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/ March 20, 2005 05:45 AM |
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Fox News is running a five part series on illegal aliens. For each of the parts I link to below there is a video link on the page so you can watch the report. The first in the series focuses on the basic numbers and the fact that more OTM's (Other Than Mexican's) are starting to be caught. Including those from terrorist sponsoring states. For every 1 caught 3-4 got across without being discovered.
In the 1970s, fewer than 100,000 workers entered the United States illegally each year. By 1990, that figure had doubled.
Since then, illegal immigration has exploded, with more than 1 million instances of foreigners being detained at the U.S. border last year.
Note that those numbers are the ones caught not the total that crossed.
* * *
Part two in the series focuses on the burdening of the border states prisons with the overflowing number of illegal aliens that are housed there.
Many police officials in states along the U.S.-Mexican border say they are fed up with the number of illegal aliens populating American prisons, many of them incarcerated for violent crimes such as murder, rape and robbery.
Almost one in six inmates in Arizona, for example, is a Mexican citizen.
...
"We have to put drug users and violators in there, babysit them, and now we have to babysit illegal aliens," said Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose jails are 4,500 inmates over capacity.
...
In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding homicide warrants and 60 percent of outstanding felony warrants are for illegal aliens.
American taxpayers are paying for the crimes of the 8,000 convicted aliens not yet caught and the incarceration costs of those who have been.
That adds up to more than $1 billion a year — in just the states that border Mexico.
One item of note is that if you watch the video there's this one illegal alien in jail who says, "don't we all have a right to be here? I mean isn't it a free country?"
* * *
The third part in the series is on the effect illegal aliens are having on our medical system and emergency rooms.
Sixty percent of the county's uninsured patients are not U.S. citizens. More than half are here illegally. About 2 million undocumented aliens in Los Angeles County alone are crowding emergency rooms because they can't afford to see a doctor.
According to the State Association of Hospitals, California's public health system is "on the brink of collapse." In Los Angeles County, patients can wait four days for a hospital bed and up to two years for gallbladder surgery.
...
Last year, Los Angeles County spent $340 million to treat the uninsured; that's roughly $1,000 for every taxpayer.
"We're citizens here. Why should somebody from another country that's here illegally get anything that we can't get? I mean that's dumb, that's not right," said Don Schenck, whose son, Bill, is mentally disabled.
Though the Schencks are uninsured, and considered poor by county standards, his father had to find a way to pay for his Bill's care while thousands of others, in the country illegally, get it for free.
...
Immigrants like Yolanda Hernandez, however, argue that if there were cheap insurance plans available to her community, people would buy them.
"[Americans] have enough money to pay for insurance," she said. "They make good money and are educated. Unfortunately, we are not."
If there were cheap insurance plans we'd all be buying them. The reason they cost so much is because of illegal aliens forcing the prices out of reach of even poor American Citizens now. With these centers closing down it forces all those people to go elsewhere which means even more uninsured and illegal aliens at the other facilities until they to will fall. This endless cycle needs to be stopped, yet very few in Washington take it seriously.
* * *
I'll be adding part 4 and 5 when they are released on the Fox website and bumping this entry to the top.
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Update (March 19 12:55AM PST) entry bumped
Part four in the series has been posted. It deals with the costs of illegal aliens on the education system.
By law, citizens and immigrants — legal or not — can be educated in U.S. public schools.
One group of angry parents showed a video showing dozens of Mexican kids coming over the border to wait for a San Diego school bus. Another video shows more students from another district taking the trolley back to the Mexican border after school. Many say the influx has led to overcrowded classrooms, drained school budgets and a slowed learning process.
...
One in six students in California are children of illegal immigrants ... Education for children of illegal immigrants costs Golden State taxpayers almost $8 billion a year. The state ranks 48th in student achievement; nearly 50 percent can't read at grade level, 40 percent underperform in math and 30 percent drop out. Schools that repeatedly fail state proficiency tests lose millions of dollars in state and federal aid.
To see the video of children corssing the border and getting on a school bus, go to the link above, they have a link to the video on the webpage.
I have covered this in several articles I have done. September 4, 2004 "Latest Report: Illegal Aliens Cost Taxpayers $10 Billion A Year" and December 8, 2004 "California's Illegal Aliens Cost Taxpayers Nearly $9 Billion A Year". In the former report is a quote from a Washington Post article.
Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.
