BlogWonks

By BILL MURPHY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

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The Harris County Hospital District’s unreimbursed costs of caring for illegal immigrants approached $100 million last year, a 77 percent increase in three years.

“The costs are increasing because the population of undocumented immigrants is increasing and the cost of health care is rising,” said hospital district spokesman Bryan McLeod.

The unreimbursed costs rose from $55 million in 2002 to $97 million in 2005, the hospital district said in a report released Friday. Last year’s figure represented 13 percent of the district’s $760 million operating budget.

The district treats about 300,000 patients annually, but lacks enough funds and facilities to care for all of the county’s uninsured and underinsured residents, estimated to number between 800,000 and 1.2 million, McLeod said.

Commissioner Steve Radack, who requested the report on the district’s costs of treating undocumented immigrants, said county residents are shouldering a burden created by the federal government.

The federal government doesn’t prevent illegal immigration, but hardly reimburses local counties where the immigrants most frequently settle and use public health care facilities, he said.

“The federal government allows people to come here illegally,” Radack said. “Because of that the cost shouldn’t fall on the local taxpayer.”

The district treated more than 57,000 illegal immigrants last year, at a cost of $128 million. The federal and state governments reimbursed about $28 million, and the patients themselves paid about $3 million. Over the past 11 years, the district has paid about $607 million in unreimbursed costs for treating undocumented immigrants.

Read more: ( http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3977695.html )

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The United States simply cannot take on the huge burden of treating the ailments of American citizens and those of illegal Mexican citizens as well.

Many Americans who entered America the legal way, and those who were born here had a mind set and value system of working from nothing to achieve something…and without freebies from the government or preferential treatment.  So why should illegal immigrants who aren’t supposed to be in this country get priority over those who are already citizens? We are bending over backwards to support illegal immigrants, and we are unable to take care of ourselves, our healthcare system is crashing.   

A recent report by the Institute of Medicine found that our nation’s emergency rooms are overburdened. Now, think of the number of illegal immigrants who come to America to have children so that they can become automatic citizens of America. Think of how the emergency rooms struggle to treat American citizens and expectant illegal mothers. It’s a huge load. And it’s a situation which could be changed.

To give you an idea of how much of a strain this has put on the states, let’s take a look back at 1994, in California, where in that year, the state paid for 74,987 deliveries by illegal alien mothers.  Total cost, $215.2 million dollars.  Average cost per delivery, $2,842.  Thirty-six percent of births from illegal alien mothers were funded by Medi-Cal in 1994.

Read more:

( http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters4608 )

Those figures pertained to the situation in 1994, imagine how big the problem is now.  Congress could simply put a stop to the “anchor baby” issue and put into law that illegals whose children are born in America are denied citizenship.

The Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus (headed by Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) goes further to explain why this is a good idea:

Shockingly, between 300,000 and 350,000 children per year are born in the United States to illegal-alien mothers, and these children are granted automatic citizenship upon birth.

After the Civil War, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which read, “All persons born in the US and not subject to the jurisdiction to any foreign power, excluding Indians, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.” Just two years later Congress drafted the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, intending to constitutionalize the definition provided in the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Senators Trumbell and Howard, the “chief architects” of the Fourteenth amendment, intended for a person to be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States only if the person did not owe allegiance “to anyone else” (Senator Trumbell). The framers included the Jurisdictional prong of the Citizenship Clause to narrow the scope of birthright citizenship. A proper interpretation of the Citizenship Clause leads to the conclusion that political membership, and thus citizenship, can only result from free individual choices.

As previously indicated, a child born in the United States to a foreign diplomat is not a United States citizen. Since the foreign diplomat is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, the diplomat’s child, who inherits his parent’s status, is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Because the child is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, he is not granted United States citizenship upon birth.

Likewise, Congress must declare that the child of an illegal alien inherits the status of his parent; thus, the child, like his parent should be deemed to be an illegal alien. Otherwise, immigration law creates a perverse incentive for people to sneak into our country and give birth. Illegal aliens are “individuals whose presence in the jurisdiction of the US is prohibited by law. They are manifestly individuals . . . whom society has explicitly . . . denied membership.” By automatically granting citizenship to the child of an illegal entrant, Congress rewards illegal entrants for violating American law. Congress should not incent illegal aliens to violate the law of the United States.

Read more…(under The Falsehood of Birthright Citizenship): ( http://tancredo.house.gov/irc/nationalsecurity.html )

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We can alleviate the stress on America’s hospitals and emergency rooms by simply taking care of American citizens first. This is common sense, and if Congress acts on a bill that would deter illegals from crossing our borders, that would help.  Right now, there are too many incentives for illegals to come across the border, and automatic citizenship for their children who are born in America should be challenged.

America needs to put its priorities in order. And first priority goes to the American citizen. Illegals who jump in line ahead of American citizens are robbing the system.

Whether it is in healthcare or in other areas of society… those of us, who grew up in the U.S. or came here legally, should not shoulder the burden of paying for the well being of illegal immigrants.