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Senate chief calls plan to bar aid for illegal immigrants unnecessary

E-mail|Link|Comments () May 25, 2010 12:33 PM

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Senate President Therese Murray said today that she will oppose an attempt by Senate Republicans to pass a controversial measure this week that would bar illegal immigrants from receiving state and federal benefits in Massachusetts.

Globe file

Murray

Murray, a Plymouth Democrat, said Republicans are targeting a problem that does not exist, because the state already checks applicants for public benefits using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement program, or SAVE.

“I think they know the SAVE program is already done in almost every one of our agencies, so it’s kind of a little smoke and mirrors here,” Murray told reporters during an impromptu interview in a State House hallway. “We already do this stuff.”

Just steps away from Murray, the Senate's five Republicans were holding their own press conference to advocate for the measure, which failed narrowly in the House just a few weeks ago and is scheduled for debate as part of the Senate's budget this week.

Republicans predicted the amendment would pass because the Senate has in past years approved similar measures that would have screened public housing applicants to ensure they are in the country legally. Those measures have subsequently died in House-Senate conference committees.

“The United States has immigration laws in place that deserve to be enforced, and it’s about whether we’re going to do our part to say we respect those laws and we respect the people who come to this country legally," said Senator Bruce E. Tarr, a Gloucester Republican. "They are not the same as people who come this country and make their first act an illegal one.”