Many laid-off workers ineligible for food stamps

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 9:54 a.m.

Thousands of workers laid off in Las Vegas after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are not eligible for food stamps -- despite being legal, tax-paying residents.

Of the estimated 16,000 out of work, as many as 3,500 are legal immigrants, and although they qualify for unemployment, because of a 1996 law they cannot get food stamps.

Resident immigrants, who were on the same footing as citizens before 1996, were made ineligible for food stamps by the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.

Immigrants who arrived after 1996 now have to pay into Social Security for 10 years to qualify for food stamps. Exceptions include refugees from certain countries, such as Vietnam, and military personnel and their families.

The new law cut an estimated 825,000 legal immigrants from the program

Up to half of the 7,000 laid-off workers seeking help at the Culinary Union's Project Helping Hand in October were residents who couldn't get food stamps, D. Taylor, staff director of the Culinary Union, estimated.

"It's a terrible shame," Taylor said. "A lot of people working in our industry are recent immigrants, and they are the first people to get laid off. They're legal, they pay taxes, they send their children to school, but when they're out of work, they can't get help."

As many as 50,000 members of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International may be faced with the same problem nationwide. The hospitality industry is one of the hardest hit by layoffs since the Sept. 11 attacks, Taylor said.

About 16,600 more unemployment insurance claims than normal have been filed by workers in Nevada since Sept. 11, Birgit Baker, administrator for the State Employment Security Division, said.

About 13,000 laid-off workers applied for food stamps and Medicaid in Clark County in September and October, Sandee Wyand, field supervisor for Nevada State Welfare, said.

Legal immigrants are eligible for unemployment benefits. Neither the unemployment nor the welfare office analyzes how many claims are filed by immigrants. Wyand said 37 percent of the workers seeking services at Project Helping Hand were Hispanic.

"Many of these Hispanics were legal immigrants who applied, because their children were born in the United States and they could at least receive food stamps for their children," Wyand said.

Laid-off workers have been turning to local food pantries after finding they aren't eligible for food stamps.

"We've been getting about 350 people a week coming to us for food since Sept. 24," Clentine Coleman, social services director at Catholic Charities, said.

About 300 laid-off workers of 1,750 at Catholic Charities were residents who couldn't receive food stamps, Coleman said.

Zulie Franco, director of the Hispanic-American Partnership, has seen 150 people a week since Sept. 15, about 10 percent of whom are legal residents who sought food stamps first.

The Nevada Association for Latin Americans has given 800 laid-off workers food since Sept. 11, about 10 percent of whom are residents who couldn't receive food stamps. English said that two tons of canned food ran out in the last week of October.

Zanira Al-Amin volunteered from the State Welfare Division at Project Helping Hand.

"It was hard to get many of the workers to understand that they didn't qualify for food stamps, since they thought being a resident made them eligible," she said.

"They said they pay taxes and it isn't fair. It was frustrating for me as well -- I told them, if they were mine, I'd give them away."

A bill in the Senate would restore food stamp benefits to legal immigrants.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., 24 other senators are urging the Senate Agriculture Committee to include Senate Bill 583 the Farm Bill now moving through Congress.

"The time is right for this bill," said Ellen Vollinger, legal director for the Washington-based Food Research and Action Center, which supports the legislation.

"Since 1996 we have seen the gaping hole left in the safety net for these people. But what we are seeing now is lending more gravity to the issue. What is happening in Las Vegas is also happening in Los Angeles, New York and other cities where tourism is important.