In the latter article mentioned above the only defense the friends of illegal aliens had was the race card. People being angry for footing the bill and suffering the consequences of overcrowding in schools and hospitals is obviously all due to racism according to these groups. It has nothing to do with seeing a good portion of your paycheck -- that people work hard for -- directly going to someone who shouldn't be in this country in the first place.
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I'll be adding part 5 when it is released on the Fox website and bumping this entry to the top.
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Update (March 20 5:44AM PST) entry bumped
Part five in the series has been posted. It is kind of a weak piece as it touches on the jobs illegal aliens are doing. I'm pretty sure most of us know there are nanny's, farm workers and car washers that are illegal aliens. The segment touches on the subject of unemployment among citizens while illegals are coming here and getting work.
"People aren't going to pay more for an American than a Mexican, just because they're American. I pay on ability," D'Agostino said. "All my workers get paid fair wage for their ability. I'm not going to pay $25 an hour to build a ditch. I'll get a $10 an hour guy to do that. So you pick your skilled labor and unskilled."
Let me clarify something here. Most people would agree with the above statement, why hire someone at $25 when you can hire them at $10. Well what it really comes down to is the business owner is not only saving the $15 dollar difference, he is saving on not having to pay payroll taxes. In general payroll taxes are about 30%-50% of a employee's wage.
So, say Mr. D'Agostino actually hired a legal worker at $10 an hour instead of an illegal alien? Because if he did so he would be paying nearly $15 an hour here in California and he wouldn't want that. That extra $5 an hour comes to $40 dollars extra a day per employee that would go to taxes, social security, SDI, medical and workers comp. All of these programs are being cheated by Mr. D'Agostino knowingly.
Sure the laborer wants work and the employer wants to make money, but in the process our services are being cheated by the employer and our tax system is being cheated by the employee in addition to our laws being flaunted. There's a lot being said about how the price of things would go up if all the illegals went away. But with the additional flow of payroll taxes and income taxes into the system it is quite possible that those costs to all of us employed legally here could be drastically reduced or services expanded.
According to Wall Street analysts, 8 percent of the U.S. workforce — 10 to 12 million jobs — is undocumented. And while their willingness to work cheap means lower prices on everything from produce to plumbing, some argue it displaces American workers and decreases pay across the board.
This is another addition to the equation. The lowering of pay across the board for our lower wage workers.
Unemployed Americans are numbered at 7.7 million; if illegal immigration ended tomorrow, it's questionable whether the unemployed will rush out to pick lettuce and, if they do, what the cost will be at the market.
"I just don't see that and I think using agricultural workers is a pretty good example of an industry or a whole classification of jobs that American workers aren't lining up to take," said Farrell Quinlan of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.
But Rick Oltman of the Federal American Immigration Reform says there aren't any jobs people won't work for.
Although hiring undocumented workers is illegal, the law is rarely enforced. Three out of four foreigners that enter the United States do so illegally and half are paid under the table, so they don't pay taxes.
"The bottom line is that businesses are benefiting from the cheap labor," Oltman said. "They're making extra profits and they're shifting the whole benefits package over on to the taxpayer."
It's really a shame that we let these things go on. The cost of enforcing the law on businesses would be far outweighed by the income into the system of the payroll taxes. Plus it's the law.
Other Commentary:
La Shawn Barber's Corner
Beltway Traffic Jammed
This entry is in the following archive(s):
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Posted by Digger on March 20, 2005 05:45 AM (Permalink)
Digger,
I just read part three regarding ER rooms and Illegals closing down trauma centers.
Dude, that editorial has more holes then swiss cheese. Even the headline conflicts with the story.
Here's my response to the editor -
Dear Editor,
First off, the ER's are NOT "Full" of illegal immigrants as you so sensationally put it. Your own article admits to that inaccuracy.
Question - The Department of Health has a $1.2 Billion deficit. How much of that can be directly attributed to Illegal Immigrants using ER facilities?
Secondly, as the parent of a disabled child in California, I find it extremely difficult to believe the Schencks son Bill can't get any care, even at little or no cost to them.
Have they not heard of SSI, California Children's Services, Medicare, Medicaid, In Home Supportive Services, or LA County health services? Or did you choose to exclude that information from your article so you could make your story more sensational?
I don't doubt Illegal Immigrants are having somewhat of an impact. But this editorial is so far out of reality, it's insulting to my intelligence.
