How does illegal immigration affect you personally?

Great Debates
41

That happens in the US as well. The company that refused to give their workers the papers we needed in order to stay legal did so in order to be able to blackmail us: they risked a fine of 1000$, we risked jail and deportation. Migrants (including legal ones) are often terrified of the authorities, even decades after getting the new nationality.

I went to Penn DoT to verify that, despite having a valid Florida license, I was not able to get a Penn driver’s license without 40h (!!!) of driving lessons. The rentacop who was acting as a receptionist (I assume that’s somebody’s idea of “smaller government”), upon seeing my H-1 Visa and comparing it with her list, called her partner and asked him to call the cops on the illegal (me). You see, H-1s could be obtained two ways, called H-1A and H-1B, and this is what was in their list, but the actual stamp from the actual embassy in Madrid said H-1 (no letters). And that was without rentacops at DoT being in any way expected to detect illegals! I don’t even remember how did I manage to slip out (of course without asking my question), I think someone else started yelling about something and I walked out…

42

What planet do you live on?

43

How has illegal immigration affected me?

Several years ago my grandfather was driving his motorcycle on a highway in Napa Valley, California. A car going the opposite way, driven by an illegal alien who was drunk, uninsured and (obviously) had no license crossed the median and hit my grandfather head-on. He was killed instantly. They gave him 6 years in state prison, but I don’t think its enough. Why not send him to a Mexican prison and keep him there? :mad:

My girlfriend has friends and relatives that are undocumented. Her best friend lived in the US since she was an infant, but apparently the citezenship process doesn’t even start until you are an adult. So if you are in your early 20s, can’t find a decent job, don’t qualify for financial aid and because you are not a US citezen have to pay much more to go to college, its very hard. Culturally, she’s extremely American- living in Mexico would be like a foreign country to her.

I’ve had lively debates with my girlfriend about the topic. At first I avoided it because the subject of immigration is much closer to her (that and I knew she’d understand the actual facts about it much better than I, so I wouldn’t want to come off like this ignorant moron who tries to act like I know it better than her). One thing I really appreciate about her is that she really does respect my viewpoints and understands why I believe them, just like I understand where she is coming from.

She has argued that immigrants pay taxes but don’t qualify for aid because they are not US citizens, however on the flip side through her I know that a lot of immigrants work for other immigrants; they start businesses and hire their own. If that’s the case, I doubt they are paying income tax, since I would imagine payroll would have to be under the table.

Even with unemployment high I don’t hear people griping that the damn illegals are hogging all the jobs involving selling oranges on a street corner, re-tarring a roof, or picking strawberries. Nor do I know anybody born here who would willingly live in a 600sq ft apartment with 9 other roommates. So in that regard, they really aren’t ‘taking’ anything away.

44

I knew what the song was called. I was just updating it for topicality. :wink:

45

Umm, Earth. I personally congratulated several immigrants who became citizens just in the last year. I happen to think it’s a nice thing.

46

[QUOTE=Incubus;12382508Several years ago my grandfather was driving his motorcycle on a highway in Napa Valley, California. A car going the opposite way, driven by an illegal alien who was drunk, uninsured and (obviously) had no license crossed the median and hit my grandfather head-on. He was killed instantly. They gave him 6 years in state prison, but I don’t think its enough. Why not send him to a Mexican prison and keep him there? :mad:
[/QUOTE]

I’m sorry to hear about your grandfather, but I’m curious to know why you think the criminal should have carried out his sentence in another jurisdiction? IANAL, but my understanding is that, with a few exceptional cases such as crimes against humanity, crimes are punished in the jurisdiction in which they took place. How could a Mexican court punish the criminal for a crime that took place in the United States?

47

Are there a lot of states where illegal immigrants are treated at the hospital for free? Just curious. Mig had to go to the ER last year and we estimate we’ll be paying on it for the next six years. They didn’t mention any free services then.

