How can those ILLEGALS take money from our VETS?!!!

I recently got an outraged chain mail that was supposedly started by a disabled vet who wants you to vote against the Democrats who are giving your tax money away to illegal immigrants, or something like that. The problem is, it's nothing but a falsified scare story.

I won't reproduce the whole email, but here's the basic story. The man says that he can barely survive on his vet benefits, but there's this illegal immigrant in Florida who's 25 years old, has 8 kids, and gets $1500 per child per month PLUS food stamps and medicare. He points out that he could be getting food stamps, too, but if he did that, the money equivalent he got in food stamps would be taken out of his veterans disability payments. Then he goes on to complain about how even refugees get $2470 per month in cash benefits. How can we give so much money to immigrants and leave the men who sacrificed their bodies for our countries out to dry?!

Let me take this story apart one piece at a time. Bare with me, the original email was quite long, and my rebuttal is even longer because I actually include references to back up my claims.

irst, let's start with federal disabled vet compensation. It's not based on how much other money you make. There is a compensation rate table which includes the percentage of disability you have and the number of dependents in your care. Here's some information about that:
Main info page: http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/compensation/index.htm
Rate tables: http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/Rates/comp01.htm
Vets benefits application: http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov/vonapp/instructions.asp#21-526

Notice, the vet can get more money if (s)he has children or a spouse. The vet can also get more money if they have certain injuries like a total loss of a limb. There is something that they DON'T mention anywhere in this information, and that's how much money you currently make. It's just not one of the questions.

Where does the money you are making count? SSI disability. That's different. It's a whole 'nother ball of wax. A vet who gets VA benefits may or may not be eligible for SSI disability based on a number of other factors. Note, SSI is supposed to be SUPPLEMENTAL, which is why it is based on income that you get each month. It's not intended to be your main support.
SSI Information: http://www.ssa.gov/d&s1.htm

Now let's look at the case of the supposed illegal immigrant mother with 8 kids in Florida. The email says that she makes more than $1000 per month per child! Well, that's not possible since the maximum monthly benefit for a family of 3 is only $303. That's $101 per person, not $1500 per person. Not only that, there is a lifetime assistance cap for getting welfare at all. In Florida that would provide this woman with assistance for 4 years tops. If she's got 8 kids, she's got 6 months per child to be on welfare, and heck, if she's working the rest of the time, then that's actually pretty fair, don't you think? I mean, it must be hard to juggle eight kids and a job that pays so little that while she's taking time off to breastfeed she still qualifies for welfare!!!

On the other hand, Florida's law specifically says that even LEGAL immigrants are not eligible for any financial assistance that isn't also given to them by the federal government.
Info on Florida's Welfare payments: http://www.nccp.org/profiles/FL_profile_36.html

As for her not paying taxes because she's illegal, that's also not true. This has been shown time and time again. First, many illegal immigrants are working with fake papers which means that their employers are paying income tax for them just like any other employee, only THEY DON'T EVER GET REFUNDS. If you are illegal you aren't about to file an income tax return at the end of the year, right? Secondly, they pay all sorts of other taxes, mostly in the form of sales tax, but not only that. Since they are illegal, they don't get to file for any exemptions from any of the taxes that they might have been able to avoid, and they don't get any deductions.

OK, let's move on to the refugee claim. Refugees in the US have it pretty good, actually. In the UK, if you are a refugee, you aren't allowed to work until your case has been heard in the immigration court, and that can take years. That means that perfectly capable adults who WANT to work are left idle, living in public housing and reliant on charity. Here in the US we want our refugees to get busy as quickly as possible, so we hook them up with charities that help them find housing, food, cash for the short term, and employment that they are qualified to do. Yes, employment. As soon as possible. Because, we Americans know well that when you can make a living for yourself it helps you feel empowered and it helps you integrate into society.

Is it possible to get cash benefits as a refugee here in the US? Yes, it is. For EIGHT MONTHS you can get welfare assistance, but that's dependent on the same cash amounts as other welfare recipients. That means that a refugee living in Florida is going to be getting a whopping $303 for his family of 3. The federal government says it reimburses states for this funding. However, the Office of Refugee Resettlement says that they are currently only reimbursing 15 states for such funding.

There are charitable organizations that also provide cash assistance to refugees, and this can, at times, add up to quite a bit. However, any assistance given to a refugee from such an organization is taken away from any welfare benefits, and in most cases comes in places where no welfare is available at all. At any rate, one should remember that any cash coming to a person from a charitable organization and not the government. While it's possible that some of the organizations funding comes from government grants, it's highly unlikely to be a very major chunk of the overall budget, since that's just not the way these things work. And if private individuals choose to give money to a charity that provides for the needs of refugees who are trying to get settled here, that's their prerogative. Land of the Free and all that.

Refugee benefits: http://www.rcusa.org/index.php?page=post-arrival-assistance-and-benefits
Info from federal govt.: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/benefits/index.htm

You might wonder how I feel about the assistance given to disabled vets in the US after all that. Well, personally, I think that it's atrocious that the government treats vets so poorly. There are a lot of people in the VA who are trying very hard to do the best that they can for veterans, and I know that my father appreciates the care that he gets through the VA hospital here in Seattle. But the system is chronically underfunded and there are still veterans on the street with PTSD, lost limbs, no nearby VA services at all and little or no support of any other sort. That's wrong.

It's wrong, but it has nothing to do with immigration -- legal or otherwise. It has to do with poor prioritization of veterans needs in the both military and social security budgets. Neither of those is the same as "welfare" by the way. They come from different budgets entirely.

So, there you go. This is just another scare tactic email which uses immigrants as a scapegoat in order to get some political gain. Don't buy into it, and tell your friends not to buy it, either. If you want to support the men and women who defended the United States with their bodies and their lives, then do so directly by telling congress to improve services to them and by supporting charitable organizations that provide REAL services to vets, not by trying to scapegoat some other group.