Are illegal immigrants really a "drain" on the US's economy (hospitals, schools, jobs, etc)?

Question

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dalls, Texas might think so:

A record patient survey indicated that 70% of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants! Crikey, that is 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas. According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million dollars delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost 8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $345 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 millon.

The average patient in Parkland's maternity wards is 25 years old, married and giving birth to her second child. She is also an illegal alien. By law, pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration status or ability to pay. Ok. fine. That doesn't mean they should receive better care than everyday, middle class American citizens. But at Parkland Hospital they do.

Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child--her previous two were also born at Parkland. Her first two deliveries were free and the Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost $200.00 to have them in Mexico. This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10.00 per visit and $100.00 for the delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not that it matters, the hospital won't turn her away.

How long has this been going on? What are the long-term effects? Well, another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986 shortly after her mother entered the U.S. illegally--now she is having her own child there as well. These women received free prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as a car seat, bottles, diapers and formula.

Most of these things are available to American citizens as well but only for low-income applicants and even then, the red tape involved is almost insurmountable.

Because these women are illegal immigrants they do not have to provide any sort of legitimate identification--no proof of income. An American citizen would have to provide a social security number which would reveal their annual income-an illegal immigrant need only claim to be poor the hospital and the hospital must take them at their word.

Their (the illegals) medical care is free--simply because they are illegal immigrants? Once again, there is no way to verify their income. Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn less than $40,000 per year(They also have to prove that they did not refuse health coverage at their current job. Yeah, the "free" care is not so free for Americans.

There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for free treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County. So the hospital is going to sue them! Illegals get it all free! But U.S. citizens who live outside of Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this?

As if that isn't annoying enough, the illegal immigrant patients are actually complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish. In this AP story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband. The doctor was trying to explain the situation to the family and he mother was forced to translate for her husband who spoke only Spanish. This was apparently a great injustice to her.

In an attempt to create a Spanish speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who speak Spanish. Additionally medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern for which Parkland Hospital is the training facility will now have a Spanish language requirement added to the already jammed packed cirriculum. No other school in the country boasts such a ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement.

Do the math....The taxpayers are stuck paying over 400 million dollars for health care in Dallas County alone...and at one hospital, Parkland.

kiki must be slow or something.

The question is "Are illegal immigrants really a "drain" on the US's economy (hospitals, schools, jobs, etc)?"

Pro-illegals seem to think not.

Psi Chi, "better service" means FREE!! How much better service is there when it is scot-free?

Answer 1

Yes, they are a drain and they are lawbreakers who deserve nothing but our disdain and disrespect. Medicaid kicked in $345 million -- who do you think paid for the Medicaid? Who paid for the federal $9.5 million? Certainly not the illegals. Maybe we should just shut down the hospitals to anyone who can't provide proof of legal entry. Or, if they can't provide proof, maybe the babies should be confiscated by CPS or DCFS. That would be fair -- much more fair than costing law-abiding citizens and letting these lawbreakers run free and have their anchor babies. Take their kids -- they are lawbreakers and they are contributing to the delinquency of minors, endangering their children's welfare by being in the country illegally and subject to deportation and they are criminals. That's what happens and should happen to criminals. Take away their incentives and opportunities. No matter how you look at it we pay, but maybe if we took their kids and deported their parents, they'd realize they aren't going to get away with breaking the laws and stay out. Repeal the automatic citizenship law for babies and make them citizens only if their parents are legal.

Answer 2

Illegal immigration is a serious problem not only in the U.S. but also in Europe, where many countries are having as much trouble coping with it as we are here. We should note that legal immigration is not a problem in the United States. Most of us are descended from legal immigrants. When people choose to obey the law, enter legally, follow the naturalization process and become citizens, the nation benefits. We have doctors, nurses, other professionals and many other good citizens who have chosen to legally immigrate, and our country has been enriched by this. Unfortunately this process is expensive and can take years. Illegal immigrants impact the job market when all they do is seek employment. At their worst they add to a crime problem that was already bad. Immigration reform is needed, but what it should be is a process that makes it easier and less expensive for those who do choose to obey the law and seek citizenship through legal means. It should never reward those who have broken the law and continue to do so. My grandparents all immigrated legally. They were not affluent people at all but they came to be productive citizens. Their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are all productive people, and their great great grandchildren will be as well. From these humble Polish and German immigrants has come five (including their own) generations of proud and law-abiding Americans.

Answer 3

Like it or not, illegal aliens /are/ participating in the US economy, they may be doing a lot of it in the grey and black markets, but, like everyone else, they mostly do /something/.

The question isn't whether they're part of the economy. Everyone is: drug dealers, prostitutes, scam artists, big business, small business, common citizens - if you earn or spend money at any point in a given year, you're part of the economy. The point is simply that they're hear illegally, and they shouldn't be. They should either be in thier respective countrys of origin, participating in thier economies, or they should be here legally, participating in the open, legal economy, where there contribution could be measured and apreciated.