Maybe I should stay away from this thread. I’m one of the few who live the life on this board but it’s so personal it’s actually painful. We’ve fought long and hard only to find out the only real hope we have is through our daughter, and that will only happen when she’s 21. Anchor babies my ASS. I don’t make enough to sponsor him. He’s almost completely uneducated (however he speaks perfect english and reads it pretty well) and has no special skills. For him it’s not just easy, so far it’s been impossible, and we’ve paid professionals for that disappointing news.

He came here at twelve to work, after having worked in Mexico since he was eight. He went to school one year. He hasn’t seen his family since then. Yes, he sends money home. About 100 a month on good months. His mother is destitute. There is no work for her there. She gave him to an orphanage when he was five. That was 25 years ago and it’s no better now. They live in a shack out there. It has no electricity or running water.

When Mig was working “in bricks” (I think he was loading wheelbarrows with bricks as a helper) at twelve, someone from the US was rounding up young guys to work tobacco. He was brought to Virginia, where he was treated like a slave. Well, to me I think he WAS a slave. He had to escape. THe group he was with was told they couldn’t leave or INS would shoot them. After grueling months of hard labor and little food he got out, made it to Florida and picked tomatoes for several years. While he was there, an American in a suit with a briefcase full of papers came to their area and offered to get them papers, claimed he was an immigration attorney and for several hundred dollars he could get them green cards. Mig paid, got some papers he thought were legit (I think he was around seventeen at the time) and assumed he was legal for many years. People always took his ID and green card. Nobody questioned whether it was fake until he was 24, when I met him. We worked in construction together for almost a year, fell in love and moved in together. I didn’t know he was an illegal immigrant until I was 2 months pregnant and he got fired from the company we’d worked for because they said his card was fake. I’d never seen it before then. It was the fakest looking “social security card” ever.

I loved him by then. We had a child. We are a family. I can’t change the past, I can only have hope for the future. I have seen so much injustice in my country it’s shameful. Mig’s treated like shit here, and he loves this country more than most people I know. It’s his HOME. He works six or seven days a work if he can find it, as a day laborer. Many days he’ll work ten hours for fifty dollars. He has a few regular clients who treat him better, pay him a little more, but it’s gotten much worse lately. Last fall his brother, who has been working tomatoes for years, was half beaten to death and robbed. Mig went to FLorida and brought him back to live with us. It didn’t take long for me to see he was “special”. I don’t know, maybe what my little girl has. Sensory processing issues. He has a badly repaired cleft lip so his speech is bad even in Spanish and I don’t think he’s capable of learning English. Maybe. I’m trying.
These are two good guys among many good guys. My little girl goes to school with whole families I know are illegal. We’ve had them in our home. They’ve given us clothes for Bella and invited us to birthday parties. They’re good people. We’ve encountered some really awful people too, some illegal, some not. I don’t think immigration status makes a bit of difference in the compassion of a person, so I try to be as compassionate myself. Every person should be judged on their own merit.

I want to write more but today we’re celebrating Anselmo’s birthday. He doesn’t know how old he is, but he knows he was born on a saint’s birthday. He’s never had a party until today.
I don’t know, I just thought…what the hell? Never once in almost thirty years has anyone given him a birthday present? It blows my mind.

I hope I haven’t broken any rules here talking about my life. If so, I’m sorry, I’ll take my warning and say no more.

48

I was going to say that it does not affect me at all directly–probably keeps my restaurant bills down. Then again, two of my older relatives were, from what I hear, undocumented until the amnesty. One came from Russia in the teens and one from Canada in the thirties. I was fond of both of these people. I somehow can’t think of them as really criminal or bad. (It’s possible that in the teens, just coming was still OK, but the guy from Canada definitely snuck across the border, then later got false papers.)

49

nevermind

50

Not trying to be moddy, but aren’t you two the same person? Or am I thinking of someone else?

