Do You Believe in Sanctuary Cities?

by sammielee24 47 Replies latest jw friends

AGuest

Unfortunately, your stats are inaccurate... again... dear Layla (and peace to you!).
What you have posted here represents IMMIGRANTS... both legal AND illegal... with the LEGAL making up the lion's share. The TRUTH is that illegal are not eligible for such services AND... that, in fact, welfare use by illegal immigrants have decreased hugely and consistently since 1996.
http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010116
I know this article is accurate because (1) I have worked in low-income housing for the past 22 years... and it just ain't that easy for immigrants to "cheat" anymore; and (2) I took Immigration Law last year... and the law book was the current (2007) version. I fear that you are like those people who got all het up and added their name to that petition that was going around decrying the "decision" of the U.S. Senate to give illegals social security and calling for folks to call their lawmakers. What a hoax! It was an urban legend (illegals aren't eligible for SS, even though they pay into it)... but by the time it got to my email, there were more than 1,500 signatures!
But all of that aside, I have to say that I find it quite interesting that spending $5,000 a second to fight an illegal war... is, for some folks... easier to swallow... than showing compassion... and willingly helping feed... their fellowman... a fellowman who is even willing to work for his food.
If you want accurate statistics, check the INS website... and/or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (which is where I got my statistics for my previous response to you).
I bid you peace... and a [much] larger heart.
A slave of Christ, who believes the world doesn't belong to any one group of people anyway...
SA
Layla33

Okay, I have also worked in social services and with a anchor child, they can in fact get lots of social services, up to and including welfare of every sort. And we are strictly talking about illegal immigrants here, not legal ones.
Here's some stats, links, peace to you, although I am not a SLAVE to anyone.
1) Calculating the Cost of amnesty Heritage Foundation is projecting that it will cost U.S. taxpayersan estimated $2.4 TRILLION dollars to covert the retirement costsof illegal aliens who get amnesty under this new bill. But that's just the beginning. Each year, low-skilled illegalalien households cost our society about $20,000. That's becausel ow-skilled immigrant households consume 3 dollars in governmentservices for every 1 dollar they pay in taxes (2004 -- received$30,160 in govt benefits and paid just $10,573 in taxes). Add together the annual costs, the retirement costs and the unknowncosts of implementing the amnesty program and rest assured the totalcost to U.S. taxpayers will be multiple trillions of dollars! Senators like Teddy Kennedy love to spend our money. In fact, theydon't even bother to stop and estimate how much of our taxes theyare spending! 2. Sen. Vitter proposes amendment to strip amnesty provisions Sen. David Vitter has offered an amendment that would strip all ofthe "Z-Amnesty" provisions from the bill. Last year, he offered asimilar bill that was defeated. Although we expect this amendmentwill also be defeated, it will help us see which senators trulyoppose amnesty.
2) Cristobal Silverio emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker.

He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 – all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" – an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently.

But Flor was born premature, spent three months in the neonatal incubator and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, oldest daughter Lourdes married an illegal alien gave birth to a daughter, too. Her name is Esmeralda. And Felipa had yet another child, Cristian.

The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1,000 per month in public welfare funding for the family. Flor gets $600 a month for asthma. Healthy Cristian gets $400. While the Silverios earned $18,000 last year picking fruit, they picked up another $12,000 for their two "anchor babies."

While President Bush says the U.S. needs more "cheap labor" from south of the border to do jobs Americans aren't willing to do, the case of the Silverios shows there are indeed uncalculated costs involved in the importation of such labor – public support and uninsured medical costs.

In fact, the increasing number of illegal aliens coming into the United States is forcing the closure of hospitals, spreading previously vanquished diseases and threatening to destroy America's prized health-care system, says a report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

"The influx of illegal aliens has serious hidden medical consequences," writes Madeleine Pelner Cosman, author of the report. "We judge reality primarily by what we see. But what we do not see can be more dangerous, more expensive, and more deadly than what is seen."

According to her study, 84 California hospitals are closing their doors as a direct result of the rising number of illegal aliens and their non-reimbursed tax on the system.

"Anchor babies," the author writes, "born to illegal aliens instantly qualify as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income and Disability Income."

In addition, the report says, "many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and Chagas disease."

While politicians often mention there are 43 million without health insurance in this country, the report estimates that at least 25 percent of those are illegal immigrants. The figure could be as high as 50 percent.

Not being insured does not mean they don't get medical care.

Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985, hospitals are obligated to treat the uninsured without reimbursement.

"Government imposes viciously stiff fines and penalties on any physician and any hospital refusing to treat any patient that a zealous prosecutor deems an emergency patient, even though the hospital or physician screened and declared the patient's illness or injury non-emergency," says the report. "But government pays neither hospital nor physician for treatments. In addition to the fiscal attack on medical facilities and personnel, EMTALA is a handy truncheon with which to pummel politically unpopular physicians by falsely accusing them of violating EMTALA."

