Washington Matters
Sticking It to Illegal Immigrants,
Just to Make a Point
The Senate health care bill's treatment of illegals is cruel -- and counterproductive.
By Mark Willen, Senior Political Editor, The Kiplinger Letter
December 22, 2009
- Comments
- Email This Article
- Print This Article
- Order a Reprint
Advertisement
The House version of the health care bill bars illegal immigrants from receiving any form of government subsidy to help them buy insurance in the exchanges that will be set up to foster competition and reduce the rolls of the uninsured. While the provision is likely to increase costs for the government, employers and individuals because of cost shifting, it is understandable that many Americans would reject the idea of rewarding illegals by providing subsidized insurance.
But the Senate bill goes a dangerous step further, and its immigration provision is much harder to justify. It would prevent illegal immigrants from buying insurance on the state-run exchanges, even if they do so with their own money. This is cruel, stupid and probably unworkable. It is akin to barring illegals from buying food in grocery stores or restaurants and making them get free food in soup kitchens, which are subsidized by private donors and government aid.
Let’s step back for a second and try to view this logically.
First, let’s agree that these people broke the law when they entered the country, and that is a fundamental and unacceptable situation. But they were able to do it over the past two decades because successive administrations looked the other way. Democrats did it, by and large, out of misplaced generosity. Republicans did it, by and large, because employers needed to fill jobs that Americans wouldn’t take for the wages that were available. Instead of treating the problem as a labor issue (which the unions wouldn’t have stood for) or a humanitarian issue (which might have stoked fears that native-born Americans would be overrun by foreigners), Congress and the successive presidents ignored the problem.
The end result is more than 10 million illegal immigrants now living in the U.S., many of whom are spouses or parents of U.S. citizens. That is the reality that we as a nation must confront. We can’t round them up and deport them, even if we want to. It would cost too much and put too huge a burden on law enforcement.
In the past several years, some real steps have been taken to enforce our laws more strictly. We have tightened our borders, adding thousands more agents and building a fence. We’ve also made it harder for illegals to find jobs by putting more pressure on employers, which undercuts the principal motivation for sneaking across the border. (No doubt the recession helped by drying up construction and service jobs, but that won’t last.) The enforcement steps have had a real effect. Illegal immigration is down, and in fiscal 2009, the Justice Department filed 9% more criminal charges against immigrants, with 16% more prosecutions, than in the previous year.
Slowing the flow is the right thing to do, but it doesn’t help deal with the immigrants already here. Plainly, some will go home if they can’t find jobs and feel persecuted in their daily lives. We can make life uncomfortable for them -- and we are -- but people who have lived here 20 years, established families, have jobs and set down roots aren’t likely to pick up and leave on their own.
Enter the health care debate. When we deny even the right to buy insurance to illegals, we force them to forgo preventive care and ignore minor health problems until they become far more serious -- exactly what the health care bill is designed to prevent. They end up in emergency rooms with serious conditions, where they get far more expensive treatment for free. The hospital passes on the cost to other patients and their insurers, and premiums rise across the board. The government gets stuck with a good share of that. Insurers also lose access to illegal immigrants as customers. Studies have shown that by and large, immigrants are younger and healthier than the general population, so adding them to the insurance pool would lower costs for everyone.
The Senate provision is punitive and immoral, but it is also a case of biting off our noses to spite our faces. Ultimately, we are hurting taxpayers.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the small unconnected steps the government is taking to deal with the immigration problem can’t resolve the larger issue. Only a comprehensive overhaul -- with a realistic plan for dealing with the illegal immigrants already in the U.S. -- can help us move forward.
Tags:
Topics:
- Comments
- RSS
Permission to post your comment is assumed when you submit it. The name you provide will be used to identify your post, and NOT your e-mail address. We reserve the right to excerpt or edit any posted comments for clarity, appropriateness, civility, and relevance to the topic.
