Borders matter. If they want to make a better life, make it in their own country. The idea that anyone is denied medical treatment is a flat out lie. A close relative of mine was an administrator at a large Portland hospital. The ER ran an annual $20MM+ deficit from treating patients who did not have insurance. The overwhelming number of those people? Illegal aliens who could not provide US identification.
Illegal immigrants are the new generation of slaves. They are people without protection or rights. If you care about civil rights, you should be against illegal immigration.
Here is an intersting information: Link Now add to this number all the descendents from illegal immigrants and you have a huge number. It is virtually impossible to deport all this people.
I'm against illegal immigration, but I disagree with how many here think the problem should be handled. This country has a lot of problems right now and it is easy to point to illegal immigrants and say they are the cause for all the problems in people's lives . . . but they aren't. In fact, as you say, they are our new generation of slaves.
My wife was technically an illegal immigrant. Truth is that if she wanted to go the legal route, she would have had to remain in the UK for an extra year for the proper visa to arrive. We wanted to be together and get married, so why go through that hassle? She just overstayed her tourist visa, we got married, and 14 months later she was eligible to apply for a green card. During that time she couldn't leave the US, she couldn't work legally, and she had to make damned sure she didn't get pulled over by a cop. When she finally received her green card, after two years from the time she first came to the US, she was free to work or visit England again. The reason I described this is to show how moronic our immigration system is. It's confusing, badly organized and extremely inconsistent. It's hardly a shocker that so many just like my wife say "screw it" and do what's easy, rather than what's legal. It's fun and all to just point fingers at the illegals, but a big part of the problem is that us lazy Americans haven't put a sensible immigration program in place.
What this really demonstrates is how completely out of control our immigration system is. Can you imagine any business not knowing within 50% how many employees it had? How much in total sales it made last year? Can you imagine a library that couldn't give you an estimate of the number of books on its shelf without a 60% margin of error? Our immigration service is driving a car without looking through the windshield.
We don't have to deport them all the way to their home country. All we need to do is bus them to San Francisco.
I say yes. No one is guaranteed food. No one is guaranteed shelter. Why should they be guaranteed a new heart or cancer-removal surgery? Ed O.
The thing that bothers me the most is that they come over illegally. There are all these people in Romania, Vietnam, Russia etc that want to come over too, but they have to go through a ton of tests and things to be able to come over. I don't think its fair, I also don't think it's fair now that they can't get car insurance (since they can't get a license), that some of them still feel it is ok to drive a car. If they were to get into a wreck and mess somebody up, that's a fucked up situation and I know I would be livid if they hit my car. If they were to come over legally, and do all the documentation, then I have no problem with them coming here.
I think this is a misunderstanding. Nobody but the very poor would go to India to take advantage of socialized medicine. People go to India because private health care costs less there, due to (a) labor costs; (b) insurance costs; (c) regulatory costs. barfo
Why does our immigration policy makes no sense? Because you and your wife-to-be would have been inconvenienced? She broke the law. Most of us have had long-distance relationships and you gut it out. I know I sound like a hardass, but it's tough to respect a flagrant violation like that because it would have been difficult for both of you.
Ah, yes. The canard of being anti-illegal immigration means that I'm anti-illegal immigrant. I guess because I'm anti-Mafia, I must hate Italians. Do you have any concept of the harm done in an underground economy? For someone who supposedly has a liberal viewpoint, you sure don't seem to give a shit about those being exploited.
Who pays for it? If you feel so strongly, give every cent you have to guaranteeing those items. Local, state and the federal goverment accepts checks and money orders. Right now, you're asking my kid to pay for it, which is awfully generous of you.
But I think mook's situation is a good example of how should we deal with these situations . . . jail and deport? I say no way. Here in Oregon, you can steal a car and get no jail if it is your first offense. Keeping things in perspective, illegal immigration should be handled by jail?
Well, all of us. Oh, you figured it out yourself. I agree, it is very generous of me. Of course, I plan to pay it, too.
Well the other alternative (on the extreme ) is to let someone die because they can't afford to pay for medical costs? But I do get the idea there are no guarantees and why should health care be different . . . I think it should be, but I understand this is a highly controversial issue with points on both sides.
