September 26, 2006

Permit No Profit For Illegal Immigrants

I wonder -- would the Houston Chronicle come out in favor of allowing bank robbers to keep any interest they earn or investment income derived from the money they stole?? I doubt it -- they would rightly argue that it is a case of permitting criminals to profit from their crime.

Why, then, should they allow border-jumping immigration criminals to profit from their violations of the law by making their children citizens if they are born in this country? Why should we permit "anchor babies"? I see no reason -- but the Houston Chronicle wants to allow lawbreaking foreigners to profit in this way.

They start by arguing against the scenario that has pregnant women coming north to have babies.

The evidence is anecdotal, but plausible. A growing number of undocumented immigrants, border health officials say, are bearing children in U.S. hospitals. The resulting cost is immense. It's believable, because although immigrant women have fewer children than they did 20 years ago, the number of immigrant women in this country is higher.

That's a far different scenario from the more sensational one peddled by some immigration-control activists. Droves of pregnant Latin American women, they suggest, are marching here across desert, mountain and river expressly to bear American children. Their so-called "anchor babies" ostensibly are part of the parents' plans to reduce their chances of deportation from the United States.

The distinction between these two accounts is an important one. In response to the so-called anchor baby trend, some lawmakers are proposing amending the U.S. Constitution to deny the citizenship now conferred on all infants born in the United States.

I'm willing to accept that argument -- though the statistics in some border counties would appear to confirm the thesis dismissed by the Chronicle.

But that does not logically lead to this conclusion.

A coherent immigration system would effectively police the borders, while creating sane laws for visiting or guest workers. Part of that law should include required payment into a bare-bones insurance pool. Obviously, such insurance would include prenatal and delivery care.

The way to ease the financial anchor around border hospitals' necks is not to kill the hopes of children starting life there. Stripping these infants of their chance to strive, invest and sacrifice on behalf of the land where they're born could cost this society infinitely more than the price of a hospital stay.

Except, of course, that granting citiZenship to such children encourages illegal immigrants to stay, to return after deportation, and allws for eventual line-jumping privileges as family members of US citizens when teh children are older. Let's not give any benefit to those who break our nation's laws by their mere presence int he country -- let's clarify the Constitution to make it crystal clear that the Fourteenth Amendment does not (and, if one considers the legislative history, was never meant to apply) to the children of those who are in the US in violation of our laws.

Posted by: Greg at 10:23 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1  
Hi:
      Following is something you may want to pass along to your friends who either employ, or know, illegal immigrants who have children who are U.S. citizens by birth, so they can warn the illegal.
      To stop the flow of U.S. benefit dollars to illegals the government recently made it mandatory that whenever a person applies for government benefits for their minor child (i.e. Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, etc.) the parent or guardian must produce their verifiable Social Security card, as well as the child's.
      This new procedure stops illegal immigrants, who have children born here yet pay no taxes or Social Security because they have no valid SS card, from receiving unearned benefits.
      If they apply for children's benefits without their verifiable SS card they are vulnerable to deportation
      Again, pass this along to your friends as the more people that know about this new procedure the fewer illegals will take advantage of unearned benefits.
Norman

Posted by: Norman at Wed Sep 27 00:07:30 2006 (CJ5+Y)

2 Lets look at this from another perspective. Can you imagine being born in Mexico, into poverty, and watching your family struggle to feed each other; watching your children have the same dim future you had? Wouldn’t you want to change that? Don’t all children deserve an education? What would you do to insure the possibility of providing your children with a better future?
The legal way of becoming a US citizen can take up to 10 years, could you wait that long? If there was an opportunity to work hard at a decent job to support your children, would you do it? I understand when people have little sympathy for immigrants because they are illegal. We automatically think illegal is wrong, but most illegal immigrants are honest hard working people looking for a better life. We have to understand why the are illegal. It would be a generalization to say that all illegal immigrants want to be illegal, or are somehow profiting by being illegal. There is no advantage to being illegal. The people who profit from illegal immigrants are businesses who employ them for cheap wages, who don’t claim this work on their taxes, and who don’t provide illegal immigrants with any health care services such as workers comp. Is THAT fair? These businesses are making all the profit, while tax payers have to pay the burden. Why doesn’t the US make legal immigration more available? Why is it so hard to become LEGAL? Because the economy thrives off of illegal immigration, cheap wages, no provided health care = a great deal of profit for the US economy. Most of these immigrants make the US run smoothly. Chefs, maids, day laborers, all the dirty work Americans don’t want to do. It makes sense economically to have illegal immigration. But...its not fair. It’s not fair to the immigrants who are allowed the right to work for low wages, but who are not allowed the right to be healthy and be medically treated. AND...it’s not fair to the tax payers who end up paying the medical bills, the infrastructure built to house illegal immigrants, the financial aid given to illegal immigrants. SO...you see, who is really to blame for the immigration problem? The people who prevent honest hard working immigrants from becoming legal, and the businesses who exploit illegal immigrants for cheap labor with out health care. A better plan would be for the Government to become proactive, to attack this problem at its root, not wait for hospitals to cover medical expenses on their own, or for US citizens to become so misinformed that they feel the only resolution to the immigration problem are higher fences. Some of the immense profit made off of illegal immigrants should be put back into the costs of them being here. Ie: we should tax businesses who use illegal immigration and put that money into paying the medical bills of their employees. Or we should demand illegal immigrants be legal and as a legal immigrant they should be required to pay taxes, and be awarded health care.
The immigration visitor pass does no better in ensuring fair immigration practices. As an illegal immigrant, but a legal visitor, immigrants can work in the US without obtaining any rights as a US citizen. That means no health care, no voting, no drivers license, but you can work as hard as you can for low wages. DO you see what’s going on here? This is a business agreement between the government who controls immigration, and businesses that employ cheap labor.
Let’s not forget this country was built by immigrants, let’s award that right to work hard to all humans, by making the system of legal immigration more available. If you are upset by immigration as merely, “this is our peaceful country, don’t take our jobs and crowd our cities,” you are simply playing the role every paranoid citizen has played throughout the history of the US, the Germans were discriminated, the Irish, the Italians. Look beyond stereotypes and hasty generalizations, and try to understand immigrants, why they want to be here, why they are here, and what they have to offer this county.

Posted by: Ali at Wed Oct 11 05:41:57 2006 (p5Zt3)

3 My heart bleeds -- NOT.

This country was built by immigrants who came here in compliance with the law, learned the language and assimilated, transferring their primary loyalty to the United States. That isn't happening today -- they are violating the law and insisting that we accommodate their lawbreaking and alien culture. I'll agree wthat we should severly punish those who knowingly employ illegals, but the money should go not for increased border security and deportation efforts. The only right illegals have is to get their asses back to their homeland!

As far as their native-born children, I advocate one of two solutions -- either a change in the Fourteenth Amendment to make it clear that the children of illegal immigrants do not obtain American citizenship OR the immediate termination of the parental rights of non-citizens with their American citizen children placed for adoption by American families when the parents are deported.

And by the way, you start from a faulty premise -- no illegal immigrant is an honest, law-abiding individual. Their first act upon entering this country is to violate our laws, and every second thereafter they continue their violation.

The proactive response to illegal immigration is found in the following statement.

Round 'em up!

Ship 'em back!

Rawhide!

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Oct 11 10:47:16 2006 (DHP2j)

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