I'm curious as to what the Republican solution is: Refuse treatment? Have doctors demand cash payments? INS agents in every ER?

How any of those asshats can claim to be "Christians" then turn around and deny medical care to ANY human being is so far beyond hypocritical . . .

What's next? We're already at the stage where health care is nearly unavailable based on income and immigration status, are we going to start denying on religious or political basis next?

How on earth would an immigrant be able to come up with a random 10-digit number? But fortunately, every employer is extremely dilligent in checking the legality of it's lowly paid workers....oh wait.

Democrats on the other hand, will be smart enough to only demonize illegal immigrants when giving speeches to their unionized constitutiencies.

I really wish the world had open borders. It would make the world a lot nicer place

So, your rebuttal of his argument is that he is educated?

Wow. Never seen that angle of attack before...

Sarcasm, kiddo. Sarcasm.

that's what all the racists say.

Too bad it got Bush votes. I'm pretty sure we're still hearing about him.

Again, I don't see this having the traction in Ohio that gay marriage had in 2004. The only thing that makes me at all worried is that Gov. Strickland is pretty roundly pro-union, so I'm not sure what his exact feelings on immigration are. He's made some weird and iffy comments in the past, so we'll see.

Ahem. You are correct, sir.

Oh snap! Double-whoosh! Well played!

Great article FearTheReaper!! I only wish someone would write a similar article for the UK situation. Periodically in the UK, we get waves of ill-informed media hysteria concerning illegal immigrants. People are all to ready to point the finger at illegal immigrants and to use them as convenient political scapegoats.

...Sarcasm?

well here are my two cents..

i live in texas... DFW to be precise...

its all around...
hell i even have some ppl working in our warehouse with "fixed" papers, trust me they arent that hard to come by, but i talk and even hang with some of these men and women and the only thing i see if everyone is complaining about something that really isnt affecting anyone.. they pay taxes , state and federal, but come income tax time some cant claimi a refund and some have to pay taxes. all to a number that isnt theirs, yes some of the numbers are ppl that are either too old or too young to still be par of the workforce, but trust me it isnt that hard to use someone elses social security number, i hate to admit but my brother has use my 3-year-old nieces number to activate a charter account.. what the hell does that tell you ....

mexicanos dont like going to the hospitals because of that reason they dont want to be found out. unless it a life or death situation they wont go .. my stepfather died of lung cancer all because he didnt want to go to the doctor and get chemo... in fear of being found out, leave them alone they arent reaping any of the benefits and getting the short end of the stick.. al the tax money and things that are deducted from them they never seen.. they arent taking loans from banks they do things the hard way and pss it on to their children and the cycle continues..

let them be.. if we wait long enough we might balance things out

Hmm.
I love how the OP's post (quoted or otherwise) kept mentioning 'brown' as a way of insinuating that people's objections to illegal immigrants must be for purely racial objections... Way to undermine a legitimate discussion right off the bat... Fact of the matter, is that the majority (ie not White Power Radicals) of people's problems with illegal immigrants, are economic (Dey took our djuuuurbzzz!!!!) nothing to do with race or ethnicity at all. And of course, the other thing about them being illegal I don't think anyone (beyond White Power Radicals) has a problem with immigrants who do so in the legal manner. I quite agree with the points made that illegals using doctored papers are paying taxes which they can't access, but, that's because, they're illegal. Had they immigrated legally, then they would have full access to the services their taxes paid for. I've got no beef with anyone wanting to make a better life for themself or their family, but at the end of the day, there are procedures which apply to everyone, and which everyone is expected to follow. It's all about having respect for a country, and that respect being a two-way street: Immigrate properly, and all the benefits of being a tax payer will be available.

No. The biggest problem that Americans have with immigrants of any kind is that they speak languages other than English. That's what they complain about most. The illegal stuff is just a rationalization, and the "they took our jobs" is hysterical misinformation, much like the "they don't pay taxes," the "they're all on welfare," and the "they're burdening our healthcare system." Those last three statements are all lies, and the fact that they're undocumented doesn't particularly affect anyone but the immigrants themselves. Those lies, and the rationalizations, wouldn't exist for white anglophone immigrants (such as the estimated fifty thousand undocumented Irish in the United States).

CIS article

I found this article very informative.

An excerpt:

"Among the findings:

Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.


Among the largest costs are Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion).


With nearly two-thirds of illegal aliens lacking a high school degree, the primary reason they create a fiscal deficit is their low education levels and resulting low incomes and tax payments, not their legal status or heavy use of most social services.


On average, the costs that illegal households impose on federal coffers are less than half that of other households, but their tax payments are only one-fourth that of other households.


Many of the costs associated with illegals are due to their American-born children, who are awarded U.S. citizenship at birth. Thus, greater efforts at barring illegals from federal programs will not reduce costs because their citizen children can continue to access them.


If illegal aliens were given amnesty and began to pay taxes and use services like households headed by legal immigrants with the same education levels, the estimated annual net fiscal deficit would increase from $2,700 per household to nearly $7,700, for a total net cost of $29 billion.


Costs increase dramatically because unskilled immigrants with legal status -- what most illegal aliens would become -- can access government programs, but still tend to make very modest tax payments. "

Actually, yes, you're quite right there, that is another reason, but, that in itself is not a racially-based issue, but one of common sense, and again, good manners. If moving to another country, it would make sense (and be polite) to at least have a basic grasp of the primary language. With immigration to the US, the ability to read, write and understand English is an uncontestable requirement. Here in the UK, the requirement is that someone understand English 'to a reasonable degree'. The problem we've had here in the UK, is where people from countries which only just joined the EU (so able to move freely between EU countries) had been staying in the UK prior to their country gaining EU Membership, 'on holiday', and as soon as their native country's gained EU Status, then they were legally allowed to stay, but, having entered the country as tourists, they were able to bypass the legislative requirement for 'reasonable degree' of English understanding. One example of where this is a problem, was recently in a local paper where a girl (British-born) applied for a factory job, but was turned away because she couldn't speak Polish, and the majority of the factory staff were Polish, so yes, while it is quite obvious that she would have trouble communicating with co-workers, they clearly missed the point that as English is the primary language of the UK, she should not have had to accomodate Polish-speakers, rather, they should have been required to speak English... But that's getting off the point...

A rationalization which is also factual. if these people moved to the US (or UK for that matter) legally, then they would have legitimate social security details, and be able to gain the benefits from services which their taxes pay for. As above, yes, they are getting the shit-end of the stick, in that they pay taxes which they can't benefit from, but, that's because they are in the country illegally.

For the most part, indeed it is (hense why I made the comment in a sarcastic manner) but, as I pointed out with the issue of the factory worker, there are instances where migrant workers are taking jobs from native workers (mostly low-paid, menial labor which native workers are either 'too proud' to do, or want more money for, and, the migrant workers will work for lower pay) That is not something which can be ignored or marginalized as 'hysterical misinformation'.

Not really, as those statements are indeed all lies with no basis in fact, where as the issues of migrant workers taking jobs from native workers (for working for less pay, or in jobs others feel is 'beneath them') or not being able to speak the country's primary language, are factual.

The main difference being, that Irish people (unless they only speak Gaelic) actually speak English. Sure, they'd get the same problems of using bogus social security, but, they would at least be speaking English, and that somewhat skews the point. Substitute 'Irish' for 'Lithuanian' or 'Latvian', and you still have 'white' immigrants (because this isn't an issue of ethnicity or race) but they are not speaking English as a primary language, so they would be in a comparable situation to any Hispanic illegal immigrants to the US who cannot speak English either.