Thread: Cal Thomas Accused of Anti-Immigrant Fear Mongering

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbc ... /106190017

Shame on Cal Thomas for anti-immigrant fear mongerining
Ethan Maron, Merrimack
Published: Sunday, Jun. 19, 2005

I am writing in regard to a column by Cal Thomas that was published in The Telegraph on June 15 and titled, “Disease another by-product of immigration.�

Mr. Thomas cites a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis is more common among immigrants than non-immigrants.

Based solely upon the fact that many of these individuals were recent immigrants, he concludes that they must be illegal immigrants.

That conclusion is illogical but this is the position espoused by Mr. Thomas, who sneers at the words “foreign- born� as euphemism for “illegal immigrant.�

As he puts it: “The study did not characterize the “foreign-born� patients as illegal aliens, but what other conclusion is to be reached when the study specifies that most of them came from Mexico or the Philippines and were in the United States less than five years when their infection was discovered?�

The possibility of legal immigration, or the idea that these unfortunate TB patients may be respected members of their communities, seems not to occur to Mr. Thomas.

Instead, he uses his (flawed) conclusion that illegal immigrants are largely responsible for the spread of drug-resistance tuberculosis to argue for harsher measures to prevent illegal immigration.

He tries to scare his readers with the threat that illegal immigration will put them at risk for a painful and potentially fatal illness.

Mr. Thomas also neglects to mention that multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is extraordinarily rare. Over the 10-year period of the study he cites, only 407 of the nearly 34 million Californians contracted the disease.

This was stated in the abstract of “Multidrug Resistance Among Persons With Tuberculosis in California, 1994-2003�, available at jama.ama-assn.org.

Shame on you, Mr. Thomas. You are engaging in fear-mongering and demagoguery of the lowest sort.

Everybody is entitlled to their own opinion. Without even reading his article, I'll agree with Cal Thomas any day!

Someone please write a response to this idiot pointing out that 3 out 4 recent immigrants to the US are illegal at the current levels and that LEGAL aliens are screened for disease before they can enter the US.

It is clear to anyone with more than two brain cells and with the least amount of familiarity with this issue knows those immigrants with TB are illegals.

W

I sent them a short note politely pointing out that almost all recently reported cases of TB in this country have been found on illegal aliens, etc
I declined to call the writer an idiot although we all know what his status is.

T.B. and illegal Mexican aliens:

A few years ago I had an "inside" view of the T.B. situation in a large metropolitan area of the Southwest. The public health unit where I worked handled an inordinate number of cases of STDs and T.B. infecting illegal aliens. Medical staff in Southwest jails and prisons also note large percentages of communicable disease cases among illegal aliens.

I can't cite statistics (as yet) but many of the cases for both STDs and T.B. were among both legal and illegal aliens (mostly from Mexico). As far as I am concerned, communicable diseases coming from Mexican aliens "is" most definately a problem... just consider overcrowding, low standards of hygiene, peasant ignorance and belief systems of health and illness, and poor nutrition. Illegal aliens have many health problems that sooner or later end up costing Americans in one way or another.

To me, we need more research to add up the costs of diseases, injuries, and other drains on our medical systems and on our citizens that are caused by illegal and legal Mexican and other aliens.

I'll see if I can find some stats on what I've said above.

Illegal Aliens and Disease:

Here is a link to an article that seems quite responsible and focused:


http://www.rense.com/general64/ill.htm