View our full privacy policy
Reader Comments (37)
Posted by: Weiwen Ng at 12/22/2009 04:27:28 PM
Undocumented and uninsured immigrants will still be able to buy insurance directly from the insurance companies. A number of undocumented immigrants are likely insured at work as well, but the numbers are uncertain. That situation will last for some time at least. To be frank, uninsured people consume about half as much health care as insured people. At the risk of sounding heartless, the writer is technically incorrect to say that insuring people will save money. The additional money we spend on insuring and subsidizing them would clearly be money well spent on citizens and permanent residents, and I think conservatives should be able to agree with that. It is true that when undocumented aliens visit the ER, the hospital involved is required to stabilize them no matter what their residency or insurance status. Hospitals located in regions with lots of undocumented immigrants are often under severe strain because of this. The situation is much more tricky for undocumented aliens. There needs to be a robust guest worker program at minimum, and I would prefer if there were also a reasonable way for all guest workers, skilled and unskilled, to earn citizenship apart from marriage. However, the issue of subsidizing insurance for guest workers and presently undocumented aliens will be a tricky one. Nonetheless, when undocumented aliens are converted to guest worker status, it's either we subsidize them if they can't afford or don't get coverage through their employers or we leave hospitals and charitable donations to pick the bills up.
Posted by: Dan Starkd at 12/22/2009 06:03:27 PM
ENFORCE the employers obligation to check on immigration status. E-Verify all employees and this problem goes away because without a job they will return to their native country. We have all over thought this issue....they are here because it works....make it not work...as in no jobs available..by & large they will deport themselves.
Posted by: john canning at 12/22/2009 08:56:03 PM
let the employers of these furnish health insurance, after all it is they who lobbied for relaxed borders and are benifiting from the unfairly cheap labor, or better still deport the employer and keep the worker as he is after all trying. It is none of us workers fault they are here. it those who invited them to come take the jobs that they were too cheap to pay a fair wage for.
Posted by: up at 12/22/2009 10:27:15 PM
this article is sad in so many ways. 1-an argument to not give immigrants the right to buy private healthcare is wrong, but to have free fire depts, police stations, and no free healthcare is not? i thought the lives of people come first, not buildings, businesses, and other landmarks. 2-the argument that immigrants take jobs other americans do not want, but our businesses cannot find a way to demand government documentation for workers visas and pay for healthcare for these "dedicated" workers who they continuously hire? businesses and their love for money are the reason why the government ignored this problem for so long. yeah, i said it. 3-the argument that immigrants are healthier and younger that the general population-of who? the senior citizens, drug addicts and impoverished? all those overweight american immigrants are very healthy. we just cannot see it. lmao. 4-the argument that our government should come up with a plan to deal with immigration. how? when self serving companies run by various people from around the world are are so eager to offer jobs to immigrants to bypass laws that pay into the american society, which includes healthcare? hot crap. healthcare programs need "immigrants" money so badly that they would restrict free healthcare programs from the government, in the name of running out of taxpayers money, but can find ways to support immigration and supply the country when people spend enough money on their financial causes. that is hot crap. the immigrants who work here "illegally" can pay "legally" from their work dollars, as well as the companies and people who hire them, to the government to help provide for all american families healthcare, that is, if the businesses and immigrants wanted to. like many americans, immigrants find ways to not pay for services that they can get for free, especially from medicare and medicaid, doctors with side businesses, etc. a little lie goes a long way. keeo in mind, with our laws as they are, government programs are not allowed to demand you immigration status to assist you, this includes free housing requests, free healthcare and food benefits. i do not know if this article is another distraction to keep us from obtaining healthcare for all, but it is a sad attempt to justify immigrants needing to pay for private healthcare services.
Posted by: Dane at 12/22/2009 10:28:53 PM
They are in this country illegally therefore should not enjoy any ,I repeat, any benefits. They are living better than we are,at least me.They are costing us taxpayers almost a trillion dollars a year.Imagine what we could have done with that kind of jack the last 3 years.I for one am sick of it.If I do something illegal,I go to jail.They get rewarded very nicely for it.I'm not against immigration,just illegal immigration.They are working against my country,and I think it is time we Americans stand up for ourselves and quit letting our government control our thinking and true feelings.The wusification of America is happening right under our nose because we are letting it happen.Round them up,arrest them,and deport them!That is cheaper than our current program.By the way ,I am a Christian,not any kind of extremist,but what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong.Nuff said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: sadboy at 12/22/2009 11:12:01 PM
I'm really not sure why we discuss this here. Not only should the illegals not be allowed to qualify for purchased insurance, we really should send them back home. Not to be harsh, but let's get real here. We're too soft.
