Legal immigrants and their advocates Thursday implored Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to scrap a provision in his proposed budget that would reduce funding for certain health-care, food and income-support programs.

In addition to capping enrollment, the GOP governor is proposing transferring responsibility from the state to the counties for administering services provided to immigrants under four programs.

Advocates fear the restructuring would erode services for the elderly and children at nominal savings to the state - $6.6 million, according the state Department of Finance.

"You don't take milk out of babies' mouths or food away from grandmothers when you're balancing your family's budget - and neither should the governor," said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative, a statewide coalition.

Counties would receive block grants to administer services provided to immigrants under the California Food Assistance Program, Cash Assistance Program, CalWORKs welfare program and the Healthy Families health-care program for children.

"We think it's going to provide counties with greater flexibility and better priority-setting in providing health and human services to immigrants at the local level," said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the Department of Finance.

In addition to freezing spending on the four programs, the administration seeks to cut their funding by 5 percent overall on the assumption that counties will make savings in administration costs.

But advocates contend that counties do not have the infrastructure to absorb these services and that the governor's proposal will create new bureaucracies, resulting in additional cuts.

On Thursday, a group of elderly immigrants from Fresno presented their plight to the Senate budget subcommittee that has jurisdiction over health and human services.

"If you cut my (Cash Assistance Program income), it would be as if you killed me," Nang Singha, a 73-year-old Laotian immigrant, told the panel.

Pa Khanthaly, another Laotian immigrant, told the panel that he has survived on the program since his Supplemental Security Income benefits ran out in September under the seven-year limit for immigrants imposed by the federal Welfare Reform Act of 1996.

"I cannot go back to my home country because I fought against (the communists)," said Khanthaly, 77.

The Rev. Sophia DeWitt of the Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries told the budget committee that many elderly immigrants faced persecution in their countries because they supported U.S. policies.

In an interview, DeWitt said the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger should be sensitive to the needs of immigrants who have not been as fortunate.

"Our message to him is that this is not the appropriate thing to do in order to solve the state's budget problems," she said.

Earlier, advocates gathered in front of the I Street post office in downtown Sacramento the day tax returns came due to call attention to the contributions of immigrants to California's economy.

"About a third of our work force is made up of immigrants - documented and undocumented," Shamasunder said. "We're just asking that immigrants be treated fairly for the tax dollars they contribute to our state and are able to have a safety net they can fall back on during their time of need."

Depending on how the administration's proposal is implemented, counties could be free to alter benefit amounts and eligibility rules. Advocates warn that the cuts would affect the most vulnerable immigrants, including seniors and children.

There are an estimated 24,000 immigrant recipients of the California Food Assistance Program, CalWORKs for Immigrants and the Cash Assistance Program.

About the same number of immigrant children enrolled in Healthy Families also would be affected.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office has raised concerns about the restructuring, warning that "the programs proposed for transfer to the counties are not well-suited for local control."

In its analysis, the Legislative Analyst's Office says "the state has an interest in maintaining uniformity in benefit levels. Otherwise, (it) could lead to migration effects, whereby one county's reduction in benefits spurs others to reduce benefits in order to avoid becoming a benefit 'magnet.' "

But Palmer said the Schwarzenegger administration believes that counties are better suited to administer the programs than the state. "Different counties have different compositions of populations of documented immigrants," he said. "The documented population of Kings County, for example, is different than the documented population of Kern County."

Palmer said the administration believes the counties can "better tailor" the programs to meet the needs of their local population.

"We anticipate having more specifics on this proposal as we get closer to the May (budget) revision," Palmer said.