According to the report, between 1993 and 2003, 60 California hospitals closed because half their services became unpaid. Another 24 California hospitals verge on closure, the author writes.

"American hospitals welcome 'anchor babies,'" says the report. "Illegal alien women come to the hospital in labor and drop their little anchors, each of whom pulls its illegal alien mother, father, and siblings into permanent residency simply by being born within our borders. Anchor babies are citizens, and instantly qualify for public welfare aid: Between 300,000 and 350,000 anchor babies annually become citizens because of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside."

Among the organizations directing illegal aliens into America's medical systems, according to the report, are the Ford Foundation-funded Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice, and Pro Bono, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Council of La Raza, George Soros's Open Society Institute, the Migration Policy Institute, the National Network for Immigration and Refugee Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Because drug addiction and alcoholism are classified as diseases and disabilities, the fiscal toll on the health-care system rises.

When Linda Torres was arrested in Bakersfield, Calif., with about $8,500 in small bills in a sack, the police originally thought it was stolen money, explained the report. It was her Social Security lump sum for her disability -- heroin addiction.

"Today, legal immigrants must demonstrate that they are free of communicable diseases and drug addiction to qualify for lawful permanent residency green cards," writes Cosman, a medical lawyer, who formerly taught medical students at the City University of New York. "Illegal aliens simply cross our borders medically unexamined, hiding in their bodies any number of communicable diseases."

Many illegals entering this country have tuberculosis, according to the report.

"That disease had largely disappeared from America, thanks to excellent hygiene and powerful modern drugs such as isoniazid and rifampin," says the report. "TB's swift, deadly return now is lethal for about 60 percent of those infected because of new Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. Until recently MDR-TB was endemic to Mexico. This Mycobacterium tuberculosis is resistant to at least two major anti-tubercular drugs. Ordinary TB usually is cured in six months with four drugs that cost about $2,000. MDR-TB takes 24 months with many expensive drugs that cost around $250,000 with toxic side effects. Each illegal with MDR-TB coughs and infects 10 to 30 people, who will not show symptoms immediately. Latent disease explodes later.

TB was virtually absent in Virginia until in 2002, when it spiked a 17 percent increase, but Prince William County, just south of Washington, D.C., had a much larger rise of 188 percent. Public health officials blamed immigrants. In 2001 the Indiana School of Medicine studied an outbreak of MDR-TB, and traced it to Mexican illegal aliens. The Queens, New York, health department attributed 81 percent of new TB cases in 2001 to immigrants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ascribed 42 percent of all new TB cases to 'foreign born' people who have up to eight times higher incidences apparently, 66 percent of all TB cases coming to America originate in Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam."

Other health threats from illegals include, according to the report:

Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis or "kissing bug disease," is transmitted by the reduviid bug, which prefers to bite the lips and face. The protozoan parasite that it carries, Trypanosoma cruzi, infects 18 million people annually in Latin America and causes 50,000 deaths. The disease also infiltrates America's blood supply. Chagas affects blood transfusions and transplanted organs. No cure exists. Hundreds of blood recipients may be silently infected.

Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis or "kissing bug disease," is transmitted by the reduviid bug, which prefers to bite the lips and face. The protozoan parasite that it carries, Trypanosoma cruzi, infects 18 million people annually in Latin America and causes 50,000 deaths. The disease also infiltrates America's blood supply. Chagas affects blood transfusions and transplanted organs. No cure exists. Hundreds of blood recipients may be silently infected. Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, was so rare in America that in 40 years only 900 people were afflicted. Suddenly, in the past three years America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy. Leprosy now is endemic to northeastern states because illegal aliens and other immigrants brought leprosy from India, Brazil, the Caribbean and Mexico. Dengue fever is exceptionally rare in America, though common in Ecuador, Peru, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Mexico. Recently, according to the report, there was a virulent outbreak of dengue fever in Webb County, Texas, which borders Mexico. Though dengue is usually not a fatal disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever routinely kills. Polio was eradicated from America, but now reappears in illegal immigrants as do intestinal parasites, says the report. Malaria was obliterated, but now is re-emerging in Texas.

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons report includes a strong prescription for protecting the health of Americans:

Closing America's borders with fences, high-tech security devices and troops. Rescinding the U.S. citizenship of "anchor babies." Punishing the aiding and abetting of illegal aliens as a crime. An end to amnesty programs.
ohiocowboy

Before too long, it seems that legal residents of the USA are the ones that will need sanctuary cities...
http://www.immigrationcounters.com/index.html
From other research, it appears that the 10-12 million illegals is a bogus number, and is likely double that amount.

