It's strange to me that we make illegal immigrants an issue in the health
reform debate. It seems more logical to have an immigration debate to
discuss illegals.
My thought is that if someone is here illegally, the United States is at
least partially to blame for that. Morally, assuring that sick people have
access to basic care or at least trying to provide that is a good goal. If
there are illegals here, I'd treat them as any other human being and treat
them.
If there is a problem that we can not afford to or do not want to provide
for illegals like we do any other human, we should take measures to stop
or
reduce illegal aliens. That would mean immigration reform.
As some of you know, I have land in El Salvador and spend some time there
homesteading that land.
There is no real way for a poor Salvadoran to apply to come here legally.
Anyone that gets a visa is a person of means in El Salvador.
When there are extra jobs in the US (now is not one of those times), a
person in El Salvador that wants to come here, pays a Coyote around
$10,000.
You pay half up front and the other half when they get you here. If you
don't pay the last half, the coyote kills your family.
Once you get here, you grub for dirty work, accept less pay and usually
pay
taxes (working under a fake social security number). You don't live a
great
life, you live a cheaply as you can and send money home. You usually have
to
pay back $10, 000 you borrowed from family. $10,000 is a lot more money in
El Salvador (remember these are really poor people). You are working at $7
or less an hour and paying that $10,000 takes a long time.
If you are lucky, you get the $10, 00 payed back and you are able to send
money home to help improve life for your family. They depend on you, and
you
don't want to let them down. You work as many hours/jobs as you can. If
you
are young, you try to do the things that young people do (date, marry,
have
kids, raise kids).
Now, there are bad seed illegals that commit crimes, don't send money
home,
don't pay back the family for the coyote fee, commit crimes once they get
here, are lazy, etc. All groups have good and bad in them.
Americans in general have no idea of the poverty in most of the country's
from where most illegals come from. Most Americans feel like a dishwasher
is
a basic right. People here can not imagine living with the prospects for
life that most people in El Salvador, Guatemala or Mexico have.
Yes. Immigrating to the US illegally is a crime. It is wrong. It is
breaking
the law. Using a fake social, fake drivers license are all crimes.
Sometimes people make a decision to break a law in order to better their
life and that of their children.
We need to stop the whining about illegal immigrants and put in place an
immigration policy that allows those that we want here (in the numbers we
want) to immigrate illegally. We need to secure our borders.
If we can't do those things, then it is as much our fault that people come
here illegally as it is theirs. It's like if I park my car and leave the
windows down and the keys in it. It's partly my fault if it gets stolen.
Rob - Va
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