Jul 16, 2009 5:00:00 AM
As California wrestles with its worst economy since the Great Depression, illegal immigrants are becoming part of the debate. It's not unlike what happened the last time the state was having money problems.
Outside the Home Depot in Los Angeles' Pico Union neighborhood, a group of day laborers wait for construction and gardening jobs. Among them is 40-year-old Justo. He came to California from Guatemala 13 years ago.
The government is always accusing immigrants of draining money, he says, adding "they look to us as scapegoats." There's not much work these days for men like him. He scrapes by on a part-time job as a security guard downtown. Justo says he got hired using a phony Social Security card number.
"I pay taxes," Justo says. "I pay FICA, federal and Social Security."
Like nearly 60 percent of all undocumented immigrants in the country, Justo doesn't have health insurance, so he relies on the county hospital emergency room. His young children were born in California and are U.S. citizens. They go to public school in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich says such situations are, unfortunately, all too typical.
"It is catastrophic," Antonovich says. "We cannot be the HMO to the world."
One of the greatest burdens in L.A. County, he says, is welfare for children whose parents are undocumented.
"We're talking about half a billion dollars. And then you add the cost of criminal aliens in our jails — it was exceeding half a billion dollars. Then you add the delivery of health services — that's over $400 million a year. So we're talking about over a billion dollars — that's a fiscal impact just to one county in California," Antonovich says.
As the state tries to dig its way out from under a massive deficit, some say cutting off benefits to undocumented immigrants should be part of the solution. One proposal would stop welfare payments even to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.
It echoes California's last big financial crisis in 1994. That's when 59 percent of California voters passed Proposition 187, a ballot measure that outlawed education, health care and social services to illegal immigrants and their children.
Many Californians still remember the powerful TV commercial with pictures of frightened immigrant families running across freeways after illegally crossing the border.
"Three-hundred thousand illegal immigrant children in public schools, and they keep coming. The cost: $1.5 billion a year," the announcer says.
Even though Proposition 187 passed, the measure was declared unconstitutional in federal court and was never enforced. Since then, several other states have crafted similar measures that have passed legal muster.
Legislative Analyst Dan Carson says California now spends about $4.6 billion yearly to provide services for — or to incarcerate — illegal immigrants.
"It's clear in the aftermath of Prop 187, our ability to balance the state budget by reducing that $4.6 billion is limited. It's probably more realistic to expect savings to the state in the hundreds of millions, in the short term, not in billions," Carson says.
Weighing the costs versus the benefits of unauthorized immigrants is tricky, says Jeff Passel, a researcher with the Pew Hispanic Center. They don't get paid much, and many don't report their earnings — but they still end up contributing billions of dollars to the state's economy. Regardless of their impact, the sheer number of undocumented immigrants in California is huge — around 2.7 million by Passel's estimate.
"California has had the largest number of undocumented immigrants in the country for at least 25 years, and during those years, the state's had budget difficulties but also ran huge budget surpluses," Passel says.
Back in Pico Union, Justo, the day laborer, wonders how California has gone from boom to bust so quickly.
"California was very, very rich. My question is who take this money? The illegal, the immigrants? I don't think so," he says. Copyright 2009 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
California Ballot Measure Targets Illegal Immigrants
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2 comments:
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS CORPORATE WELFARE?
The injury court case of Luis Jimenez, an illegal alien from Guatemala, who was a patient at the Martin Memorial Medical Center in South Florida, will have far reaching impact, regarding mandated laws. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (42 U.S.C. § 1395dd, EMTALA) is a United States Act of Congress passed in 1986. Hospital and ambulance services must impart care to anyone needing emergency treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay.
The only problem with this is that this federal mandated law never pays the full amount to the institution, if any? So the hospital passes it on to other patients, the insurance company, which once again the costs fall on the taxpayer. Whoever this individual was working for at the time of his accident, should be forced to pay part or all hospital services. Jimenez's lawsuit seeks nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of his care in Guatemala, because the hospital tried to relieve them of the financial burden.
The hospital spent more than $1.5 million on his care, over three years of treatment for his brain damage. If Washington pushes a Path to Citizenship, we can expect spiraling costs for the 20 plus million of legalized person who is already in our sovereign nation. I myself want an alternative to the corruption and greed, shown by insurance companies, which is a government run agency.
By enactment Immigration of reform, millions will demand health care, Pensions, retirement and a rush on government benefits. For those who haven't already cheated the system, will be a major catastrophe for every taxpayer. On being given a green card they can immediately sponsor their family members. Once here, they can immediately place the burden of sick, handicapped and those with mental disorders, in the hands of welfare services.
WE should then be prepared to receive millions of more illegal aliens, who have absconded from their own country, to take advantage of US taxpayers. All Americans should watch this court case carefully, because the implications are sky high taxes. Clogged health care services, education for every child and section 8 housing, along with every benefit, citizens and permanent residents have no knowledge of; will be the absolute outcome of Obama's AMNESTY. Get on the phone and tell your politician, you support THE SAVE ACT . Support for the bi-partisan SAVE Act, which will expand E-Verify and protect American jobs! Focuses on the heart of the problem-the jobs that attract illegal aliens. It would phase in a requirement for every employer to use the electronic verification system. NUMBERSUSA, AMERICANPATROL
I have just finished reading Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco’s book entitled _Children of Immigration_ (2001), and it addresses much of what this article and Brittanicus’ comment have to say.
The above article highlights a common occurrence in the United States—when the economy begins to fall apart, immigrants are often charged with the problem. As Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco note, “a very strong correlation exists between anti-immigrant sentiment and economic anxiety, particularly around unemployment rates” (p. 41). The authors go on to explain that in the long run, immigration actually seems to have positive economic implications for our nation (according to 71 percent of leading American economists). I appreciated Passel’s comment in the above article about the history of California and the fact that illegal immigrants have participated in its economy for years, in good times and bad, and they cannot be blamed for this sudden turn for the worse.
I have a special concern for the children of undocumented immigrants, whether the children have U.S. citizenship or not. The threat of cutting off welfare services and educational benefits to any child is disturbing to me. Most of these children will stay in the United States and become citizens eventually. I believe, as Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco (2001) do, that the cost of not educating these children is exceeds the cost of educating them.
And in response to Brittanicus’ comment, I would like to see more details and research to support the statements:
By enactment Immigration of reform, millions will demand health care, Pensions, retirement and a rush on government benefits. For those who haven't already cheated the system, will be a major catastrophe for every taxpayer. On being given a green card they can immediately sponsor their family members. Once here, they can immediately place the burden of sick, handicapped and those with mental disorders, in the hands of welfare services.
Although several outrageous abuses of the health care system have been picked up and spread about by the media, as Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco explain, “[i]mmigrants tend to be healthier, have lower infant mortality and morbidity rates, and therefore are less likely than native-born Americans to seek out publicly funded health services” (p. 46). This may seem counterintuitive, but research supports it.
I have appreciated living and traveling in other countries that demonstrate value and respect for foreigners by opening their homes, schools, universities and hospitals to them. Because this nation, I believe more than any other, has been built on the backs of immigrants, I would like to continue to see the tired, poor, “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” embraced here. Though laws and limits on immigration are necessary, we should not allow our fears about the economic state of the nation to lead us to overreact.
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