A key provision of PRWORA allows states to enact state-funded assistance programs
specifically targeted to their immigrant populations if they wished to attenuate the presumed
adverse impact of welfare reform on the foreign-born. Zimmermann and Tumlin
(1999) and Tumlin et al. (1999) summarize the various programs that states extended to
immigrants in the wake of welfare reform. Although there are many ways of describing
the states’ choices, one simple approach indicates if the states offered TANF, Medicaid,
food assistance, and SSI to pre-enactment and post-enactment immigrants during the initial
5-year bar. It turns out that almost every jurisdiction (50 out of 51) offered TANF and
Medicaid to pre-enactment immigrants. A few states went beyond this “minimal” level of
generosity and offered other programs to their pre-enactment immigrant populations and to
post-enactment immigrants during the 5-year bar. The first two columns of Table 2 summarize
these “beyond-the-minimum” state actions. It is worth noting that many of the states
with large concentrations of immigrants exceeded the minimal level of generosity