Repaying America’s generosity

The fact that the Boston Marathon bombing was carried out by two immigrants with ties to mostly Islamic Chechnya will have impacts on many fronts. Unfolding revelations could impact the prospects of immigration reform. And questions still loom as to how and why the Russians apparently warned the CIA that older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a prime candidate for terrorism, whereupon the CIA told the FBI, whereupon ... nothing much happened.

But many Americans simply wonder how a family could come to this country seeking peace, opportunity, a lack of prejudice, even charity — find them all — and then feel enough rage to want to kill and cripple innocent women and children they’ve never met.

While Americans are frequently assured immigrants don’t qualify for welfare, the family of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two accused brothers, received food stamps and welfare when the brothers were growing up, according to a letter from the state Department of Transitional Assistance, obtained by the Boston Globe.

The Tsarnaev parents were eligible for benefits as legal non-citizen residents with asylum status. The Tsarnaev brothers were both in the country legally.

Tamerlan’s wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, also received food stamps and welfare benefits from September 2011 to November 2012, according to the letter.

Gratitude? From Russia, the young men’s mother, Zubeidat, blames everything on the United States, claiming the bombing was a fake and her sons were framed, one “murdered” by police.

Yes, make some allowances for a distraught mom. But as the woman moaned at a press conference Thursday “America took my kids away from me, Why did I go there? Why?” ... many an American had to be wondering the same thing.