Illegal Alien- frustrated!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Please don't flame me. This is the only place I can comw to to vent and get some ideas on how to get myself back on track. I work with people who are immunosuppressed. I have a particular client who is receiving lots of money in health care and medication as well as assistance with rent and utilities. She is hispanic, provided a Socical Security number and a signed supporter statement from her husband. Now it turns out husband is undocumented and their income comes from him fixing cars off the books. They have not filed a tax return EVER. This family also receives almost $400.00 a month in food stamps plus a few hundred in WIC. My problem? It hacks me off that they are getting all these benefits and don't pay taxes. It makes me feel like a bad person but it is really hacking me off. Every time I turn around there is this client with their hand out. They have this letter written in Spanish that says "I so an so make such and such each month". This has been taken by not only our agency but others as well. We would not even think about taking such a document from a Caucasian or African American person. I certainly do not want someone to go without help but it aggravates me when I have to assist this person at the expense of the next one, who might be a citizen! I am sure other nurses deal with this. I am looking for a good way of thinking about this. Thanks!

Big corporations receive billions in subsidies; is it fair that you should have to support Chevron, Halliburton, and WalMart? Or what about pork barrel projects? Alaska's $200 million "bridge to nowhere"?

Let's add some pharmaceutical companies to that list...maybe a couple of HMO's?

IMO, posters are misdirecting their anger. Why has no one commented on the quoted comments above? Why have these comments been basically ignored? Where is the outrage about sickening corporate WELFARE?!

I would rather my city, county, state or country spend my tax money on the true needy, even if they are "illegal" than continue for even another minute to allow our government be the puppets of these evil coporations who care NOTHING about the US population (ie: people like you and me).

OINK OINK

This is what hacks me.

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Specializes in burn, geriatric, rehab, wound care, ER.

IMO, posters are misdirecting their anger.....I would rather my city, county, state or country spend my tax money on the true needy, even if they are "illegal" than continue for even another minute to allow our government be the puppets of these evil coporations who care NOTHING about the US population (ie: people like you and me).

Exactly the point I was trying to make about universal health care. I am totally with you on the corporate welfare thing - I'm going to go vote tomorrow and cast a yes ballot on proposition 89 to reform campaign finance in CA and allow regular people like you and me to run for office - a privilege seemingly only reserved for the wealthy who are at the beck and call of the corporations.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Cardiothoracics, VADs.

I learned in nursing school that my job as a nurse was to care for my patients, regardless of age, race, nationality, ability to pay etc. Sure it can piss you off, but it's not for me to judge their right to be in the country etc. If they're sick, I look after em. Everything else is for someone else to judge.

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People who are illegal, as well as people who rip off the system, are contributing th the downfall of the US.

So are the greedy corporations.

I would gladly pay higher taxes for universal health care.

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Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.

Look at it this way, there are alot of people that don't work at all, and those people certainly don't pay taxes, but for some reason, find a way to park a Lexus or a Cadillac on the front yard.

Illegals don't file tax returns because it increases the chance that they will get caught with the social security numbers that they have stolen from dead babies that were never reported accruately into the credit system, because they'll have to put down the address where they live, etc.

Many illegals (not just Hispanics, illegals in general), are educated in how to come to this country and scam off the welfare system. If you can figure out they are illegal, why can't the place they apply for welfare figure it out and cut off their benefits?

There is a huge problem with folks coming over here legally from Asian countries that are near retirement age and they get on social security like they've always worked here--as an alternative if they can't make it over there. I don't agree with that either.

It's a catch-22. I would treat it like you would any other dead-beat who doesn't work at all.

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Specializes in med/surg.

It's all very well to be idealistic about what you should be like if you're a nurse. I'm sure 99.9% of us here are compassionate etc etc etc when actually dealing with the type of person the OP is venting about BUT that doesn't mean that we have to like it. It is wrong when people who pay no taxes & who are in a country illegally abuse the system. That is what the OP is talking about, not those who have come through desperation etc but those who have come to sponge off the State.

We have a severe problem here in the UK at the moment with so-called assylum seekers who come off the Eurostar train from France, or even air flights, heavily pregnant (goodness knows how they even get on the planes) then turn up at London hospitals in labour - ticket labels still on their suitcases!! After the birth, at UK tax payers expense of course, they then manage to get welfare, housing etc etc.

There was a case recently where a premie baby, pictured with Prince William in the papers, (one of twins, whose care cost us tax payers around £3000 ($5000 app) per day) turned out to be from an assylum seeker who had originally been to Holland but "didn't like it" so somehow managed to get to the UK. She openly said she wouldn't be working because of her babies, she was a single mother & was "going to get a house from the council in about 6 weeks because the hostel where she was staying was not suitable to bring up the babies." It just beggars belief!!

Of course you can't turn away a woman in labour but once she's given birth & is stable, if she shouldn't be in the country then she should be sent home - with a bill for her country's government for her care! If her case is truly one of assylum then she can be dealt with as is fit & proper but in the above case she'd already been to one country & if you were really seeking shelter from persecution you'd be grateful to the first country that took you in! Holland is a decent place to live, I think she came to the UK because maybe the Dutch are stricter about their handouts & maybe she realised she didn't have a good case for assylum & would be sent packing by the Dutch authorites, whereas here she'll just be able to get away with it.

It's no wonder decent people are beginning to get fed up & to say enough is enough!! Of course there are some equally delightful, home grown spongers too & any new laws should cover them as well.

I just think that decent, hardworking people have had enough. I have no problem with people seeking a new life, I have no problem with people who genuinely fear for their, or their family's lives. I do, however, have a problem with people who deliberately play the system & commit fraud for their own gain. Whether these people be from a different country or are doing it within their own country.