Posted by: Bill at 12/22/2009 11:55:46 PM
Weiwen just destroyed this author's story with his first sentence, nice job. So I'll assume the author's point was to look for a "realistic plan for dealing with the illegal immigrants already in the U.S" as he states in the last paragraph. I think most people want to be kind-hearted and forgive the immigrant who sneaks into the country, earns an honest wage and raises a decent family. If you were in his position, in his country, what would you do? I think I would do the same. But the only reason American's accept this is because they only identify with the immigrant and not the victim. The immigrant's labor is cheaper but you pay it right back with higher health and insurance costs that subsize the immigrants health care in the ER. The only difference this new health care bill provides is that you now subsize the insurance plan too. The 'hope' is that it will reduce the overall cost on the taxpayer, but it won't. It was the public option that would provided the competition to help drive down costs. People criticize the U.S. Post Office (USPS) for losing money last quarter and liken it to a public option that would bleed money. The USPS has been around for 150 years??? Measure that success. How much would it cost you to mail your Christmas cards this year if not for the Post Office? The UPS/FedEx cost would be somewhere around 15 times (1500%) more! Now liken that to your health care system! Perhaps you could reinvest some of the savings into a better education system and retain a few more health professionals too. I realize 1500% is a rediculous number, I was just illustrating a point. A public option would most certainly reduce cost, but your lobbyists wont have it. The reality is health care is something that can be socialized, successfully, but not in America. Simple economics will tell you that centralization reduces cost and if you assume that every American deserves the same, best health care, then you will logically derive at a single health provider. In a capitalist economy, a single entity is a monopoly, so it must be regulated... one step furthur and you arrive at a socialist health care plan. If you dont believe that every American deserves the same, best health care plan maybe because you can afford better than most, than perhaps you can still use a premium health provider and pay 1500% more. Kind of like the way your postage system works. But America has too large of a group of immigrants who can get free health care at the ER, so it's all pointless. The victim for the countries empathy towards illegal immigrants is the American tax payer, who is now stuck with rediculous health care costs relative to the rest of the world. And while the health and banking industry siphon your wealth, many other countries gain on your dollar as well. So the realistic plan for your illegal immigrants appears to be to wait for your country to break down economically to the point where immigrants are no longer attracted to it.
Posted by: TIM at 12/23/2009 12:19:40 AM
Have no fear. The next issue on the liberal Dem agenda will be a path to citizenship for all illegals. They'll have the same rights and coverage then as natural born citizens and push our nation into further insolvency.
Posted by: William Burke at 12/23/2009 06:56:37 AM
The only fact that matters is they are here illegally..period. You can say anything you want after that fact but it doesn't change that fact in the least bit. I have absolutely no problem with anyone who wants to come to this country but if they forego the legal process,I have no sympathy for them. Personally, I think this is the only good to come from this proposed bill. Maybe by making it even harder for illegals,they may stop coming in the first place!
Posted by: Harry at 12/23/2009 07:22:45 AM
Mark once again has lined up on the wrong side of the issue. Although admitting they are here illegally and under the guise of some misguided compassion, he feels we should make them comfortable here with the ability to buy health care insurance. This idea along with all the other "compassionate" plans, only makes the problem worse. The idea that, " We can’t round them up and deport them, even if we want to. It would cost too much and put too huge a burden on law enforcement." is pure liberal crap. I refer you to history and a plan to deport illegal aliens once before in this country. It was called "Operation Wetback" and did just that; rounded them up and deported them! Google that in your spare time Mark and understand that it worked very well and got rid of these invaders. The more you do to make life tolerable for them the more likely they are to stay. What is wrong with barring illegals from buying food in grocery stores or restaurants, unless you are trying to encourage them to stay here? The socialist and chief of the US would like to hang onto them as constituents because he knows he can buy their votes like Harry Reid bought the votes of the senatorial whores on the health care bill. It won't be long now, the workers Utopia is just around the corner and you can take pride in knowing that you helped influence the outcome of "change" in America. Welcome home comrade!
