Sounds like minuteman-style hate mail to me. Something I get from white trash who somehow got me on their email list. Really, it just makes the poem-sender look stupid and angry.

Refugee status is rare and hard to attain. Usually refugees are fleeing military juntas that were probably armed by us.

Getting $1000 for SSI means you worked for 30 or 40 years in a low paying job. If I retire right now (I’m 37) I’d get $2600 in SSI. SSI is stupid and should be abolished anyway (I’m not republican but SSI and labor unions are two big reasons to hate democrats, they created both, the former to fund war of all things).

Don’t be disgruntled to foreigners who came here and did better than you. Focus that poetic energy on making your life better! Then you won’t have time to judge everyone else with your hateful perspective. There are so many opportunities in this country, if you’re not going to take them then someone will (maybe someone foreign).

BTW I’m white, American, and not proud when I see stuff like this. It is a shameful reminder that our country really is going to shit, not because of foreigners but because of dumb Americans.

You are foolish if you think the cause of your problems is foreigners. It’s your own government f’ing you over as a reward for not using your brain when you voted.

As a U.S. citizen, I can apply for P.R. for my in-laws, who are in their 70ies. Being over 65, once they get P.R., they pretty much can get welfare and all health benefits

Some info on legal immigration: Most legal immigration needs a sponsor. Since you are talking about in-laws, you can't sponsor them. A Citizen can sponsor parents, minor children, brothers & sisters. If your wife is a US Citizen, she can sponsor for her parents. Sponsoring requires executing a legally binding, "Affidavit of Support", wherein, the sponsor agrees to pay for all expenses of immigrant for 5 years. Now, if they are indigent after 5 years, they can probably apply for SSI/Medical-Medicaid etc., But it is definitely not "get off the boat/aircraft, rush to welfare office" scenario that is sometimes portrayed. I do know many illegals use food stamps, that is because they have minor dependent children, most likely born here in US.

I do not support welfare, SS, or any kind of socialism. I also don’t support illegal immigration but rather better diplomacy.

I have not heard of that scenario (elderly foreign parents getting PR and full benefits) is there somewhere I can read about this? If so that’s trippy but consider this:

IMO non-Americans take care of their elderly. Often they live multiple generations under one roof: parents who bring home the bacon, children who grown and learn, and grandparents who stay home and take care of the children while the parents are out working. When the grandparents are old it is their turn to be taken care of by the rest of the family. This is ideal and just feels “right” to me: we take care of one another generation after generation.

In America, we have day care and social security for that so we don’t need to rely on our families. We have retirement homes and medicare to make sure we’re healthy when we’re old. We have satellite families where everyone is off doing their own thing in their American independent way, and the family as a unit is too spread out to be functional: I.e. we are dysfunctional satellite families and welfare or SS support this. So you might say that welfare and SS perpetuate family dysfunction. In the old days if someone in your family is hungry someone else in the family feeds them, that’s what holds families together and lets them thrive.

Finally, If you are a legal U.S. citizen then I welcome you and your whole family and thank you for coming here, you’re one of us now and have added to our diversity so heck no we’re not going to turn your elderly parents away that’s one of the benefits of doing things legally, welcome to the team.

There are also many illegals(understatement) in non-credit adult ed. This is for the benefit of companies that need trained low skilled labor and probably to some extent our society . The companies contribute to the support of the system but revenue of course comes from taxes. I am not personally bothered by this unless I am grumpy about the benefits to the corporations.
I don’t know if this is still true, but refugees used to get grants to go to college when non -minority and maybe even minority, disadvantaged native borne individuals had to take out loans. This was late 1980’s and I was told by many grant recipients,Vietnamese and African mostly, that they were getting 5k per semester purely based on their refugee status.I also did not have a problem with them recieving it for the reasons Nostradamus pointed out in the first post. I have always been for the underdog anyway and these were all very nice kids.

Don’t they need a SSN? Any number or NONE will do.

