# Do illegal immigrants have it made? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129 "2014-05-10T16:07:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/21 "2014-05-11T13:22:05Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > You know who _really_ has it made? The homeless. No house or property to maintain, no rent to pay. WooHoo, a life of leisure! No lawn to mow, guests never drop by uninvited, no property taxes, or landlord on your back-- that’s the life! ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/22 "2014-05-12T00:31:10Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > 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… “Having it made” may or may not be a relative term but even if it is there are limits on how far you can take that before such a term loses all meaning. Starting out in a horrible situation and managing to make it slightly less horrible is not “having it made”, at least not in the sense in which the person quoted in the OP was using the term. And the fact that so many people are doing it simply shows how horrible their home situation is, not how wonderful their situation is here. ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/23 "2014-05-12T02:15:58Z")
Illegals get a lot of .gov handouts even in Texas but they have a hard life of work you wouldn’t want to do at a wage you wouldn’t accept. It’s their kids who have the opportunity to have it made, that’s how it’s always been here in the land of the free. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/24 "2014-05-12T02:40:35Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Free welfare,healthcare,college tuition and driver licence…" My best friend (a citizen) _is married_ to an illegal immigrant, and she isn’t able get welfare, Medical, or a driver’s licence. (This is in California.) She can, however, attend adult school ESL, and use WIC, I believe. She works her ass off as a nanny, and, even though she doesn’t have a Social Security number, the family that employs her takes out taxes using a TIN. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/25 "2014-05-12T03:33:28Z")
There are idiots out there who think people would come to America _for the free healthcare_? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/26 "2014-05-12T03:51:43Z")
The OP forgot about the free hookers and blow. I am SO jealous of illegals! ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/27 "2014-05-12T10:58:27Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > The OP forgot about the free hookers and blow. I am SO jealous of illegals! I know! After reading all that, I’m considering leaving the country, renouncing my citizenship, and then sneaking back in! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/28 "2014-05-12T11:40:30Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > 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. My sister in law is always posting Tea Party crap on Facebook about freeloaders on welfare, how they use the money to buy stuff that the taxpayers paying for welfare can’t afford, etc. I’ve told her “Do you know how welfare works? You should talk to my wife - she was on welfare, trying to raise three kids as a single mom.” She doesn’t want to listen though. She’d rather just post her stupid rants. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/29 "2014-05-13T14:41:21Z")
There’s a Facebook meme going around in the UK saying that the average pensioner will get £6,000pa, vs the average illegal immigrant getting £29,000. Neither figure is even close to true and you’d have to be a moron to think they were. But people choose to believe them. I bet there’s something similar in the US. I live in (UK) social housing and have come across people who thought we didn’t have to pay rent. How the hell would that work? But some people choose to believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/30 "2014-05-13T15:20:00Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > You know who _really_ has it made? The homeless. No house or property to maintain, no rent to pay. WooHoo, a life of leisure! They’re not homeless, they’re campers. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/31 "2014-05-13T16:09:17Z")
Everybody has the misconception that they somehow deserve what they have more than someone else. So when they think life is hard, they get jealous when they perceive somebody else getting something for nothing. The irony? In many immigrant Latino communities, accepting handouts is seen as shameful. Having to rely on someone outside your family/enclave means you must be either a pariah or simply lazy. Conversely, there are plenty of native born white people more than willing to scam social services for every cent they can get their hands on. My wife said that in her job, the challenge is convincing Latino families to accept services they desperately need (WIC, for example) and telling the middle class white families to stop exploiting the services they don’t need. My brother is an example of this. They have enough knowledge of the system to min/max work and unemployment so they can maximize their benefits. And neither of them swam across the Rio Grande to get here! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/32 "2014-05-13T20:12:19Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > They’re not homeless, they’re campers. Wow, dusting off 30+ year odl Doonesburry cartoons. So tell me, Reagan has been out of office for 36 years. We’ve had a liberal Democrat President for a while now. So, all the homeless are housed, warm and well-fed, right? What? They’re not? You mean Garry Trudeau was full of manure yet again, and it WASN’T all Reagan’s fault?? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/33 "2014-05-14T01:55:57Z")
