[StNeotser]

Originally Posted by charebec65

How very true..... we were talking to a friend of ours the other day who is getting ready to go to Mexico. Someone she knew had gotten hurt while doing some kind of water sport while he and his wife were in Mexico and needed emergency treatment. The hospital required a $10,000 CASH payment up front before they would treat him!!!!!

Did he have travel medical insurance and they still wanted this money? Nobody should ever go anywhere in the world without it.

I'm a little confused about the legal immigrants mentioned in this thread getting public funds. When I immigrated here I either had to become a citizen or have paid ten years worth of taxes before taking any public funds. I haven't wanted nor needed public funds, but I'm wondering how they got foodstamps.

[azerrn]

The catch 22 on this is, hospitals still have to treat them, so they are going to start losing a horrendous amount of money if they do not get compensated.[/quote]


You are right on! HospitalsERs will still have to treat "illegals" that come in for health care. We have a notice posted in our ER that no one will be turned away because of an inability to pay for health care.

I think though that the new law is designed to reduce the number of "illegals" that apply for welfare and medicaid type programs. At my hospital, many illegals that come to the ER give fake names and fake dates of birth. One guy showed up twice in the same day with different names and birth dates...his bad luck to get the same triage RN.

Either way, the hospital won't get paid...by the patient or the government.

[hope3456]

Originally Posted by ZASHAGALKA

I would be wholly in favor of this law, if it were the policy of the United States to actively prevent and interdict illegal aliens. And I would be wholly in favor of that, as well.

But, if we are purposely turning a blind eye to these people coming, we bear some responsibility for them while they are here. Turning a blind eye again is just immoral.

~faith,
Timothy.

I agree that politicians would like to turn a blind eye to the immigration problem, b/c they are friends with the big corporations that profit from the cheap labor illegal immigrants provide.

However, colorado citizens are NOT turning a blind eye. This law (see OP) was passed b/c of public outrage. Voters let the elected state representatives know that they would be held accountable for doing something about this issue come election day.

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally Posted by TheCommuter

Well, you're wrong. Seventy percent of all welfare recipients are employed; however, they're employed at so-called 'bad jobs'.
http://www.upjohninst.org/publicatio...0employed'

Thinking back I know you are right.
One of our nursing asststants supports her mother and two daughters. I don't know whether they get a welfare check but they do use food stamps. (I don't think it is stamps anymore.)
She was born in the USA.
I know there are counterfit green cards.

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally Posted by gauge14iv

They could be an illegal immigeant if they used fake documents to obtain that card.

By the same token - the immigration system is very difficult and expensive to navigate. If we want them here legally - that would be easy enough to do - we could have them be protected by wage and labor laws, paying taxes and paying for the sersvices they receive - making the immigration system easier to would be one way to do that - but then they would no longer be a cheap source of slave labor.

I agree. If we enforce the labor laws regarding wages and hours of work by prosecuting employers they will be more likely to hire citizens and legal residents. Citizend should not put up with their employer breaking the law.

[HM2Viking]

Originally Posted by ZASHAGALKA

Not Law, Health and Human Services regulations based upon a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment.

Regulations are not Law. One is a set of rules, the other, actual legislation. The issue merely needs a clarification by Congress. And there is a push, of late, to do just that.

~faith,
Timothy.

From INS:

Who is born a United States citizen?Generally, people are born U.S. citizens if they are born in the United States or if they are born to U.S. citizens:

(1) By being born in the United States
If you were born in the United States (including, in most cases, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands), you are an American citizen at birth (unless you were born to a foreign diplomat). Your birth certificate is proof of your citizenship.

It really isn't a misinterpretation. This has been a commonly accepted way to citizenship for generations.

True story: I met a brazilian exchange student years ago. Her father was a citizen of Sweden. Her mother was Brazilian and the student was born in Oregon. She had triple citizenship and had passports for all three countries.

I think any attempt to redefine the birth standard of citizenship would be shot down in the courts as being a citizen by birth is arguably a constitutional right.

[HM2Viking]

Originally Posted by TheCommuter

No offense is intended, but I wholly agree with this new law. I am from California, a state that has been financially devastated by providing costly services such as healthcare, education, and social programs to illegal immigrants.

Six years ago I was a grocery store clerk in a city that had a large immigrant population. I would cash the payroll checks of these individuals who always provided a resident alien card as a form of identification. The groceries would be paid for with food stamps, the baby formula and cereals would be paid for with WIC vouchers, and a welfare check would be cashed at the end of the entire transaction. The aforementioned scenario would occur multiple times throughout my workshifts at the supermarket. My honest opinion is that illegal immigrants utilize more services than they reasonably pay for.

1 in 4 workers in the US are classified as working poor.

[Sheri257]

Originally Posted by azerrn

You are right on! HospitalsERs will still have to treat "illegals" that come in for health care. We have a notice posted in our ER that no one will be turned away because of an inability to pay for health care.

I think though that the new law is designed to reduce the number of "illegals" that apply for welfare and medicaid type programs. At my hospital, many illegals that come to the ER give fake names and fake dates of birth. One guy showed up twice in the same day with different names and birth dates...his bad luck to get the same triage RN.

Either way, the hospital won't get paid...by the patient or the government.

Consequently, more ER's will probably shut down. Then everybody loses.

Nevertheless, the line has to be drawn somewhere. I often wonder how many illegals would cross the border if all of these free services weren't available. To a certain extent, free healthcare, free schools, etc. have got to be driving illegal immigration as much as anything else.

Afterall, they're being paid slave wages. If everything else wasn't free ... maybe it wouldn't be as worthwhile to come here.

[HM2Viking]

Part of the solution to the immigration problem is to demand that our trade agreements (NAFTA, CAFTA etc.) require our trading partners to have comparable work, environmental, safety and health regulations. This would have the dual benefit of leveling the playing field for our workers AND improving the situation for workers in other countries.

[TrudyRN]

On point, WE allow illegals to come here for a stated purpose: to do the work Americans will not do at that price. We are shamelessly taking advantage of their home situations.

How unethical is it to recruit people here so that we can treat them WORSE then we would treat any of our own (who are protected by minimum wage laws.)? We could close our borders almost immediately. We do not, and that is a political decision.


Who says Americans wouldn't do the work? I agree it is unethical to recruit them and then maltreat them. Blame it on greedy business owners.