Layla33

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/

http://www.usillegalaliens.com/the_dark_side_of_illegal_immigration.html

INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants2006 (First Quarter)

95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
83% of warrants for murder in Phoenix are for illegal aliens.
86% of warrants for murder in Albuquerque are for illegal aliens.
75% of those on the most wanted list in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Albuquerque are illegal aliens. 24.9% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally
40.1% of all inmates in Arizona detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally
48.2% of all inmates in New Mexico detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally
29% (630,000) convicted illegal alien felons fill our state and federal prisons at a cost of $1.6 billion annually
53% plus of all investigated burglaries reported in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Texas are perpetrated by illegal aliens.
50% plus of all gang members in Los Angeles are illegal aliens from south of the border.
71% plus of all apprehended cars stolen in 2005 in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California were stolen by Illegal aliens or "transport coyotes".

47% of cited/stopped drivers in California have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 47%, 92% are illegal aliens.
63% of cited/stopped drivers in Arizona have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 63%, 97% are illegal aliens
66% of cited/stopped drivers in New Mexico have no license, no insurance

http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/mexico/release.html (Center for Immigration Study)

Among the report’s findings:

• Large-scale immigration from Mexico is a very recent phenomenon. In 1970, the Mexican immigrant population was less than 800,000, compared to nearly 8 million in 2000.
• Almost two-thirds of adult Mexican immigrants have not completed high school, compared to fewer than one in ten natives. Mexican immigrants now account for 22 percent of all high school dropouts in the labor force.
• Though most natives are more skilled and thus do not face significant job competition from Mexican immigrants, this study (consistent with previous research) indicates that the more than 10 million natives who lack a high school degree do face significant job competition from Mexican immigrants.
• By increasing the supply of unskilled labor, Mexican immigration in the 1990s has reduced the wages of workers without a high school education by an estimated 5 percent. The workers affected are already the lowest-paid, comprising a large share of the working poor and those trying to move from welfare to work.
• This reduction in wages for the unskilled has likely reduced prices for consumers by only an estimated .08 to .2 percent in the 1990s. The impact is so small because unskilled labor accounts for only a tiny fraction of total economic output.

Author Steven Camarota said of the findings, "Mexican immigration is overwhelmingly unskilled, and it is hard to make an economic argument for unskilled immigration, because it tends to reduce wages for workers who are already the lowest paid and whose real wages actually declined in the 1990s. Moreover, this cheap labor comes with a high cost. Because the modern American economy offers very limited opportunities for workers with little education, continued unskilled immigration cannot help but to significantly increase the size of the poor and uninsured populations, as well as the number of people using welfare."

Other Findings:

• Because of their much lower education levels, Mexican immigrants earn significantly less than natives on average. This results in lower average tax payments and heavier use of means-tested programs. Based on estimates developed by the National Academy of Sciences for immigrants by age and education at arrival, the lifetime fiscal impact (taxes paid minus services used) for the average adult Mexican immigrant is a negative $55,200.

• Although they comprise 4.2 percent of the nation’s total population, Mexican immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) account for 10.2 percent of all persons in poverty and 12.5 percent of those without health insurance. Even among Mexican immigrant families that have lived in United States for more than 20 years, almost all of whom are legal residents, more than half live in or near poverty and one-third are uninsured

• Even after welfare reform, an estimated 34 percent of households headed by legal Mexican immigrants and 25 percent headed by illegal Mexican immigrants used at least one major welfare program, in contrast to 15 percent of native households. Mexican immigrants who have lived in the United States for more than 20 years, almost all of whom are legal residents, still have double the welfare use rate of natives.

• Mexican immigration acts as a subsidy to businesses that employ unskilled workers, holding down labor costs while taxpayers pick up the costs of providing services to a much larger poor and low-income population.

• The lower educational attainment of Mexican immigrants appears to persist across the generations. The high school dropout rates of native-born Mexican-Americans (both second and third generation) are two and a half times that of other natives.

Policy Recommendations:

The United States needs to consider programs designed to improve the labor market skills of legal Mexican immigrants. It is also absolutely essential that more effort be made to improve educational opportunities for their children so that they will have the skills necessary to compete in the modern American economy. In the future, the United States should also consider policies designed to reduce unskilled legal immigration in general, including from Mexico. Greater resources should also be devoted to stopping illegal immigration, including enforcement of the ban on hiring illegal aliens.

