Thread: CBS NEws: Illegal immigrant births at our expense

llegal Immigrant Births - At Your Expense
Taxpayers Foot Bill For Roughly 300,000 Children Born Into Citizenship When Their Parents Are Illegal

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McALLEN, Texas, April 7, 2008
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Wishing to be identified only as Fabiola, this new mother crossed from Mexico into the United States just to give birth to her son -- and to make sure he's be an American citizen. (CBS)

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Paying For Immigrant Births

Pregnant women from Mexico are crossing the border to have their babies in the U.S. Byron Pitts reports on the debate over who should foot the bill for the children of illegal immigrants. | Share/Embed

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(CBS) It was 5 a.m. and CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts is with a woman who is nine months pregnant. She's rushed to a south Texas hospital to undergo a C-section - a $4,700 medical procedure that won't cost her a dime. She qualifies for emergency Medicaid.

She gave birth to a healthy, 8 1/2 pound baby boy - born in America. His Mexican mother gave him an American name: Eliot.

Eliot is one of an estimated 300,000 children of illegal immigrants born in the United States every year, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. They're given instant citizenship because they are born on U.S. soil, which makes it easier for their parents to become U.S. citizens.

That's because those babies can eventually sponsor their parents - when they turn 21 years old.

As for Eliot's mother, no longer as fearful of deportation, she told CBS News her name, Fabiola, and her story.

"So your son is an American citizen. What does that mean to you?" Pitts asked.

"I am very glad that he was born. That's why I came here - so my children, my husband and I could have a better life," she said through a translator.

Back in December, when she was six months pregnant, Fabiola, her husband and their two daughters - ages 4 and 11 - crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S.

Once on the other side of the river they walked for two hours in search of a better life and free medical care for their unborn child.

"Do many women in Mexico make the choice to have their children in the United States?" Pitts asked.

"Yes," she said through a translator. "I know people who have done that. Things are much better here in the U.S. because they help children so much more."

It's a "better" life ... that American taxpayers help pay for.

Take healthcare for example -- an estimated $1.1 billion per year for undocumented men, women and children, according to the Rand Corporation.

Joe Riley is the CEO of the McAllen Texas Medical Center near the Texas-Mexico border. Forty percent of the children born there, nearly 2,400 last year, were the babies of illegal immigrants.

Riley has seen and heard it all.

"Mothers about to give birth that walk up to the hospital still wet from swimming across the river in actual labor … dirty, wet, cold," he said.

But here to have a child?

"Here to have a child in the U.S.," he said.

McAllen is part of a large hospital system. Like all hospitals, it is mandated by law to treat all emergency-room patients, not verify citizenship.

"We have uncompensated care of over $200 million a year," Riley said.

"Of money that you'll never see again?" Pitts asked.

"Yes," he said.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said: "It is not fair to the taxpayers who have to foot the bill."

Congress has all but given up on comprehensive immigration reform. But lawmakers like Smith want to solve birth citizenship to illegal immigrants, in part by challenging the 14th Amendment, which guarantees U.S. citizenship to any child born in America.

"It seems fundamentally wrong that we ought to give the greatest honor of their citizenship," Smith said. "His or her mother came across the border illegally."

Many Americans who struggle to take care of their own families think it is unfair that they should take care of a family and they are not U.S. citizens.

"I don't understand the resentment," said. "I know that God will help them, too."

That's what Fabiola's doing for young Eliot. Relying on her faith, her family … and the U.S. government.

MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I was rather impressed with this, it showed the facts and didn't try to push a political agenda. on CBS? Is something changing...? Tomorrow another piece on "immigrant nation"

"..Things are much better here in the U.S. because they help children so much more."

I hope the corrupt Mexican elite are proud of themselves. They enrich themsleves while they neglect Mexican children.

"I don't understand the resentment," said. "I know that God will help them, too."

Oh she understands the resentment very well. God is not the one who's stuck paying for her anchor baby. Unless she meant to say God does not help in Mexico?

I wasn't impressed. Maybe I've grown cynical of anything CBS and Miss Katie put out there, but what I took from this particular bit was the same old, same old "want a better life"- "I don't understand the resentment" - Why oh why are Americans so selfish with their welfare funding to actually want to exclude the poor 'immigrants' from the south a better life blah blah blah blah BLAHHHHH.

WHY weren't the numerous hospital closings in border states addressed?

WHY wasn't the illegal alien mother asked if she felt it was WRONG to cross the border, drop her load in an AMERICAN hospital and STEAL from AMERICAN taxpayers?

WHY wasn't the issue of HER ILLEGAL ALIEN HUSBAND AND TWO OTHER ILLEGAL ALIEN KIDS addressed? Are THEY stealing from the AMERICAN taxpayer too? YOU BETCHA!

Will this illegal alien mother, husband and THREE children NOW GO BACK TO MEXICO after getting her FREE c-section? Oops- they didn't ask THAT question. I guess CBS knows the American people can figure that out for ourselves.

Fair and balanced? Not by a long-shot in my opinion. Pretty much what I expected.

It's criminal that all the freebies that come along with the child and eventually the whole extended family will wind up in the U.S., costing taxpayers thousands.......all because our gutless politicians won't stop this fraud.

I remember a post describing a lady who was sharing a room because they didn't have much money. The other lady was a Mexican who got all her expenses paid for while this couple had to struggle for many months and years to pay the hospital bill. This is killing us all with increased hospital costs and insurance premiums.

How bad will it get before Americans start yelling and demanding a change??

Our local metro govt. is laying off 200 people because of budget problems. All dept budgets are getting cut except police and EDUCATION which got a 5% INCREASE! There are over 6000 ESL students costing millions and 200 people gave up their jobs so they will have money for them. I don't think any of them realize what is happening to them and the reason behind it.

I am SO happy this is airing on MSM! Why? Because MOST Americans and LEGAL immigrants don't KNOW how much we are paying for illegal aliens to be here! Until 2007, I did NOT know that the 14th amendment has been WRONGLY interpreted!

I had actually argued with other legal immigrants that it could not be that Illegal Aliens were getting freebies, UNTIL I started reading up after the Mayday marches of 2007 and let me tell you I WAS STUNNED and angry! If we were to go back to children born of illegal aliens BEFORE 1986, we might find that they were not given automatic citizenship (because the parents were NOT under the jurisdiction of the US!!!).

The MORE that Americans are educated about this, the better it will be and the faster this can be solved. Americans are losing jobs and homes, while illegal aliens are STILL freeloading. How long before Americans wake up and realize we've been had?

Read the story at the link below to see how a clinic refused to treat a pregnant AMERICAN unless she came up with money.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_ ... fact_check

Carlos Slim, Mexican, 2nd richest man in the world. Sixty thousand millon dollars. 60 Billion that is.....and pregnant women run north...go figure!

The citizen boy's mom can go get food stamps....in the name of the citizen boy.....YUP!

She is still subject to arrest and deportation as she should be and if the government would DO IT then they would STOP coming here!

Originally Posted by alipacdude

Carlos Slim, Mexican, 2nd richest man in the world. Sixty thousand millon dollars. 60 Billion that is.....and pregnant women run north...go figure!

The same can be said for Bill Gates, third richest man in the world, wants to import foreign workers when American colleges graduate three times more students in those fields in which Gates wants H1b increases.

G-R-E-E-D