Case in point. Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). As the parent of a disabled child, we have spent numerous days at this facility getting our daughter the help she needs. She's not yet 5 years old, but has undergone 19 surgical procedures to correct a rare genetic disorder known as Larsen's Syndrome. At this time, she is in her second year of preschool and is advanced beyond other children in her class who are in the first grade and is doing well. She will always be in a wheel chair and will always need government assistance to some degree.
The reason I'm telling all of you about my daughter is to help put things in perspective. When she was born, our insurance tried to force us to go to UCLA Medical Center because they did not have CHLA listed as "in network." UCLA is a fine medical center, if you're an adult. CHLA is just about the only facility in America with the experience to handle this condition. They also handle many conditions that no other hospital can offer. In our time there, we've met families from Central and South America, Australia, and even as far away as Egypt.
It is not illegal immigrants doing us a disservice, it is insurance companies more than anything creating this environment. Our insurance allowed us to take our child to CHLA only after we threatened to sue. We did not actually do it, but it points to how far you have to go to get proper help for your kid.
Because our insurance only contracts services with CHLA, compensation to CHLA by insurance is only partial. We estimate the total to the hospital from our daughters surgeries to be about 1 million. Guess how much the insurance actually paid the hospital.
How about 25%.
The hospital tries to make it up through one-time patients such as kids with broken arms, but it tends to fall far short of making up the difference.
I can only speak for the facilities I'm familiar with and my own experiences, but I can almost guarantee I'm not alone in this, and neither are the hospitals.
Also, our governor of California has taken it upon himself to try and fix our budget problems by borrowing billions at high interest rates, and slashing health services to irresponsible levels.
For example, rolling back IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) to minimum wage. In case you're not familiar with IHSS, it is a program whereby care givers and parents (such as my wife) are paid through the state to provide care for the disabled in a private, home environment.
California is the only state which contracts with parents.
In order to qualify for IHSS, you must first be receiving SSI. Depending where you live in the state determines what your pay rate is. My wife is budgeted 236 hours once a month and is paid $9.00/hr. If it wasn't for IHSS working with parents, it would cost taxpayers $60/hr for a nurse to come into our home and do the exact same job.
Cutting this program back to minimum wage will only increase the burden on taxpayers because health workers will be forced to leave the IHSS program, and it will perpetuate the institutionalization of the disabled, which is exponentially more expensive than the current program. Not to mention demeaning to the patient.
These programs are here for not only anyone who is born with disabilities, but anyone who becomes disabled through accidents, or development of a disease.
As far as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985, doesn't everyone have a right to at least basic care? I agree that if hospitals are going to be obligated to care for ER patients whether they can pay for it or not, the government should at least offer some compensation.
But placing the blame on patients? How irresponsible.
The biggest reason for greater numbers of people not having insurance has nothing to with illegal immigrants, and plenty to do with our current job market. Of the 226,000 jobs created this year so far, fully 75% of them were low paying, part time non-benefit jobs.
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics states the following
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
"Over the year, the number of persons who held more than one job increased
by 432,000 to 7.7 million, not seasonally adjusted.
These multiple jobholders
represented 5.5 percent of total employment in February, up from 5.3 percent
a year earlier."
More and more people are working two or more jobs just to stay financially afloat.
"The average workweek for production or nonsupervisory workers on private
nonfarm payrolls was unchanged in February, at 33.7 hours, seasonally adjusted.
The manufacturing workweek declined by 0.2 hour to 40.5 hours, the same level as
in November and December. Manufacturing overtime edged up in February to 4.6"
In other words, more and more jobs are paying at less than 40 Hrs per week, which translates into fewer and fewer jobs offering benefits unless the employee pays a large portion of the cost, with limited access under policy guidelines. This of course makes affording insurance very difficult.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t05.htm
And lets not forget the big Pharma's who charge 30% more for drugs here than anywhere else in the world, while spending nearly twice the budget on advertising as they do on research.
And lets also not forget that 2/3 of the entire welfare budget is paid to corporations, not individuals.
If we're going to place blame on causes for sky rocketing health care, lets start with our congressional representatives for allowing large companies to ship our higher paying, salaried jobs with benefits overseas.
Posted by: deccles on March 18, 2005 04:24 PM
Something else I noticed.
"Last year, Los Angeles County spent $340 million to treat the uninsured; that's roughly $1,000 for every taxpayer."
1,000 divided by 340,000,000 equals 340,000.