Guestworker programs are unlikely to solve the problems found in the study. By increasing the supply of unskilled labor, a guestworker program would still adversely effect the wages of the lowest-paid American workers. What’s more, unskilled guestworkers would be overwhelmingly poor or near-poor and thus would pay little in taxes and be likely to receive welfare on behalf of their U.S.-born children, just as many illegal immigrants do today. As a result, a guestworker program would almost certainly create significant fiscal costs. Thus, legalizing illegal aliens -- through a guestworker program, an amnesty, or some combination of the two -- would not change the fundamental problems associated with high levels of unskilled immigration.

White Dove

For the X-tians: "I want mercy not sacrifice."--Jesus. In other words, quit doing for Jesus before you've done for your fellow man and your enemies. Love your enemies. Work love toward all. You can't pick and choose. You must work good toward ALL! That is a true X-tian. Maybe some are not so Christ like after all. Preaching is cheap and that is why I'm not a Christian. I can't stomach the hippocracy. It's such a farce.
AGuest

they can in fact get lots of social services, up to and including welfare of every sort.
The "anchor" child, who, by birth, is also an American citizen, yes. The family, no, other than emergency hospital services. C'mon... you know this...
And we are strictly talking about illegal immigrants here, not legal ones.
Not the statistics you posted.
Here's some stats, links, peace to you, although I am not a SLAVE to anyone.
Thanks, peace, and, okay, if you say so, but stop paying income taxes and then we'll talk...
1) Calculating the Cost of amnesty Heritage Foundation is projecting that it will cost U.S. taxpayersan estimated $2.4 TRILLION dollars to covert the retirement costs of illegal aliens who get amnesty under this new bill.
Hmmmm... in order GET retirement, one would have to pay into it. Sooooo... it was okay to let them work and pay... but not okay to let them benefit. Because it will cost "us." It's okay for the money they earned to allow us and our families to get retirement income, but not okay for them. Sounds fair to me...
But that's just the beginning. Each year, low-skilled illegal alien households cost our society about $20,000. That's becausel low-skilled immigrant households consume 3 dollars in government services for every 1 dollar they pay in taxes (2004 -- received $30,160 in govt benefits and paid just $10,573 in taxes).
Okay, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt ('cause I'm just too tired to go looking for all the relevants stats on this, and I am fully aware of the propaganda). How much do prison inmates consume for every dollar they pay in taxes? How about unemployed and unrehabilitated drug addicts? Incorrigible alcoholics and repeat drunk drivers? Folks who kids are in foster care... or juvenile detention... or juvenile probation?
Add together the annual costs, the retirement costs and the unknowncosts of implementing the amnesty program and rest assured the total cost to U.S. taxpayers will be multiple trillions of dollars!
And so what? Don't we have it? Certainly, Mr. Bush thinks we do. I would MUCH rather MY tax dollars be spent providing food, clothing, shelter and other services for a working family... regardless of whether they are fellow citizens or not... even if I have to take a loss... than on guns, missiles, munitions, tanks and other goods... much of which inadvertently kills innocent children. (Let me see - on the one hand... I can use my money to help a "neighbor" from across the border obtain food, clothing and shelter... and on the other hand... I can use it to invade the home of my "neighbor" across the lake and take his charcoal bricquets so I can light my bar-b-que. Hmmmm... decisions... decisions...)
Senators like Teddy Kennedy love to spend our money. In fact, they don't even bother to stop and estimate how much of our taxes theyare spending!
But Presidents like Mr. Bush do? Seriously?! Have you looked at the cost of "our" wars lately? Last statistic was $5,000... per second. Good Lordy, girl, I could feed one illegal child for a year on that!!
2. Sen. Vitter proposes amendment to strip amnesty provisions Sen. David Vitter has offered an amendment that would strip all ofthe "Z-Amnesty" provisions from the bill. Last year, he offered asimilar bill that was defeated. Although we expect this amendment will also be defeated, it will help us see which senators truly oppose amnesty.
Okay. I am neither a proponent or opponent of amnesty, per se. I personally am not of the "we should have borders" mind set to begin with.
2) Cristobal Silverio emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker. He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 – all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" – an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently. But Flor was born premature, spent three months in the neonatal incubator and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, oldest daughter Lourdes married an illegal alien gave birth to a daughter, too. Her name is Esmeralda. And Felipa had yet another child, Cristian. The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1,000 per month in public welfare funding for the family. Flor gets $600 a month for asthma. Healthy Cristian gets $400. While the Silverios earned $18,000 last year picking fruit, they picked up another $12,000 for their two "anchor babies."
First, you're saying that two children who were born in this country (thus, making them citizens), shouldn't get anything and that it is totally outrageous that a family of seven (because the daugther, son-in-law and grandchild are, apparently, a different family) is making $30,000 per year. Layla, by LAW... the two babies are LEGAL. And Cristobal is WORKING. IMHO, we need to take a look at the family of seven... where the head of household has NEVER worked (and probably never will)... who is getting $400 month, plus food stamps, plus Medicare, plus housing subsidies, etc., etc., etc. for their 5-6 children. That family is getting, what $2,000-$2,400 per month... or $24,000 to $26,000 per year? They are if what you're saying is true. Tax-exempt. At least Cristobal is trying to carry his own weight...