Posted by: Sal at 12/23/2009 07:52:53 AM
I am a naturalized citizen of the United States born in Mexico. All my life while living in the United States I paid for everything I consumed. I never asked for or received anything for free. For many years I went without health insurance. When I went to the doctor I paid out of pocket. When I went to the ER I set up monthly payment plans that I paid regularly until paid off. Undocumented and uninsured immigrants can do the same, most particularly since they do not pay taxes on the income that they receive and in many cases they make more money than legal U.S. citizens. It is difficult not to take advantage of free handouts and when its free you take more. When you pay you take small sips. When someone else pays you take gulps. I see no reason to foster irresponsibility and disrespect to people who had the nerve to begin with in crossing the U.S. borders with full knowledge that they were breaking the law.
Posted by: Bob at 12/23/2009 08:40:45 AM
Nonsense, which part of "illegal" don't you understand? Start rounding them up and shipping them out. Once they see we are serious, they will leave on their of their own accord.
Posted by: Nomen at 12/23/2009 09:16:40 AM
This illegal immigration has been sticking it to the American taxpayers long enough. The employers profiting by hiring the illegals should be the ones paying the tab. The solution is simple. Fine anyone hiring illegals $20,000 for the first offense and $50,000 plus some jail time for a second offense. I'm sick of these employers using their political clout to break the law for profit and then trying to hide behind humanitarian rationalizations. Without jobs most of the illegals will simply go home. After one year start arresting those that didn't leave. If I went to another country I would respect their laws and their right to enforce them there. I'm tired of all the outsiders and law breaking insiders in this country that think they can ignore our laws for profit...
Posted by: tiberius at 12/23/2009 09:23:02 AM
this is another racist move from the scared white southern senators, whose scapegoat for everylthing is the illlegal aliens...
Posted by: Kevin Cubberly at 12/23/2009 09:24:59 AM
Really? No Seriously... Really? You acknowledge that the illegal immigrants are illegal. I'll acknowledge that the situation gets far more complicated when illegal immigrants have children born in the US who are then are legitimately US Citizens, whom you can't deport nor deny the same rights as the rest of us US Citizens. I'm all for legal immigration. After all that's been the basis of our country from the beginning... yada yada yada.... I've got friends who had to leave on Visa related issues. I really wish they could have stayed and I wish there were legal ways to have fixed their Visa mistakes to allow them to stay, because they got here legally in the first place. It s..ks that they had productive jobs, owned houses and cars, had relationships, etc., but in the end they had to leave. However, illegal is illegal, especially when someone didn't follow any of the legal means of entering the US in the first place. Trying to justify the wrongs of the Democrats and Republicans in the past is not a legitimate excuse. Two wrongs, don't make a right. There should be no "Squatters Rights" when it comes to this issue. You also say that "We cant round them up and deport them..." and that it's "cruel, stupid and probably unworkable" to deny insurance and food to illegal immigrants. I say it's cruel to the US Citizens to deny these things to them on the grounds that we have to provide for the Illegals. I say start denying these things and they will quickly decide to leave on their own at which time we can give them 3 days rations for their journey. I'm all for free market, which is why we absolutely should deport illegal immigrants who have been here 20 years and allow the supply of available workers to decrease. Perhaps even give them an opportunity to go back to their country of origin and begin a paperwork process that would allow them to return in less than a year... even expedite the process further if they have an employer, friend or family member who will sponsor their paperwork and agree to back all expenses. I understand that many would likely loose their jobs... but life's not fair and it would be far more fair for people who are US Citizens or who arrived in the US legally and who are presently out of work to pick up those jobs. I don't like thinking this way, especially during the Christmas season, but regarding your point that we would likely be stuck with the healthcare costs in the end anyway, we don't have to. For emergency situations, sure... stop the bleeding and stablize the patient. But other than that, if they want to get better, they need to come up with the means to pay the bill or head back to their country of origin to take advantage of their country's healthcare. The jobs here may have been their motivation for coming here in the first place, maybe the healthcare will be their motivation for leaving and staying in their country to try to improve the situation there so that the US Citizens don't have to continue to subsidize other countries too...Failing to do something is only encouraging the problem to get worse. As a US Citizen I'm proud that every US Citizen can take advantage of the Bill of Rights which is why you and I can express differing opinions on this topic. But as a voluntary subscriber of Kiplingers for many years, I'm disappointed that a Senior Editor of this publication would have this opinion.