If I understand this correctly, Los Angeles County has only 340,000 people living in it, while 2 million illegal immigrants occupy the same space.
That's amazing considering this link shows a population of 10,102,961.
http://www.lacounty.info/statistical_information.htm
Lets see, $340,000,000 divided by 10,102,961 equals $33.65.
HMMM....
Posted by: deccles on March 18, 2005 04:53 PM
Check out Calexico Hospital. It is closed. Broke. They could not afford to stay open. Why? Too many citizens of Mexico having their babies there, getting injured and cared for and then not paying, getting across the border either legally or illegally and going to the er because it didn't cost them anything. El Grande Lay de Estatios de Unidos (the great laws of the USA) say that if they are there in the er, they have to be medically taken care of regardless of their ability to pay.
Hospitals all along the border suffer from this; El Centro Regional Medical Center, Yuma Regional Medical Center, the hospitals in Nogales, El Paso, Brownsville.....hospitals in Chicago, Kansas City, Denver. The bottom line is every American citizen is paying for this with higher taxes, higher health insurance rates and decreased medical options. Sadly, Medical care is just one aspect of this illegal immigration invasion. How about education? Schools in border states are getting hammered by NCLB because those kids who can't speak English are being tested in English and their lack of improving test scores are being held against the schools. How about auto insurance rates? Get into a fender bender with an illegal immigrant driver in southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas and who pays? The citizen driver who does have insurance. This list could go on. The Federal Government needs to start doing its Constitutional duty to enforce our borders. They should begin with resinding/revoke the posse commitus (sp?) law from the 1870s that helped end Reconstruction and said Federal military forces could not enforce laws inside the borders of the US. WE should do like just about every other F'in country does and use our militaty to protect our borders AND our citizens.
Posted by: Polski3 on March 18, 2005 09:10 PM
deccles,
Go have a read of an earlier entry of mine which is multiple studies on the costs of illegal aliens here in California.
There are also links in that entry to the report themselves and where the data came from (US census data, etc...).
Polski3,
You are correct that it's just not in California. I did an earlier report on a New Jersey hospitals facing closure as well. You can find it here.
Posted by: Digger on March 19, 2005 12:46 AM
Digger,
Show me a study from an unbiased, non confrontational group and I'll believe you. Until then, groups such as FAIR will make the numbers say anything they want it to say.
The point of my responses to the Fox article was that they are not the least bit interested in stating facts and backing them up. Fox is only interested in making their news as sensational as possible and if that means lying to america, so be it.
Posted by: deccles on March 19, 2005 06:48 AM
Any report I found claiming illegal aliens cost more than they contribute would be found unsatisfactory to you. If you're expecting MALDEF, La Raza or MECha to release such a report, good luck.
Posted by: Digger on March 19, 2005 07:35 AM
As for the FOX articles they are broad brushstroke of the immigration issue. If you actually dig into their points -- as this website tries to do on a regular basis -- you find their generalized reports above to be true.
Why are you so pro illegal alien anyway?
Posted by: Digger on March 19, 2005 07:40 AM
I never said I was pro illegal alien. I just want people and especially news organizations to be honest about what they have to say and give more than one reason for the troubles health care is having when the issue is covered. The system of insurance, lack of adequate federal funding and all other programs are having a far greater effect on health care than any one group of people ever could.
Attempting to blame our problems on a group of people who can't defend themselves through biased , inaccurate reporting and encouragement of hatred is ludicris (sp?) and counter-productive.
If what you say about Fox giving a broad brush stroke about the issue is true when it's supposed to be an in-depth series, then why are they failing to be "in-depth" and provide more than one viewpoint, which is what a responsible and professional news organization is supposed to do.
It's a dis-service to you and me. I'm not trying to simply pick on Fox. All networks as far as news is concerned are worthless resources. I never watch network news for this reason.
But if Fox is going to spend its energy focusing on issues that are supposedly ruining Americas health care system, why do they refuse to focus on inflated prescription drug costs, ridiculously high mal-practice insurance which forces doctors to close their clinics, insurance policies that don't enable adequate coverage (I know this from personal experience), corporations taking away health coverage from their workers and cutting hours. The list goes on and on.
I would rather see us focusing on the formulation of a national health care system that works for all.
I've heard all the excuses about how other countries have problems with their national health care systems. So lets do in depth research , find what works and change what doesn't work. It's not that difficult.