The problem is they come here from Mexico and steal jobs away from hardworking Americans. Good, high paying jobs washing dishes in all-night diners, picking fruit and vegetables by hand on farms, performing unskilled manual labor at construction sites, and processing livestock in industrial slaughterhouses. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/34 "2014-05-14T04:12:29Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > The problem is they come here from Mexico and steal jobs away from hardworking Americans. Good, high paying jobs washing dishes in all-night diners, picking fruit and vegetables by hand on farms, performing unskilled manual labor at construction sites, and processing livestock in industrial slaughterhouses. It is ironic, isn’t it, that the illegals are living the American dream, while the rest of us are sitting on our asses growing obese and having coronaries. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/35 "2014-05-14T05:07:04Z")
As someone who lived with one for ten years and brought a child in to the world together, I can safely say illegal immigrants in Tennessee do not “have it made” in any way. He was here for 20 years after being brought here as a child. He always worked. Always. He paid in a lot of taxes on his fake SS card, at least until they started making it near impossible. Then he was paying the same local taxes, from purchases he made with that money he made. Usually around eight bucks an hour doing the nastiest jobs nobody else would do. Yes it’s true. I worked for a construction company (that’s how we met) and there were parts of the job they couldn’t pay an American to do for the pay he took gladly. He certainly wasn’t an angel, but for a native-born American wouldn’t be detained for a year then sent to an unfamiliar country, dumped in the middle of the night in a gangland war zone without a peso to call home all for driving without a license. He never got free healthcare. He never got food stamps. He never got any sort of public aid that I know of. . . whereas after he was deported I had to do that. One of our coworkers qualified for something called emergency Tenncare when he had to have a kidney transplant so I guess it’s possible to get some sort of emergency aid. And I know children here illegally are able to go to school and their parents can qualify for food stamps, if I remember correctly, but the parents aren’t covered. I have heard that other states give more aid than mine though. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/36 "2014-05-14T05:46:53Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > What are them furriners getting away with? I don’t know if he’s referring to Mexicans in particular, but mostly the mexicans have known come here to work a few years and move back to Mexico. I never could quite understand how some of them could work so hard and live in such cramped quarters without getting bitter. From what I found out eventually was that for many of them the payoff is in say 5 years when they can return to Mexcio and live quite well off the money they made here; the exchange rate is very much in favor of the US dollar so the amount they save goes a long way when they return. So, for most of that specific foreigner they “have it made” when they move back. It seems like a good plan to me - if I could go to Canada for 5 years and be able to come back here and buy a house in cash it’s something I would seriously consider doing. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/37 "2014-05-14T12:52:56Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > My best friend (a citizen) _is married_ to an illegal immigrant, and she isn’t able get welfare, Medical, or a driver’s licence. (This is in California.) She can, however, attend adult school ESL, and use WIC, I believe. She works her ass off as a nanny, and, even though she doesn’t have a Social Security number, the family that employs her takes out taxes using a TIN. Why would a naturalized (I assume) U.S. citizen be prevented from obtaining a driver’s license? And why doesn’t she have a Social Security number? As a citizen, she should be able to apply for one. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/38 "2014-05-14T13:36:55Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Why would a naturalized (I assume) U.S. citizen be prevented from obtaining a driver’s license? And why doesn’t she have a Social Security number? As a citizen, she should be able to apply for one. You don’t get to be a citizen by marrying one. Marriage is a PATH to citizenship, but you need to leave the country and wait for your spouse to sponsor you. If you jump the gun and get married, it doesn’t change your status in the slightest, and in fact can cause huge problems down the road. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/39 "2014-05-14T14:35:56Z")
> [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > I don’t know if he’s referring to Mexicans in particular, but mostly the mexicans have known come here to work a few years and move back to Mexico. I never could quite understand how some of them could work so hard and live in such cramped quarters without getting bitter. . By Manhattan standards, they are living in mansions!😃 ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129/40 "2014-05-14T14:42:30Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > You don’t get to be a citizen by marrying one. Marriage is a PATH to citizenship, but you need to leave the country and wait for your spouse to sponsor you. If you jump the gun and get married, it doesn’t change your status in the slightest, and in fact can cause huge problems down the road. Evidently I misunderstood the post. I assumed that “she” referred to the best friend/citizen, not the spouse with illegal status. I’m fairly familiar with the marriage-based citizenship path, having gone through it with my own wife (and grateful every day that we don’t have to deal with that hassle ever again). This was 18 years ago, though, so thankfully she wasn’t required to leave the country while the application processed. I imagine things are much worse now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-illegal-immigrants-have-it-made/688129.md?page=3)