Posted by: Justthefactsmaam at 12/23/2009 11:10:27 AM
Now we have Kiplinger supporting illegal immigration too? What the heck is this country coming to? No illegals should get any services of any kind. Until we enforce our immigration laws with some real teeth and consequences we'll continue to have a steady drain on the American taxpayer. Stay in your own country and fix its' problems instead of entering here illegally and causing more issues here. Free healthcare, no taxes, under the table cash salaries, free education, free police and fire protection, etc, etc, etc, are what attracts illegals to come here. Fix your country either through your election process or revolution but quit destroying what our law abiding citizens have spent over 200 years creating.
Posted by: RBohn at 12/23/2009 11:39:07 AM
What part of Illegals do these so called Represenatives don't understand.
Posted by: Ben Smith at 12/23/2009 12:31:09 PM
...So I guess since it is ok to break the law and not to enforce it for illegals, then I can go out and get high on drugs or stone drunk today and crash my car and kill anyone, but...who cares right, for people like you can justify sympathy for me and get me out of breaking that law. The amazing thing here is, they broke the law, so why would they be afforded any comforts, benefits or rights, for I can assure you that if you or I did that in any other foreign country we would not get the same warm treatment we give illegals in the USA!...the illegals all know that all they have to do is procreate and give birth to a child in the USA and poof, that family is anchored down to the USA thanks to loophole in USA law! I know of no other country that allows such nonsense...change the law and make it illegal to become a USA citizen unless you are born to legal permanent residents or citizens of the USA period!
Posted by: MdeG at 12/23/2009 01:29:05 PM
Yes, people can buy direct. And yes, lots of us have gone w/o insurance when we had to (me too, in grad school). I'm in Mass, where we already have the obligatory insurance -- except they cut out newly-arrived legal immigrants. Most new arrivals wind up in minimum wage jobs the first while, & if they work for small companies or for employers who wiggle out of providing insurance, paying private insurance is about half their take-home -- the other half being our very expensive rents. This leaves nothing for food, of course, which is its own kind of health problem. Prevention works, and it's a lot cheaper than emergency care. On that basis, I think people should be able to buy insurance through the exchanges. And Sal, have you ever heard of an ITIN? Lots of undocumented folks pay taxes.
Posted by: American at 12/23/2009 05:43:43 PM
If the immigrants think that is unfair, GO HOME!!!
Posted by: Sal at 12/24/2009 12:00:01 AM
It's time for a revolution. It's time for us to fight for our freedoms as our forefathers did. The coming tyrany is to become our fate if we do not. By the way, I have been reading Kipplinger for the past several weeks.....they are NOT on the free market side of the equation...
Posted by: Ashton at 12/24/2009 08:54:44 PM
I was just filling out my renewal form for state health insurance, because Massachusetts requires everyone to have health insurance or they'll tax you. Stated in relatively large font on the top of the front page, it states: "You do not have to be a US citizen to get benefits." Does anyone else see something wrong with that line? This state caters way too much to illegal immigrants. You don't even have to speak English to enjoy living here; the state health insurance program will find a translator and doctor for whatever language you speak, and there's about twenty on the list of other languages they offer. Isn't it great how the state realizes they're loosing tons of money, and then raise taxes as much as they can, as often as they can, just to pay the difference in what they cater way too much to?
Posted by: Charles at 12/25/2009 11:55:24 AM
If law enforcement would have done their job in the first place, they would not be burdened at this time to again do their job.
Posted by: Ben Fergeson at 12/26/2009 11:31:37 AM
"Illegal" is the key word here, they are just that. What makes us think illegal immigrants will suddenly respect our laws and buy medical insurance since many of them don't respect our laws requiring auto insurance, citizenship, identity theft, etc. They will continue to disrespect our laws and continue to flood hospital emergency rooms just as in the past because they've become accustomd to our government not enforcing our laws equally in all cases. No more Mr Nice Guy, we just can no longer afford the luxury.
Posted by: US Taxpayer at 12/26/2009 07:06:15 PM
Sorry, but you have your facts wrong. All illegal aliens are covered by the ObamaCare bill which passed both the House...Do you actually think the Socialists wouldn't furnish free (to them not to the US taxpayer, you know real, legal Americans) health care to their illegal alien voter base? What would you expect from our illegal alien President (Obama) and a treasonous US House and US Senate?
