, where the head of household presently receives that
benefit.
Several refugees who could be affected by this budget cut
are expected to attend the hearing tomorrow. In an interview this week,
Abdirahman Hassan of Lewiston,
speaking through a translator, explained how he would be affected by Baldacci’s
plan.
“I am going to suffer. I won’t be able to live if the benefit
is eliminated,” said Mr. Hassan, a 59-year-old diabetic who left
Somalia
when the war began. “I don’t think I could make it; I depend on this [benefit]
so much.”
Mr. Hassan led a comfortable life with his family in
Somalia
until war erupted 17 years ago. Much of his family were separated,
deployed, or fled to neighboring countries. He remained in his homeland
until he was diagnosed with diabetes and unable to obtain even basic medication
for his condition. His kidneys failing, he left
Somalia
in search of security that a war torn country could not provide
him.
“When I came here with the assistance of the
[United
States]
government, oh how my life has changed. Now I receive medication, and got
a kidney transplant,” says Mr. Hassan.
Eliminating Mr. Hassan’s benefits
would leave him in circumstances similar to those he fled in
Somalia.
He will not have funds for a home, or medication for his condition.
Over 30 other refugees in Maine
receive this benefit, totaling just over an estimated $180,000 in the state
budget.
These refugees have relied on this state aid program since
the federal welfare reforms act under President Bill Clinton slashed SSI
benefits for non-citizens who are disabled. States have been given the option of
filling the gap, and providing a state benefit to replace the lost federal
funds. Baldacci’s proposed budget cut would remove that option.
Mr. Hassan, who plans to travel to Augusta Thursday with five
other affected immigrants to protest the budget cuts, stressed that the
loss of income for so many people with severe medical problems would create an
undue burden on those who can least afford it:
“If the most
vulnerable - who will not survive because of medical problems, who will not work
because of disability- if the government decides to cut their only source of
income… that is not justice,” said Mr. Hassan.
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