Second, my son racked up close to that when he was hospitalized for eight weeks at age 10. I happened to take peek at his chart. Do you know what I saw? $6.00... for one Tylenol tablet. He had one tablet every four hours... for FOUR of the eight weeks! The cost for the intravenous Tylenol was beyond comprehension (and almost beyond my ability to recognize it on the bill). $12.00 for the little gauze cap they kept on his head and $18.00 for the booties for his feet. He didn't need either. $16.00 for the little cotton glycerin swab they used to clean his mouth. $10.00 for the little plastic throw up tray... which they kept "replacing" although he never used them. $12.00 for the water pitcher, which they replaced every other day, but God only know why. And it goes on. There were over 35 pages of charges. It was absolutely ridiculous. And some of it, I KNOW was false. I know... because I was THERE... 24/7. When I disputed, my insurance company said "Let it go, we'll handle it." And so I did. Do you know what I paid? $500. My deductible.
Perhaps before we start turning folks like Cristobal and Felipa away at the door... we need to ask ourselves why the medical costs in this country are SO high. Could it be the extremely high salaries of Hospital Administrators and CEOs? How about frivolous law suits? How about the skyrocketing cost of malpractice insurance because more and more doctors are screwing up? You know, leaving things inside, falling asleep while administering anesthesia... drunks and/or on drugs? No, it couldn't be that...
While President Bush says the U.S. needs more "cheap labor" from south of the border to do jobs Americans aren't willing to do, the case of the Silverios shows there are indeed uncalculated costs involved in the importation of such labor – public support and uninsured medical costs.
Of course, there are costs. But, okay, let's send them all back. I ask you, who is going to do the work in their place? "Us"? Seriously?!! Cristobal is making $8.65 an hour. Are YOU willling to slave in the hot sun and pick fruit for that amount? I have picked fruit - peaches, apples, plums, strawberries. I have picked cotton. And I have picked tobacco. I PROMISE you... you wouldn't do it. Nor would you live in the manner that such a wage forced you to. Why? Because you wouldn't have to. Why? Because YOU'RE A CITIZEN and therefore, YOU would get MORE if you stayed home. AND you would be "entitled" to "decent, safe, and affordable" housing.
In fact, the increasing number of illegal aliens coming into the United States is forcing the closure of hospitals, spreading previously vanquished diseases and threatening to destroy America's prized health-care system, says a report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. "The influx of illegal aliens has serious hidden medical consequences," writes Madeleine Pelner Cosman, author of the report. "We judge reality primarily by what we see. But what we do not see can be more dangerous, more expensive, and more deadly than what is seen." According to her study, 84 California hospitals are closing their doors as a direct result of the rising number of illegal aliens and their non-reimbursed tax on the system. "Anchor babies," the author writes, "born to illegal aliens instantly qualify as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income and Disability Income."
Then I don't think we ought to be spending ga-trillions fighting for someone else's oil (particularly when we've got our own). Aren't lives more important? Oh, no, that right: only if they are the lives of people we consider "legal."
In addition, the report says, "many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and Chagas disease."
Of course they do because they can't get good care in their own land. Do you have children, Layla? Let me ask you: your child is suffering from, say, polio. Your country doesn't have the means to help him; however, the country across the border does. Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't do whatever it took to get your child across that border? Seriously!!??? Okay, okay, your child doesn't have a disease, but the child down the street does... and it's contagious. Across the border, however, children are much healthier and if they do get sick, there's medical help. Again, you want me to believe you wouldn't cross the border?
Sorry, girlfriend, but ain't no border... real or imagined... gonna stop me from doing the best I can for my family. I have absolutely NO problem risking jail, deportation, or what have you. In fact, I believe it would be my DUTY to seek a better life for my family.
While politicians often mention there are 43 million without health insurance in this country, the report estimates that at least 25 percent of those are illegal immigrants. The figure could be as high as 50 percent.
And this is the fault of illegal aliens?? Okay, so explain to me how illegal aliens are the reason my 30-year old daughter, who is self-employed and suffers from polycystic ovarian disease cannot get insurance. What illegal alien is responsible for that? Are you saying that if it wasn't for these folks, she WOULD be able to get insurance coverage? Seriously??!!!
Not being insured does not mean they don't get medical care.
And they SHOULD. ANY person requiring medical care... should get it. In this country and every other country where such is available. That is just common human compassion.
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985, hospitals are obligated to treat the uninsured without reimbursement.
As well they should be, because the American Medical Association Code of Ethics states:
"VI. A physician shall, in the provision of appropriate patient care, except in emergencies, be free to choose whom to serve, with whom to associate, and the environment in which to provide medical services. VII. A physician shall recognize a responsibility to participate in activities contributing to an improved community." This is the standard of care THEY... doctors... and, therefore, hospitals... agree to perform by.
"Government imposes viciously stiff fines and penalties on any physician and any hospital refusing to treat any patient that a zealous prosecutor deems an emergency patient, even though the hospital or physician screened and declared the patient's illness or injury non-emergency," says the report. "But government pays neither hospital nor physician for treatments. In addition to the fiscal attack on medical facilities and personnel, EMTALA is a handy truncheon with which to pummel politically unpopular physicians by falsely accusing them of violating EMTALA."