Posted by: hard facts at 12/27/2009 12:06:54 AM
...when Obummer and his paid-for partners in crime ram the immigration down our throats, the illegal immigrants will be just fine. They will be "made legal" and promptly be entitled to a bunch of stuff that everyone else has to pay for.
Posted by: Carl at 12/27/2009 10:45:04 PM
I feel strongly that we should discourage illegal immigrants from entering/living in the US, and I oppose a path to citizenship. However, if they are here, should they not be forced, like a citizen, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, to obtain coverage? They could pretend to be citizens and proudly cherish all the benefits and responsibilities that obtain thereto. Or does the Constitution protect them from this illegal legislation? This health care legislation might actually discourage illegal entry since no one escapes the wrath of the IRS.
Posted by: john smik at 12/28/2009 10:36:59 PM
IF they were paying their fair share of taxes, i'd have more sympathy, .sorry (and before you ask, my parents were LEGAL immigrants). the issue is that these are subsidized by govt and are part of a system we all pay/have been paying into. They're taking perks/benefits that should be going to those who pay into the system. now, I don't blame them fully - they're doing what they can to survive here in the US (any one of us would do the same if we lived in a foreign country), I think companies that hire them should be held more accountable...and maybe one day it'll be 'cool/fun' to work those fast food jobs again (I had one of those growing up not too long ago, just before it was overrun by fake documented illegals). it's a complicated situation, the gov't already spends over 50% of every dollar in the healthcare industry.
Posted by: Ashton at 12/31/2009 12:17:48 PM
In response to John Smik: It does make me wonder how fast food joints have lack of responsibility to check up on the authenticity of legal documents.H ere in MA, a lot of these places have people who can't speak English well. As the name implies, 'fast food'. Service is terrible because immigrants don't have the courtesy to learn English, and expect us to be nice and communicate to them in their language. And then at some fast food joints, you're sitting in the drive-thru for twenty minutes just to place and order, and then another twenty to thirty minutes just to get your food because some of these people have a hard time reading and understanding English. Just training them must be a pain because then instore customers have to wait too, which defeats the whole purpose of the term 'fast food' . . . food for people who are on the go . . . people who work hard to make a living who don't have much time to sit and enjoy a home cooked meal.
Posted by: Amy at 01/01/2010 08:08:08 PM
Illegal immigrants come over, have children, and think they are in the clear to become a US citizen themselves. Then they drag their relatives over, and repeat the process. Sometimes they keep having children just to get the cheap housing, not have their electricity or water turned off, and to abuse the welfare system. And if they can't have kids, their children have their own kids just to keep the house. Around my neighborhood, you've got huge families in one house paying only $25 a month for rent because they live off welfare. The parents don't work, and some of their kids are hanging out in the streets because they don't/can't go to school. Then some parents go as far as taking the welfare money to buy nicer things than the working class can afford. For example, everyone in my household works full time, and we still have a hard time buying nice things after all our bills. All these illegals who've now populated my neighborhood live off welfare because they don't work and they keep having children to get their checks, and they can 'afford' to drive newer and nicer cars than my family can afford. We actually pay into the system so these people can get their stupid checks, but the government won't help people like my family who actually work and struggle to make ends meet. Another example, some family members lost their jobs earlier last year and were unable to make rent payments. Now we might lose our house because the mortgage company wants their money. There's no way they can make up that kind of money, even though they recently found jobs. I wish we could pay $25 a month for rent.
Posted by: elaine at 01/06/2010 01:25:17 PM
No doubt La Raza is already working on a 14th Amendment lawsuit on behalf of the illegals, just in case they don't all receive amnesty & citizenship before year's end. Yep, they're only 1 14 Amendment suite away from bleeding us dry & bringing in 50 relatives a piece under the "Family unity" provision.
Posted by: Pdesai at 01/08/2010 07:45:22 PM
Illegal immigration is a problem, but it can be used to benefit all US citizens by giving all immigrants work permits and charging them mandatory immigrant insurance and also taxes which cannot be filed for refund at the end of the year. This will solve two problems US government will recieve taxes for benefit of US citizens and insurance will keep the costs low for all of us. This will serve as a multi purpose benefit - employers of these work permit immigrants will no longer have to hide anything and continue the job that needs to be done in a legal way. The illegal immigrants will have a benefit of working and continue to do the jobs that no one is willing to do, in addition to paying taxes which they cannot file for any refunds and at the end of 10 - 15 years they can be eligible to become citizens with a clean crimal record.