It's not about nursing compassion it's about getting those types of people mentioned above to pay their dues to the country they're living in! I think that if we can help the authorities to identify those people then so be it, we should be allowed to alert the powers that be to this type of fraud.

That said of course we should go on caring for them, that part is not, nor should it ever be, our decision.

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To the OP: How did you come upon this information? Is it common knowledge? It sounds like fraud to me. If the person is using a phoney SS# or other documentation, then it seems to me that agency/agencies should be notified.

This fraud happens because the government allows it to happen.

Illegal aliens mean big savings for the chicken houses and other corporations. Big business is what influences the decisions made in this country. Little people like us don't count. It's hard for people to imagine leaders who are so evil but 1 in 25 people have NO CONSCIENCE and can do ANYTHING without remorse. And here we have a great portion of the millionaires, billionaires and lawmakers. As long as they get theirs all is fine and uneccesary eaters like ourselves can go to hell. This small portion of the most influencial people in the world are not influencial people of the world because they are kind, decent and caring. Kind, decent and caring doesn't make propell you up the ladder of success. Greed and cruelty do.

Someone is making money from these people, or I can gurantee you, it wouldn't be allowed to happen.

Sure, we get the occasional individual who is busted for having a fake SS card and driver's license, but that means nothing in the bigger scheme of things.

It makes me sick, too. I resent the hoards of illegals I see coming in. People will argue they are such hardworking well-behaved people. Well, if I was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be I imagine I would be keeping my nose to the grindstone as well.

And that farce that they do jobs no one else will do. The real thing is they will do jobs for the pittance that no self-respecting American would do.

We're all doomed. Say goodbye to this country.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I can certainly understand how a person whose loved one needs care would go to any length to get it. I can see needing to get out of a country where no matter how hard you try you can't get ahead. I have no problem with the documented workers getting help they need.

The ones I have a problem with are the ones who are here illegally. If it's so much better here than where you are from, then get the documentation you need to stay here. Learn the language, make people aware that you are here and doing the right thing by doing it by the book. If it's not important enough to you to blend in to the society you have voluntarily come into, then go back home.

Yes, I know that theese people do the jobs that Americans don't want to do, but they should do it legally.

tvccrn

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Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.
I can certainly understand how a person whose loved one needs care would go to any length to get it. I can see needing to get out of a country where no matter how hard you try you can't get ahead. I have no problem with the documented workers getting help they need.

The ones I have a problem with are the ones who are here illegally. If it's so much better here than where you are from, then get the documentation you need to stay here. Learn the language, make people aware that you are here and doing the right thing by doing it by the book. If it's not important enough to you to blend in to the society you have voluntarily come into, then go back home.

Yes, I know that theese people do the jobs that Americans don't want to do, but they should do it legally.

tvccrn

BINGO!!!!!

By the same token - our immigration system needs to be easier to navigate so that people CAN be here legally. I think many would choose that if it weren't so hard to do.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
I agree with all the posters here, however with a caveat. As a hospital-based case manager, we see many undocumented aliens who not only milk the system after they come here, but deliberately come here to get dialysis, TB treatment, etc. In Kansas, active TB is an automatic medical card approval. I had a patient on my caseload who came here from Africa for a grandson's college graduation, collapsed with pneumonia, anemia, etc. etc. DX: AIDS, also an automatic medical card. I do feel, however, that we as Americans need to remind those in Washington and our respective state governments that we expect solutions to this problem. Undocumented persons are slowly sucking our system of funds needed for deserving American citizens. Lets VOTE, people. The buck sometimes stops with us, too!!!

First of all, we are not ALL on the same page here so be sure to read ALL the responses before you say that you agree with all. Secondly, what would you have had happen to the African patient? Would you have shipped them back sick and dying? Do you think they timed their collapse so they could get a freebie from the American people?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
Let's add some pharmaceutical companies to that list...maybe a couple of HMO's?

IMO, posters are misdirecting their anger. Why has no one commented on the quoted comments above? Why have these comments been basically ignored? Where is the outrage about sickening corporate WELFARE?!

I would rather my city, county, state or country spend my tax money on the true needy, even if they are "illegal" than continue for even another minute to allow our government be the puppets of these evil coporations who care NOTHING about the US population (ie: people like you and me).

OINK OINK

This is what hacks me.

Thank you. Thank you. I can't understand why someone would get all tied up in knots about the sick and the needy getting some assistance even if they did get here illegally, but have no problem with those who DO NOT NEED IT getting our tax dollars so they can continue their lives of luxury. I have never seen a topic on this board venting about our tax dollars going to help the rich. There's something twisted about that.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, ER.

Great Post TVCCRN! I agree!

I have a problem with people who don't pay INTO the system, getting anything OUT of the system, be it an illegal or a legal slouch. I absolutely resent my tax dollars going for folks who aren't paying taxes!

The welfare system is supposed to be there for a reason - for a LEG UP for people in a down slope, not for people to make their living from. When I was a single mom with 2 toddlers, I qualified for WIC, and I got it, and when I got a better job, I let them know and got OFF it - this was 19 years ago.

Now one of those toddlers is an adult who works fulltime but her job doesn't provide benefits. She's pregnant. She makes too much to qualify for medicaid and all that wonderful stuff that others get for doing nothing - but she pays taxes. Oh yes and she found a clinic for prenatal care that charges her a sliding scale - she still PAYS for her care! Too bad she's not illegal - she'd get it all for free!

All that said, - I don't WANT to know what kind of insurance my patients have, even though I know most of 'em have medicaid (county hosp). I give the best care and treatment to everyone I take care of, no exceptions, but I DO NOT HAVE TO LIKE IT!

(can ya tell I just got off 12 hours?)

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