Thread: Paying for the Care of Illegal Aliens

http://www.constitutionparty.com/news.php?aid=214
08/10/2005

PAYING FOR THE CARE OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
by William K. Shearer
Former Constitution Party National Chairman

Most countries, like most people, don’t pay for the problems they cause unless they are compelled to do so.

Mexico, with its vast export of illegals to the United States, is a case on point. Every knowledgeable observer knows that the Mexican government uses illegal immigration to relieve population pressure on that country’s economy. The encouragement by the Mexican government of the exodus of illegals to the U.S. is constant, usually covert, but occasionally done overtly in broad daylight. If the Mexican government was seriously attempting to stop its citizens from entering the United States illegally, there would not be over 10 million illegals living in the United States, a number which is growing by about 485,000 a year.

Mexico isn’t going to do anything to discourage the illegals until Mexico starts paying a price for the unlawful presence of its citizens in the United States.

Examine, for instance, the cost of emergency health care provided by U.S. hospitals to illegal aliens. In California, the price tag is some $500 million a year, about $100 million of it from San Diego County alone. This travesty is repeated in the other border States – Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas – as well as in non-border States with big illegal populations, such as New York, Illinois, and Florida.

The United States Government has long maintained that immigration policy is its exclusive prerogative, but has dumped the cost of Federal failure to control the borders on State and local governments.

On May 9, 2005, however, the Federal Government announced that it will start paying hospitals and doctors for providing emergency care for illegal aliens. Wonderful, you say? Well, maybe, but a couple of problems remain.

1. The Federal money allocated through the end of the next fiscal year is only $1 billion, a miniscule amount when compared to the real cost of emergency medical care to the illegals. One San Diego County health care administrator called the billion dollars “a spit in the bucket.�

2. While the Federal payment will ease a little of the burden now borne entirely by the taxpayers of the States and localities where most of the illegals congregate, the burden is being passed on to the taxpayers of the other States, so U.S. taxpayers will still be paying the bills for the citizens of Mexico and other countries which export illegal aliens to the United States.

The Legislative Survey suggests that the cost of emergency medical care of illegals – as well as other public benefits, such as welfare and education – ought to be borne by the countries exporting the illegals.

How could these costs be collected, you ask. There are at least two ways. First, most of the foreign countries exporting illegals to the U.S. are on some kind of foreign aid dole from the U.S. The cost of providing services to illegals should be applied as an offset to any foreign aid subsidies to the country exporting illegals.

Second, the cost of American services to the illegals should be applied as a set-off against any trade debt the United States owes to the country exporting the illegals. In Mexico’s case, that trade debt is currently $45.1 billion.

If the cost of caring for its own citizens was passed on to the Mexican government in this way, Mexico would suddenly have a real incentive to discourage, rather than encourage, the flight of illegals to the United States. Why not give the off-set plan a try? It might provide a little tax relief to the people of the United States who are now paying for the care of the illegals.

With Oil hitting $67 a barrel, Mexico pumps 2 Million barrels a day to the tune of $134,000,000.00 A DAY! I think they can afford some compensation to us. Or perhaps a tax on the $12 Billion annually sent from the U.S. to Mexico via family members back home? I know this sounds like a lot of money, but it is little more than what California alone spends on Illegals for education and health care. Who said the illegals are good for the economy?