My daughter required emergency services, Layla... and she went to the emergency room. Six times. I went with her twice. And they gave her a cursory lookover before sending her home. Why? Because she didn't have insurance. Why? Because she's self-employed and couldn't afford it at the time. And the result? Her polycistic disease when undiagnosed for so long that now, if she ever decides to have children... she will most probably need fertility assistance. And even then, the prospects are not good. And do you know how much THAT costs? The only way she would ever be able to pay is if there were insurance... which she can now afford, but can''t get. Why? Because she has polycystic ovarian disease.
Was it the hospitals' fault? Our understanding is perhaps. Perhaps if her extreme abdominal pain were taken seriously... as opposed to what they thought it might be (premenstrual cramping... in someone who hadn't had a menses for close to 5 years ). Should she sue? But then, that would raise our health care costs even more, wouldn't it? Not to worry - she can't afford an attorney.
According to the report, between 1993 and 2003, 60 California hospitals closed because half their services became unpaid. Another 24 California hospitals verge on closure.
I read your entire article ("WorldDailyNews.com") and the report it was taken from. I would like to now direct you the actual STUDY done by UC Berkeley... and published by the Calfornia Attorney General's office. Please note that Page 11 tells why hospitals close, including:
1. A change in how care is given (now it is "managed" and so less folks are hospitalized with more outpatient services, so that hospitals are not NEEDED..
2. Increased technology
3. Poor management
4. Inability to COMPETE
Nowhere was there a reference to illegal aliens driving up costs, however, and in many instances hospital "profits" have absolutely nothing to do with patient care.
http://ag.ca.gov/charities/publications/nonprofithosp/report.pdf
Because drug addiction and alcoholism are classified as diseases and disabilities, the fiscal toll on the health-care system rises.
Indeed. But there are many, many "legal" citizens who are drug addicts and alcoholic. Our country and culture is permeated with them. Returning to your article...
When Linda Torres was arrested in Bakersfield, Calif., with about $8,500 in small bills in a sack, the police originally thought it was stolen money, explained the report. It was her Social Security lump sum for her disability -- heroin addiction.
Hmmmm... lump sum social security... means Linda... was a LEGAL immigrant. Right?
"Today, legal immigrants must demonstrate that they are free of communicable diseases and drug addiction to qualify for lawful permanent residency green cards," writes Cosman, a medical lawyer, who formerly taught medical students at the City University of New York. "Illegal aliens simply cross our borders medically unexamined, hiding in their bodies any number of communicable diseases."
Well, heroin is not a communicable disease, so I think the subject turned from Linda, who it spoke about when it said "Today... " indicating that this was not the case yesterday. It also assumes Linda came as an addict, as opposed to becoming one after arriving. I'm not so sure, though...
Many illegals entering this country have tuberculosis, according to the report. ... [T]he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ascribed 42 percent of all new TB cases to 'foreign born' people who have up to eight times higher incidences apparently, 66 percent of all TB cases coming to America originate in Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam."
(Sigh! I thought I was getting kinda personal before, when I mentioned my daughter. Well, I have to go a bit further, now, if you will permit and bear with me. Thank you.)
Both illegal AND legal "foreign born" folks have tuberculosis, dear Layla. I found this out when my son was in the hospital for 8 weeks (mentioned earlier). This is the very disease he contracted (wow, haven't relived THAT little period of my life in quite some time. Pardon me). Anyway, that's what "they" said, at first, when he contracted TB - that it was "due to immigrants." They SAID this because they really didn't know where it came from. And so, they (the CDC) ran around trying to prove it (yes, the Centers for Disease Control was involved). That's because this was in 1992... and the doctors at UC Davis didn't have a clue because the disease hadn't been seen since 1935. My son's case in the little dark green physician's book, published every 2 or 4 years. He's in 1994 (or 1996).
Anyway, we found out... and I am a bit chagrined that the CDC and others are blaming it on immigrants because they finally found out... that it was NOT immigrants at all. I will tell you where it came from... because they HAD to tell me... because we had to track it down. And I do not wish to offend or frighten or alarm... or otherwise ostracize... ANYONE here, but... the TB that my son has (once contracted, one always has it; it just lies "dormant") was contracted from someone with HIV. The CDC and related agencies are not TELLING you this because... well, I am not sure why. I can only speculate.
People with HIV have a severely decreased, if not almost completely deficient immune system, and so they are subject to every sort of contagious disease... and particularly TB. They revealed this to me because they thought my son had HIV. And they were of the mind that the only way he, a 10-year-old little boy, could have contracted HIV was: (1) transfusion, which he had never had; (2) contaminated needle, which they doubted; or (3) sexual contact (i.e., molestation). They chose the latter and so took him into protective custody for a week while waiting for the HIV test result. He did not and does not have HIV (I tried to tell them he had never been molested, but they weren't trying to hear that. I do understand, and did then - they had to do what they had to do). There's another catch, though: my son is also a "false" negative for TB - he tests false. And so the TRUTH is that there are hundreds of thousands of LEGAL folks walking around with TB (as well as a host of other icky stuff). They just don't know they have it - they've either never been tested... or test false.
My son is not contagious. Unlike people who can transmit TB because they have it "pulmonarily"... his form is "miliary." This means it is not in his lungs, but in his system, and so is not airborne. How did he get it? Here's the rub: a very LEGAL restaurant employee (i.e., native born American)... who was neither hispanic, filipino, vietnamese... or an immigrant... infected something my child ate. Where did HE get it? During a trip OUT of the country. Sooooo... unless you and folks like you are planning to never leave the mainland... you could be just as "guilty" of bringing an infectious disease into this country as anyone else. Legal or illegal.

