Welfare Law Prompts Naturalization Plan

Ventura County will spend $30,000 to naturalize poor immigrants in an attempt to keep them off county welfare rolls and avoid having to pay up to $21 million.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to appropriate $30,000 to help pay for citizenship classes for some of the county’s estimated 6,000 legal residents who will lose their Supplemental Security Income benefits when federal welfare reform laws are enacted later this year.

Officials expect the program will more than offset the costs it would incur if indigent green cardholders turn to county-funded general relief for financial help.

The county would have to find up to $21 million if all legal immigrants who lost their welfare benefits began to depend on the county for assistance, officials said. This year’s general relief budget is about $730,000. General relief is considered a social safety net of last resort for people ineligible for any other type of aid.

Latino advocacy group El Concilio del Condado de Ventura expects to provide citizenship assistance to at least 1,000 immigrant welfare recipients during the next five months. Elderly and disabled welfare recipients, who are least likely to find jobs and often require expensive care, will be targeted under the program.