The Center of Immigration Studies has a new study out today on the illegal immigration situation, based on US Census data and using analytical methods accepted by the Pew Hispanic Center, the Dept of Homeland Security, the Census Bureau and other institutions. Among its findings:
+ Immigrants account for one in eight U.S. residents, the highest level in 80 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13.
+ Overall, nearly one in three immigrants is an illegal alien. Half of Mexican and Central American immigrants and one-third of South American immigrants are illegal.
+ Since 2000, 10.3 million immigrants have arrived — the highest seven-year period of immigration in U.S. history. More than half of post-2000 arrivals (5.6 million) are estimated to be illegal aliens.
+ Of adult immigrants, 31 percent have not completed high school, compared to 8 percent of natives. Since 2000, immigration increased the number of workers without a high school diploma by 14 percent, and all other workers by 3 percent.
+ The proportion of immigrant-headed households using at least one major welfare program is 33 percent, compared to 19 percent for native households.
+ The poverty rate for immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) is 17 percent, nearly 50 percent higher than the rate for natives and their children.
+ 34 percent of immigrants lack health insurance, compared to 13 percent of natives. Immigrants and their U.S.-born children account for 71 percent of the increase in the uninsured since 1989.
+ The primary reason for the high rates of immigrant poverty, lack of health insurance, and welfare use is their low education levels, not their legal status or an unwillingness to work.
On the Corner, CIS's Mark Krikorian explains the welfare stat this way:
This isn't because they're plotting to rip us off, but because they're 19th century workers in a 21st century economy, and simply don't have the tools to support themselves. The result is government-subsidized immigration, with taxpayers footing the bill for all this "cheap" labor.
The report concludes that: "Even during the great wave of immigration at the turn of the 19th century, the immigrant population was much less than half what it is today." We simply are being swamped, and there should be a time out for assimilation. Yet as a liberal, Spanish-speaking friend admitted to me yesterday, in a conversation about what each side in the immigration debate is loath to admit, that on his pro-immigration side, "The uncomfortable truth is that Latino immigrants are not assimilating."
According to the data, in Texas, my state, 47 percent of all immigrants lack health insurance (versus 18.6 percent of native-born Americans). What do they do when they get sick? Go to public hospitals, and get treated at the taxpayer's expense. I do not favor turning away sick people, whatever their immigration status. But come on, we shouldn't be letting them in in the first place. What are our own citizens who lack health insurance, and who need public care, supposed to do? Stand in line behind citizens of other countries who are here illegally? It's not right. Similarly on the public schooling situation, I'm aware of a Texas public elementary school where a senior administrator admitted to native parents from the neighborhood that their kids were going to be kept behind because the school has so many Hispanic kids whose English skills are poor to non-existent that it affects the quality of the education for all kids. Is that right?
Shockingly, an estimated 50 percent of the foreign-born population of Texas are in this country illegally -- 7 percent of the total Texas population. Almost one in 10 Texans -- and half of all immigrants -- have no legal right to be in this country. And this isn't a serious crisis? Apparently not to my newspaper: as my Dallas Morning News colleague Mike Hashimoto points out, the NYTimes, USA Today and other major papers carried stories about the new study today, but we didn't.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
I was not an alien in Egypt.
And although it may not be "right" for anyone to have to stand in line for health care, to suggest "a fix" in the medical system rahter than stop the flow of illegal aliens trying to sponge off our system at our expense is incredibly naive and unrealistic. All one needs to do is check for citizenship at the hospital door. If the "emergency" is not a true life-or-death emergency, simply revolve the door around one-half time.
Think on this: I have been a Texas taxpayer for over 30 years. Furthermore, I have been paying tuition to the University of Houston for over 4 years. Yet when my daughter, a University of Houston student, suddenly started to go blind and we went to the University of Houston Eye Institute seeking emergency help, we had to wait behind the hordes of illegal aliens who had arrived for their free glasses for themselves and all of their relatives. Many of them arrived AFTER my daughter, but were smilingly treated to expedited service by well-meaning but American-bashing public servants. My daughter sat there, fluid streaming from her eyes, for over two hours!