Sigh! I think I will conclude now and skip the rest of your article because I think I've made my point. Also, in writing this, I had to take a short journey back to a very tough time in my life and need to reflect a bit. My son was so sick at that time, we were told to start funeral plans. I was going to respond to your other post... but have decided not to bother. I think you and I are concerned about different things and are going to see this issue... as we have others... from different points of view. It doesn't matter, however, whether we agree: I believe as I do and you as you do. I like my position, however, as it says to me that, God forbid, should I... or someone I love... ever need to enter another country in order to survive, in order to get medical attention... I and/or they will be able to do so with a clean conscience.
I think I'll go call my son, now.
Peace to you!
A slave of Christ,
SA
AGuest

I have friends who were desparately poor and starving in Mexico. Their living conditions are so awful that their "houses" have big gapping spaces between the slats and offer little to no protection from the elements.
I grew up in San Diego, dear White Dove (the greatest of love and peace to you!)
My parents would take us to the horse races at Caliente and shopping in the market places. When I was older, my friends and I would party in downtown Tiajuana. And every time we went down there, we passed the cardboard box houses thrown up in the dry river bed that was once the San Diego River. For years. Ever seen a cardboard box house? You're not likely to forget it.
One year, when I was in my late teens-early 20's, record rains came... rains that had never been recorded before, if memory serves me. San Diego had flash floods everywhere! Even the dried up river down in Mission Valley flooded! Unheard of! Well, every one of those little cardboard box houses were washed away. Every one of them. True, they're back now, this time with built out of a little tin, a little wood, just as you describe those of your friends. Hooray.
What's also interesting is that just 20 or so miles down the coast are some of the most beautiful houses you ever want to see. Mini-villas, some. Right on the beach. Who lives in them? Baja folk? Nope. Californians with money (well, not a LOT of money, 'cause you don't need much there... which is why "we" go there). Some use them for vacations; some live in them... but work in San Diego, LA, Orange County, etc. Why? Because the "rent" on a mini-villa is less than $1,000 a month.
I remember one year, when my children were small, the peso hit rock bottom. Do you know what "we" did? Rather than shopping at Safeway, or Lucky's or Von's... or Macy's or K-Mart... or whatever... "we" went over there... and bought everything we could off the shelves. I know... because I went, too. Once. I had plans to go back until it was announced on the news that "we"... had left "them"... nothing. Not even food. We took everything they had... and in large quanties. THEY... had to close THEIR borders (well, they restricted us from shopping)... because we didn't even have the decency to leave them FOOD. Think "we" loaded up trucks and took anything back? Nope. I was ashamed then... and I am ashamed now.
But you know what "we" did? Loaned them $200 million. And THEN you know what "we" did? Offered to cancel their loan... in exchangefor all of Baja California!!! Thankfully, they had the SENSE... to say "h*ll, no."
We have SO much... and they have SO little. And we still can't find it in our hearts to share, or, if not share, at least not criticize them for doing what they HAVE to do... to survive.
We really need to get over ourselves in this country. Once and for all. We are not "all that"... not really. Hopefully, that won't have to be proven, however, as it often is with the haughty and arrogant.
Again, I bid you peace.
YOUR servant and a slave of Christ,
SA
BurnTheShips

