Whittling 50,000 illegal immigrants from Colorado’s social service rolls – and confirming that the 1 million others who get aid are legitimate – could take up to a year to complete, state officials say.
The legislature passed a bill Monday – and Gov. Bill Owens has said he’ll sign it – requiring anyone getting cash assistance such as food stamps, welfare or even eviction prevention help to prove he or she is a legal resident.
Owens estimates as many as 50,000 undocumented people are getting public benefits.
But the state’s top social service officials say bringing that number down must occur over time, not en masse. That’s because the bill applies to new applicants and those that must be routinely recertified.
Since recertification occurs at different intervals depending on the program, purging illegal immigrants as their cases routinely surface could take a year.
“It’s reasonable to expect that by then we should have found anyone who is not supposed to be receiving benefits,” state Department of Human Services spokeswoman Liz McDonough said.
On average, the state handles about 30,000 new applications for aid each month and 40,000 recertifications.
Key for DHS is coming up with a plan that would prevent thousands of people from clogging social service agencies as they attempt to prove their legal residency or citizenship, McDonough said.
Programs such as Temporary Aid to Needy Families require recipients to recertify their eligibility each month. Until now, that’s been done by mail.
Under the bill, recipients and applicants must attest in writing beginning Aug. 1 that they are in the country legally and must provide either a Colorado driver’s license, a state or military identification card, or a Native American tribal document.
“This can be a very difficult thing for counties to handle,” McDonough said. “We’re trying to prevent a nightmare.”
Legislators hailed it as one of the toughest immigration reform laws in America, but it’s left government employees scrambling to determine how the welfare purge will actually work.
Department of Human Services bosses who met Wednesday to discuss its implementation expect new rules to be distributed to county social service providers once Owens signs it into law, McDonough said.
The state monitors welfare programs and counties administer them.
Although other cash programs, such as eviction prevention or energy assistance, are one-time safety nets, each applicant would need proof of legal residency.
The state already screens welfare applicants by checking Social Security numbers and resident alien cards with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ensure the demographics match.
“We make sure that a man’s card, for instance, doesn’t come back belonging to a 6-month-old girl,” McDonough said.
DHS officials hit a speed bump early in their meeting Wednesday.
The bill says only new applicants must present identification, not those already getting public aid. That would mean illegal welfare recipients would keep getting it.
“That’s when we looked to legislative intent and it’s now clear to us that it also applies to recertifications,” McDonough said.
Unclear, too, is any effect on the state’s benefit-tracking system, a computer-based program known as CBMS. The elaborate system has had its share of glitches, much of it related to programming.
The system doesn’t track whether a benefit recipient is a legal resident. That might change, but only if DHS asks for it, CBMS director John Witwer said.
“They will set the policy and we will implement it,” Witwer said of the department.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-820-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