– They should speak/read/write enough English for the ed to
be useful. Do many illegals fit that? Yes most Mexicans can speak some English. Besides many or the classes are “ESL” English as a second language with emphasis on using the “system” and low level employment skills employment including basic computer usage..

– Most illegals come to work; where is the luxury of time to go to school? Dish washers, hotel people, cooks many construction people work second or third shifts. Nights, Saturdays, during layoffs when receiving support from spouses and relatives. When they are married to Americans but still undocumented.
There are educated Brazilians and Japanese on visas and overstaying their visas and getting free education, mostly English. I am happy for them they are either taking English and hopefully something good from our culture home or they are staying here and bringing something good to ours. Lots of happy yankees with Brazilian spouses.Yes it is true we could probably not get free Portuguese lessions in Brazil.
– It must be one generous employer to send those folks to school/pay tuition and what assurance the guy will work for the employer. If the guy was a laborer making $8 and becomes a plumber and can make $25, why would he hang on with the employer?

The employers are “partners” with the system on of the most prominent that I know of, “unnamed company” and the hotel chains. The carrot in front of the face of the employee is the promise of promotions INSIDE the company. “Unnamed company”, as far as, I know doesn’t employ illegal aliens but an inside source showed me a document that was a high level agenda to employ English language deficient people at higher levels of production. In other words make an American company more of a exclusive “sweatshop”. The continuing education system is facilitating this probably innocently. There is zero tuition. I don’t know if this company pays or if they are just “good partners” in the community. I am sure their efforts cost them something and you and I too.

– If it is non-credit, usually there is no state support. It is paid for by the student/sponsor.

The budget primarily comes from the state. Many of the students are in fact “sponsored” mostly east Africans at this time. Iraqis next if policy follows a similar path say as Vietnam. Actually we already have a good Iraqi community in San Diego.I notice it most in Rancho San Diego where there is large Chaldean center. They take classes side by side with undocumented individuals.

I hope their is an element of altruism in supporting these new comers. In fact America(governments and corporations) hopes for a return and is doing much of what are original poster is upset about .
I would hope that anyone who expresses hatred for them would at least separate the programs from the people. The saddest part is that I think many still don’t trust us(in part due to attitudes like, the original poster’s being something they face or fear facing, all the time. This crap certainly can’t help us have a better, more cohesive society. As I said on another thread….one should go read the sirnames of the fallen(Americans) in Iraq before going on blabbing about how unfair all of this is.

One thing that bothers me about the original post is the the cadence and language used are akin to “Ebonics” while the poem is about about immigrants. I guess the intention is to be inclusive(sic)? We have a serious “home grown” welfare problem eg. Louisiana, racist clowning around isn’t going to help it.

Edit: The funding comes from State, Federal and Non-Profit sources depending on the objective of the class. There classes are also open and free to any of us. There are also quilting classes for elderly, gardening, parenting, parent child classes, almost anything one could think of.

“Benefits ‘wrecked the British work ethic,’ new study claims:”
“The work ethic that inspired successive generations has ebbed away in the face of the welfare state. There are 2.6 million adults who claim the handout meant for the sick and incapable, with around 20 per cent thought to be fully able – but unwilling – to work. The report said: ‘It has long been recognised that generous unemployment benefits create moral hazard – workers are partly protected against the consequences of being unemployed, so they are less likely to search for jobs with the same intensity.'”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218873/Benefits-wrecked-British-work-ethic-new-study-claims.html#ixzz0TMfuUONj

“Benefits ‘wrecked the British work ethic,’ new study claims:”
“The work ethic that inspired successive generations has ebbed away in the face of the welfare state. There are 2.6 million adults who claim the handout meant for the sick and incapable, with around 20 per cent thought to be fully able – but unwilling – to work. The report said: ‘It has long been recognised that generous unemployment benefits create moral hazard – workers are partly protected against the consequences of being unemployed, so they are less likely to search for jobs with the same intensity.'”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218873/Benefits-wrecked-British-work-ethic-new-study-claims.html#ixzz0TMfuUONj