Meanwhile, "families" with their little anchors proudly displayed in a stroller (when my kids were young, we could not afford a stroller), the older kids running all over the waiting room in new white sneakers (when my kids were young, I had to scrub and bleach their sneakers to try to make them look new and white) were graciously treated to free and immediate [non-emergency] treatment. As we waited, eye doctors with no sense of reality or fairness smilingly waived these illegal aliens through the cashier without requiring payment, smugly assured that they had done the right thing for humanity.
I wish this were an isolated incident, but three times in the last two years, as the "gringo of the day," I or a member of my family was captive of a hospital's desperate attempt to collect money (seeing our insurance cards, verifying our insurance cards, copying our credit cards, and asking upfront for signed, blank checks). I once sat in one of these cubicles, bleeding from a face wound all over their booth, while families with 12+ members were smilingly waived strsaight from the front door and through to the ER to check up on all their little emergencies. I understand why hospitals have to do this: to survive. Over 80 hospitals in southern California have been closed in recent years because, after all, illegal aliens simply do not pay for their services.
Rent free homes? Free medical care? Food stamps? Welfare? Why ever would they NOT come? Meanwhile, the social security funds which were put aside by our ancestors -- the ones who came here legally, submitted to physical exams, showed proof of a job and home here in America, learned English, sought citizenship, and had a signed affidavit from an American citizen that they would never become a burden to our medical or educational system -- that social security will be used up in the next 20 years.
If one feels so strongly that the Bible requires us to take in the poor (or those smuggling in drugs and weapons), then I suggest that person set up a home on the border and begin taking care of the flow of immigrants immediately. But don't look to ME to help you. And if your heart bleeds that these people might actually have to wait in line for their free medical care, then I suggest you immediately begin to personally "fix" our medical system.
Jason - please point out, in the Bible, where good Christians are supposed to give free heatlhcare, housing, food, and Heaven kows what else..........the illegals are essentially THIEVES. They KNOW what they are doing. It's not random. I working IN a hospital - they know how to work the system. They are THIEVES.
Generosity and charity goes both ways. The POOR have obligations - OBLIGATIONS and DUTIES - as well. Yo, and your Socialist buddies, seem to think Christianity, and the USA, are akin to life on Pleasure Island - as a perpetual first night - in Disney's "Pinocchio". Your vision is WRONG, Jason.
Now - post what Leviticus says about dealing with thieves.
I spoke with few Mexican ladies and what found was on their mind has just surprised me too much.
In their mentality of having child is to gain benefit from US government, from us the tax payers. Their mother will tell them to have more children so they could receive more welfare to support their family.
Here is the problem, not just talking about totally not fair for us who is paying thousand of dollars per family every month that goes to those families (raising their kids) on the street. But these welfare families never educate their children and they never control their children so that is why there are numerous of these children get sick, get hurt from fight, missing or whatever the trouble can bring that is causing government an extra tons of money spent to keep these (human rights), to find their children, to cure their illness, to educate their troubled kids to send out helicopter to find their kids...... GOSH !!
It is ridiculous and seriously unfair for the good working tax payers to support those only making babies to get money from us. I personally really hope CALIFORNIA could cut down all these benefits to illegal immigrants at once, they are dragging all middle class down. I personally paying $1500 on tax each month with zero deduction and zero qualified benefits, I will be really happy to see those money could just go to those families that really need helps but not to those whose intentionally taking advantage on all of us.
Hope CA can really do something about this, to treat fairly all of us. God Bless! 10/06/08
In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus proclaims that how you treat the hungry, the thirsty, the sick and the “other least of these,” is how you treat Jesus himself. And if you fail to help the least of these, Jesus promises that you will be sent to hell. Notice He refers to "nations" not individuals.
31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
i am currently writing an article about how illegal aliens are harming the united states, and i totally agree with this, i know they are coming for a better life but why should we have to pay for them? Why cant they wait for there lottery to come to america like all the rest of the legals who arnt native born?
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.