Coming from a congregation that was something like 50% illegal, I have to sympathize with the individuals-as an individual. The were very poor where they came from.
That said, we can't feed everybody. And the legal immigrants are being deprecated.
No sanctuary cities, they need to go to the back of the line, as far as the law and the government are concerned.'
Burn
AGuest

we can't feed everybody...
Of course we can. If not on what we throw away... then certainly on what we pay farmers not to grow/raise. We could feed the world, if we put our minds to it. Of course, doing so would mean producing more, which would mean driving down costs (you know, supply and demand - the greater the supply the less the demand... therefore, the lower price... which means lower profits).
"We" can only keep the cost of food high... if we produce less of it... or throw away the excess. Which is why farmers are paid NOT to farm... and restaurants, military installations, hospitals and more, throw out their excess.
Peace.
A slave of Christ,
SA
Layla33

AGuest,
I am going to say this as nicely as I possibly can, but it is too much to read your responses like you write them, and it just takes away from the overall response. I will say a few things that stick out at me.
Do you admit or even want to discuss illegal immigrants that steal people's identities and cause them harm? How many illegal immigrants have stolen someone's social security number and other parts of their identity and caused the life of the american citizen harm?
What about all the rapists, the pedophiles (this I know about more than I want to comment on) that SNEAK across the border and harm children and women? What about all the people that by your justifications don't need to check in anywhere and have free reign to harm american citizens - that's ridiculous. How about all the drugs that illegal immigrants are trafficing? And if you have seen what has happened to environment and places with high trafficking illegals, you would be appalled - or maybe not. And if you live in Oakland, then you must know about the Mexicans that are going around killing blacks without a second thought? Most of them are illegal and their plan is to exterminate blacks from Calfornia because this is their land? Do you support that? (All rheotrical at this point.) I have read the ideology of LA RAZA and I have friends that live in Oakland as well, and only a few news agencies are telling the stories about all the innocent shootings to american citizens that are being done by illegals.
Seriously?!! Cristobal is making $8.65 an hour. Are YOU willling to slave in the hot sun and pick fruit for that amount? I have picked fruit - peaches, apples, plums, strawberries. I have picked cotton. And I have picked tobacco. I PROMISE you... you wouldn't do it. Nor would you live in the manner that such a wage forced you to. Why? Because you wouldn't have to. Why? Because YOU'RE A CITIZEN and therefore, YOU would get MORE if you stayed home. AND you would be "entitled" to "decent, safe, and affordable" housing.
Sounds like you are justifying the slave class in this country. Let me be clear about something, you do not know me, I would do ANYTHING and I do mean ANYTHING to survive, I have done just about every job from the top to the bottom, including picking tomatoes for a summer job. The jobs you are referring to, have always been done in this country, even before the propaganda that you are repeating became this big push. Low skilled american citizens did the jobs you claim were not done. Hell if it pays the bills and I can take care of myself and my family, I will do ANYTHING. So don't give me that nonsense about what you know I won't do because there are a lot of american citizens with the same philosophy.
I think you and I are concerned about different things and are going to see this issue... as we have others... from different points of view. It doesn't matter, however, whether we agree: I believe as I do and you as you do. I like my position, however, as it says to me that, God forbid, should I... or someone I love... ever need to enter another country in order to survive, in order to get medical attention... I and/or they will be able to do so with a clean conscience.
I think there needs to be type of immigration law in place for every country. People need to checked for diseases that can spread to other innocent people, they need to check their criminal records, and they need to do a background check. This is a country of immigrants, people have been coming here and all over the world, when people disregard these laws it places communities at risk. Name me one country that doesn't have an immigration policy? There's a reason for this and if I go anywhere or want to live, I respect the laws of that country. Any community that has a large illegal immigration issue is having horrible issues - there's a reason for that. People go to other countries all the time for medical attention and intervention, but the issue is not about that, the issue is that a very rich country like Mexico, is not being held responsible for its citizens, the demand is on the US.
Anyway, I spoke my peace, and we are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
By the way, paying taxes has nothing to do with being a slave. I am still free to think what I want and live how I want. When I revolt I do so intelligently to make the largest impact. Smart people operate beneath the radar, not drawing unnecessary attention by disrupting the system outright. Just thought I should make that clear.

Do You Believe in Sanctuary Cities?

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