In today's Boston Globe, there is a featured article about the new budget plan that was finalized last night. In many ways, the new budget is a step forward for the Massachusetts immigrant community. Some of the more extreme proposals of the new amendment did not pass, such as the hotline to anonymously report suspected illegal immigrants. However, the new budget poses other hardships for the immigrant community. With the new budget, making proof of legal residency for public benefits is now the law. This new law will be a waste of money, since each agency already has methods of checking the residency status of each person they see. Another negative change is the elimination of "the CommonwealthCare Bridge program, which provides state-subsidized health insurance for almost 30,000 legal immigrants". By doing this, as the MIRA press statement explains, "lawmakers have sent a message of distrust...The erosion is then greatly compounded by the elimination of state-sponsored health care for nearly 30,000 legal, taxpaying residents, who have been targeted merely for being foreign born".
This budget is neither a complete victory nor a complete defeat for the immigrant community. Responses to the budget will come up in the next few days as the heated debate over immigration goes on.
Click here to read MIRA's press statement.
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