Answer 4

all though they may be harder workers strictly from a financial point they do drain the economy. I say this on a strictly financial basis. Not only do they work cheaper doing jobs others wont, which means that there are some other legals who wont get jobs, but the money do recieve is sent back to their country of origin. Also as they do work in this country when they do get sick the public has to support their health care.

Answer 5

I hear your pain, Imagine health costs if these freebies were not given out and that money was cycled back into the system! Millions of dollars in reduced health? heck yeah! infact if the free care was not given out there would be so much extra money that health costs would become nearly free for citizens. I understand that you have to be humane and not turn away people who need urgent care but when im back burnered in a line somewhere trying to get better and im held up becuase someone who isnt supposed to be here is getting their thousands of dollars in free care I kinda get mad.

Answer 6

very good
Unlawful Entry is a CRIME. Zero tolerance for immigration-law violators! No amnesty, no "stealth-amnesty." No "change of status," marriage fraud, "exceptional leave to remain," no "Temporary Protected Status." If you break the law, depart or be deported. Illegal aliens kill more US citizens each year than the war in Iraq has killed in four years. Apologists for illegal immigration like to paint it as a victimless crime. But in fact, illegal immigration causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal immigrants, particularly those in the most vulnerable sectors of our population--the poor, minorities, and children. Additionally, job competition by waves of illegal immigrants willing to work at substandard wages and working conditions depresses the wages of American workers, hitting hardest at minority workers and those without high school degrees. Illegal immigration also contributes to the dramatic population growth overwhelming communities across America--crowding school classrooms, consuming already limited affordable housing, and straining precious natural resources like water, energy, and forestland. Taxpayers are being forced to pay for the free health care, education, and other welfare programs being given to illegal aliens; Those tax dollars could be given back to U.S. taxpayers or used to keep our borders secure; They may be here illegally, but they sure know how to "work the system" to collect "free" medical care, "free" education, "free" food, Section 8 housing vouchers and other housing assistance, and hundreds of other social services. It costs citizens additional hundreds of billions of tax dollars at every level: local, state, and federal. It gobbles up billions of our charitable contributions. And much of that money ends up siphoned out of our economy and into offshore accounts. Illegal aliens, over half of whom work "under the table" with neither job nor income reported (nor taxed), are not counted as employed or unemployed. But some of those day-labor and off-the-books "job-lets" would be "real" jobs - available to American citizen job-seekers - if employment regulations were enforced. Illegal aliens can get away with tax evasion, et al., which citizens cannot. In short, we have too many workforce entrants and too few jobs created. The ratio works out to roughly 7-10 workforce entrants per job created. If all illegal aliens depart or are deported, all legal immigration halted, and all temporary employment visas abolished, we still have a problem with more US-born workforce entrants than new jobs created. Illegal immigration damages our country and our citizens every day at every level. And not even the attacks of 2/26 and 9/11 have awakened many Americans to the vast dangers illegal immigration poses to our selves, our families, our communities, our society, our values, our principles, our civilization. Zero Tolerance for Immigration-Law Violators! We must remember the lessons of 2/26, 9/11, and the costs we bear every single day. God Bless the U S A !

Answer 7

Their care is not "Free" and most of poor America's care is the Emergency Room!

It is the Republican Rich generally, who use them as slave labor, and then pawn them off on us to make up the difference. They employ them contrary to the law. They should be arrested and jailed like anyone else.

Like it or not, America depends on the labor of illegals to pick almost all of their fruit so they can buy it cheap at a supermarket!

The Emergency room is not "better care" when some die in the waiting room waiting to be seen!

Illegals are not eligible for any federal programs, like Medicaid, that I know of. You have to be a US citizen and you have to provide an ORIGINAL birth certificate or other legal documentation!

And what do those people do in Texas. Many work for corporations that receive multi-million dollar contracts to produce items for the military. Like the top MRE maker in the US was busted by the FBI. Almost all of their employees were illegals where the company forged their papers and paid them very little. They sure weren't employing Americans!

The door swings both ways, and when are you going to realize it isn't the illegals that are taking advantage of you. It is their employers!

Answer 8

one of many injustices in america. Im single but I have to pay an extra 1500 dollars a year in income tax just because I'm not married. Marriage penalty my as s

Answer 9

Yes.

http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/jimr/7671

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/sr12.cfm

Answer 10

what about America's poor who have no jobs, collect their welfare check and keep having babies. We are footing their bill too and they are US citizens to lazy to work. How about some incentive for them to stop collecting the money we work for and pay taxes on. it doesn't seem fair for some lazy loser to get benefits for nothing and some "illegal" being penalized for picking strawberries. why can't we force these welfare scammers to do the jobs illegals are doing?