I read an article several months ago where doctors in Canada talking about how their health care system enabled doctors and hospitals to save literally 10's of billions of dollars simply through having one set of forms to submit for each patient, as opposed to here where doctors literally fill out hundreds of different forms because of the variety of insurance they have to deal with.
America is the only developed nation without national health care and it should be plainly obvious to us all our health care system is failing because of it.
The system we have in place only encourages profit before people, corruption (HealthSouth) and grossly inadequate coverage for all of us.
It isn't health care we have, it's sick care we have.
I agree we need to provide protection against those who would seek to do us harm, but the vast majority of immigrants are here because they can't find work in their home country, are escaping tyrrany, or simply trying to seek a better life. After all, America according to our president is a "Beacon of Freedom" right?
"How can you remove the speck in your friends eye when you can't see the log in your own eyes."
Posted by: deccles on March 19, 2005 09:39 AM
Your points are excellent on other issues that also kill our health care. This series was on how illegal aliens contribute to the problem by using ER's as their only medical care at full cost to the hospitals and no reimbursement.
Fox has done other specials, one in particular Why Doctors Quit covers some of the things you mention above.
I'm not going to cover all aspects of the insurance companies as I don't have enough data, but my take is that health insurance shouldn't be through your job in this day and age because too many people are moving from job to job. It creates too much paperwork. Some system needs to be put in place to allow people to get their own insurance at a reasonable rate (somehow people pooling together in a group tp get group rates). If someone gets laid off they aren't totally screwed, because they are in control of their own insurance and not at an employers whim.
I'm against national health care because of the horror stories I've heard of people having to wait months to years for simple preventive care and ending up having major complications because of the wait. At least with our system the wait isn't that horrendous.
I'm not an expert on that though.
I wish Fox did go more in depth, doing an hour segment on each of these 5 areas.
"Last year, Los Angeles County spent $340 million to treat the uninsured; that's roughly $1,000 for every taxpayer."
1,000 divided by 340,000,000 equals 340,000.
I'm not sure how they figured this out. I'm assuming they only counted people who actually pay taxes. While everyone pays taxes, a lot of those get it all back as a refund which isn't really "paying taxes". I'm not sure if that's correct though.
Posted by: Digger on March 19, 2005 10:43 AM
this crap pisses those of us who live and work in southern california. I grew up in Bakersfield, California and the sheer number of people who either CAN'T or WON'T speak english is appalling. I thought that was a prerequisite to becoming a United States Citizen.
unless the lefty moonbats have taken over and we have no such common language.
Posted by: Henry on March 20, 2005 12:33 PM
There are enough jobs in the US that no US citizen could not have a job. Part of the problem is that too many of the perpetually unemployed do not want to work. Most of them also do not have much of an education. Most of them have had way too much given to them without any effort on their part. Somehow, a work ethic needs to be reestablished with this group of parasites. Ending their welfare might help. One kudo I will give many of the illegal immigrants that sneak into our country, is they do have a good work ethic. They WANT to work. Many of them NEED to work; they have families to feed and take care of. I don't blame these people for coming here, I'd probably do the same if I was in their zapos. BUT, until the government stops throwing money at this group of perpetually unemployed and unemployable parasites, nothing is going to change. Get off their asses and cutting lettuce in Salinas for a few days, and they will wish they'd gotten more of an education and could be working at McDonalds. Back to those famous words of Captain John Smith to those aristocratic brats he brought to Jamestown; NO WOEK, NO FOOD.
Hunger is a true motivator. Just ask Juan or Maria next time they mow your lawn or clean your motel room.
Posted by: Polski3 on March 20, 2005 08:47 PM
What i think about the ufo thing. i think that the government should tell us about the aliens in are world. what they look like what they can do how tall they are and any other things they can do that we dont know let us know all the spots they have landed. and i think they should let us know like A>S>A>P.
Posted by: laron graves on May 16, 2006 07:19 PM
Why can't immigrants use their hard work ethos etc and make Mexico a more productive viable place to live. Other countries rich abuise their middle class, then they come here, why can't Russian, polish, mexican etc hard working heores contribute TO THEIR COUNTRY OF ORGIn ??????
Posted by: Truth Man on May 23, 2006 07:14 AM
POLSKI - why can't these hard working Mexicans work in MEXICO. Read the book Ricas i Famosa - Mexico should tax these people to educate the mexican poor
Posted by: carl on May 23, 2006 07:16 AM
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