On one of my motorcycle forums, somebody outside the country asked for information about securing a motorcycle driver’s license for his upcoming visit. The fourth reply was this gem: “Just sneak across the border. Free welfare,healthcare,college tuition and driver licence…” It’s threadshitting, but what’s the truth of the matter? What are them furriners getting away with?
Varies widely from state to state but his broad answer is incorrect anyway. You don’t get “free college” for being an illegal immigrant, you might qualify for the in-state tuition rate and you might qualify for the same aid programs (grants, scholarships, etc) as other students. You don’t get “free healthcare” for being an illegal immigrant, you might qualify for state aid depending on the state and numerous poor people regardless of citizenship status use the time honored free healthcare method of “not paying their bills”. No one gets free drivers licenses that I’m aware of, but states may allow undocumented immigrants to apply for a license (and pay the usual fee) since it benefits both parties. I have no idea what “free welfare” is supposed to mean – are there people who pay for their welfare? The whole point of welfare is that you’re receiving aid (paid by taxes of course but that remains true regardless of who receives it).
Leaving home and family to go to a strange country that mostly speaks a different language; living 8 or 10 people to an apartment; doing backbreaking agricultural or construction work for low wages with no worker protections; and sending a large portion of those low wages home. That doesn’t fit my definition of “having it made”.
There’s a perception that because undocumented people are undocumented, they have a much easier time ducking bills than citizens. Even if that’s true, they also pay taxes without being able to file for a refund, and lose money into the system in other ways. They get welfare, in most states, as far as I know, only when they have children born here, who are the actual beneficiaries.
“Free college” the poster just pulled out of his ass, unless he’s referring to affirmative action programs that pay tuition for qualifying minorities, but they need to be here legally.
It sounds like a mostly unfounded rant to me.
Do you think that bigotry might be a factor?
I don’t know anything about the OP. He could just be stupid. “Free welfare.”
It’s no fun
Being an illegal alien
I had a friend from Germany who flew in to do a big roadtrip around the US but forgot his driver’s license. I told him “can you drive around the block? Do you have $30? Let’s go get one!” and later that afternoon he had one. Definitely a culture shock coming from somewhere where it takes months of driver training and thousands of dollars to get a license. It made a nice souvenir and I’m sure gave him a healthy appreciation for the caliber of driver he would be encountering on American roads.
This was in a state where immigrant licenses was never really an issue and before the DHS “enhanced” licenses, so I’m not sure if he’d have been able to get away with it today.
On the college front, here in Kansas they can go to college and get in state and some other aid. However as I understand it they had to graduate from a Kansas high school, never been in trouble, and lived here a certain number of years.
Add living in fear of INS and getting ripped off by citizens (“You can put your money in my bank account until you have enough to send it home”). Oh yeah, and I’ve seen landlords charge EACH of those 8 or 10 people $200 for an apartment that normally rents for $1,000.
They first have to survive the “trip”.
It’s not a walk in the park from what I understand.
Yeah. You have to establish residency for in-state tuition, and the years you are here illegally don’t count toward state residency for purposes of getting in-state tuition, at least here, so someone who lived in Indiana as an illegal alien for 10 years, and went to high school here, then as an adult at age 18, got amnesty and a student visa to stay for college (the amnesty based on the fact that the person had no control over his parents’ decision to bring him here when he was a child), would still not get in-state tuition. He could get financial aid, but he would be here legally at that point.
He might also be eligible for scholarships, but in those cases, he would have to be a good student, so why not give him a good low cost education, and let him apply for citizenship when he graduates? He might be just what we need.
Out of curiosity, what state? One of the states where I lived (Pennsylvania) would have given him a local license automatically just by showing that German one he’d forgotten, but for any foreigner not from France or Germany required 40h of driving lessons no matter what; this was in 2003. My Florida license on the other hand had been pretty much a breeze (and wasn’t accepted by Penn on grounds of being a foreigner).
You know who really has it made? The homeless. No house or property to maintain, no rent to pay. WooHoo, a life of leisure!
In Ohio, the only impediment to an adult getting licensed in one day is that taking the road test usually requires an appointment, which you can’t make without a permit. Otherwise an adult can get a license as soon as they can work through the bureaucracy, no education required.
But a non-citizen without a resident visa or green card would have trouble now. (Also someone without paperwork showing they live in the state.)
As a general rule, those claiming “immigrants” or “the poor” have it made usually don’t actually know anyone from the referenced category and haven’t a clue of the reality of their situation. They have some vague notions of programs for those people without any knowledge of the details, the requirements, or whether their knowledge is outdated.
You make it sound so horrible, that no one would want to do it. Obviously it is not near as bad as you think it is, comparatively speaking, or there would not be so many people breaking the law to live in such terrible conditions.
“having it made” is a relative term…apparently many in other countries think it is pretty damn good…
Or the alternative is worse.
I’ve been to some poor areas in Mexico and the life you are desribing would be a major step up from life I saw in Mexico.
I cant really blame most of them for wanting to move here and improve their lives. Really a poor person has 3 choices: 1. work for dirt wages 2. work for the drug cartels or 3. move to the US.
Mexico’s last president, Vincent Fox, actually told his people to move to the US if they wanted a better life - but be sure to send money back.
Perhaps, but it doesn’t apply to the definition in the OP’s scenario (free healthcare, college tuition, etc).