Posted by: Brad at 01/09/2010 11:12:21 PM
What a joke, a "comprehensive overhaul -- with a realistic plan for dealing with the illegal immigrants already in the U.S." is another way of secretly passing an amnesty bill. We the AMERICAN citizens have the power to tell the government what they WILL do, but too many have been conditioned into thinking they are sheep in need of a shepard. One of our senators (Blanche Lincoln, D-Ar) is watching her reelection dreams start to disappear. Myself and several business associates told her in numerous letters we would do everything we could to stop her from getting re-elected if she didn't get her act together and start thinking about America first, she ignored us and all the other negative feedback she's been receiving from all over the state. We will continue to do what we can to make sure that the wishes of Americans are represented in Washington so that America can thrive. America needs to wake up and put the heat on our leaders, let them know we voted them into a position of power, and we can vote them out.
Posted by: Terry at 01/11/2010 11:18:36 PM
I agree with Weiwen Ng and his first sentence that uninsured [illegal] immigrants can buy insurance directly from the insurance companies. They just won't be able to buy insurance from the Exchanges, and definitely not with government money (the subsidy). They will have to buy insurance using money from their paychecks...If an illegal immigrant goes to and receives hospital emergency room treatment, the technology must exist where the ER techs can identify the individual(s) being treated, and if they can't pay their bill, then send the bill to their government (e.g., a Canadian illegal immigrant's ER bill should be sent to the Canadian government so it can pay the ER bill), this can be done, yes? This seems like one simple way to recoup ER costs for treating illegal immigrants. If their identity can't be established, then ER should contact ICE and let ICE handle deportation proceedings...I'm retired US military and my wife is a Green Card holder and retired military dependent. We use Tricare and barring any changes in the law, we'll be using it until we die. What I'd like to know is, why ALL American citizens must purchase healthcare insurance if (a) we can afford to pay our hospital bills on our own, and (b) if we already have insurance via our retirement plans? Do the wealthy 1% of Americans have to purchase healthcare insurance or will they be fined and/or sent to jail like the least-wealthy 1% of Americans?
Posted by: Les at 01/12/2010 01:45:18 PM
I work in the culinary industry as a line cook. I have been pushed out in my trade in favor of these people to get paid off the books by national companies.I have worked with quite a few too....This is sad. The border should be secured. Unamanned drones with tear gas.That is all you need. Signs up in Spainish warning of this.
Posted by: Highlander at 01/16/2010 11:48:20 PM
Illegal aliens in the U.S. are at epidemic levels, and are a serious problem in the U.S.! Illegal aliens (mostly hispanic, and of them mostly Mexican) bring crime, drugs, gangs and gang culture to the U.S. I don't feel sorry for anyone who breaks U.S. immigration law to come to the U.S., ask for handouts left and right, drives down the minimum wage, and takes jobs away from hard working American CITIZENS!!!! Illegal alien labor for the greedy and corrupt in the U.S. has to stop.......How can we truly have a secure country in a time of War On Terror, with undocumented illegal aliens running around free in our country...not to mention our U.S. borders are as porous as a sponge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...
Posted by: sue at 02/04/2010 10:39:57 AM
I know people who have paid into the system and have been repeatedly turned down for benifits. Why are illegals exemp from the same rules? They are here illegally. They don't teach their young our language and therefore our children don't get the help they need at school because the schools are having to focus on teaching English to non speaking English students whos families are here ILLEGALLY. They get benefits our Americans don't. I say, your child can have our country listed as its birth address, but if you want to keep it, take it back home if you are illegally in this country or put it up for adoption. After 9/11 we were foolish not to clear out everyone with green cards or no proof of citizenship. We can't support the world. The illegals are taking our resourses away. Our seniors should be getting better coverage and cost of living raises if we close this ILLEGAL gap.We need new government for THE PEOPLE of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Why send so much relief to others when people here are suffering the effects of this ressession and lost their homes because a lot of greedy people made themselves rich at the expense of Billions of people and the ones doing it were not punished. Europe had the balls to fire them all.