To answer the question, I haven’t been personally affected - yet. There are some parts of Denver that I go to very reluctantly, mainly due to the driving. The illegals don’t seem to have any training in driving and the hit-and-runs are very common. It’s a big problem. Two adults and a kid were killed recently by an undocumented person driving. The three killed were sitting in an ice cream shop.

51

Wait… camping on Mt. Lemmon is dangerous now? :eek:

52

As a public defender, often I’ve had clients who were the kids of immigrants (I work exclusively in juvenile court) and many of their friends are illegals. This becomes a problem when a client provides me with names of witnesses who could testify in his defense, but none of them will because they’re all illegals and afraid that if they come to court, people will be asking questions about their immigration status and they’ll get deported.

On the other hand, it’s REALLY nice when the VICTIM is an illegal…

53

Not that I’ve heard of.

54

I got to watch a drug bust at the house across the street. K-9 units, shotguns and lots of flashing lights. There was another drug bust 2 doors down but I missed that one.

55

There aren’t any free services, except via charity hospitals and the like, which treat everyone under a certain income level for free.

If you are treated at an emergency room and you’re an illegal alien, they bill you just like everyone else. When you don’t pay, they send your bill to a collection agency, just like everyone else. When you still haven’t paid after a certain period, or the bill is below a certain amount, they write it off as a bad debt - just like with everyone else. Of course, it’s tricky to receive non-emergency care at the facility when you’ve already got a $1500 unpaid tab. Note that in most cases, illegal aliens who can’t pay for their care are only eligible for critical care, rather than full ER services.

The difference, such as it is, is that undocumented workers rarely have any assets worth seizing, so filing a lien is a waste of time - and they may have returned to their country of origin or moved on to a different state or whatever anyway. This isn’t as much of a difference as it appears, since other broke people are also eligible for emergency care and rarely have any relevant assets to speak of themselves (primary residences are exempt from medical liens, as a rule).

California has about two and a half million undocumented residents, and they cost hospitals and other medical facilities about $1.5 billion a year.

On the flipside, most undocumented workers pay payroll, Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, and the IRS doesn’t ask employers where this money is coming from- and of course can never collect Social Security benefits, tax refunds or numerous other benefits (in some states, such as California, they can receive Medicaid benefits). It’s entirely possible that they more than defray the cost of their own medical care and so on. In cases where employers knowingly hire illegals, this doesn’t happen - they just pay them cash, which of course doesn’t get taxed.

The problem is that the cost of emergency care is borne by individual hospitals, and though in theory they get reimbursed by states and the federal government, the reimbursement doesn’t usually match the total outlay.

In other words, illegal immigration is a net benefit to the federal government, because it bolsters Social Security and Medicare, but a net drain to the states.

56

Well, a bit more south, but you know what I mean. Mt. Lemmon rocks. But you’ll probably agree there’s a lot of no man’s land down yonder. :eek:

57

Whew. You just scared me there. I don’t live in AZ anymore but I’d hate to think that my favorite-ever camping spot wasn’t safe anymore :frowning: I rarely visit in the summertime but if I did, I’d totally want to go camping for old time’s sake.

Add me to the list who don’t understand how one knows that a given poor-looking hispanic person is illegal on sight, by the way.

58

I’ve expressed this here elsewhere, but it seemed pertinent to reiterate.

Direct:

  1. My (white, native-English-speaking) mother was an illegal immigrant for about 30 years, including my entire childhood. Briefly deported once when I was small, but now a U.S. citizen thanks in part to Reagan’s amnesty. (And a shout-out to those who would take my U.S. citizenship away from me because of Mom: Pbbbblthttt!)

Indirect:

I live in Southern California. I probably encounter illegal immigrants every day, and they form an integral part of the economy here.

59

The only effect I know of is more the greater economic and legal issues than direct influence. Personally, that’s sufficient for me to care. I don’t want the US held back technologically due to a reliance on low-cost labor, I don’t want to start the precedent that immigration isn’t something that can’t be restricted, I don’t want to have people underbidding legal citizens and legal immigrants for unskilled work raising my taxes to support the Americans who can’t compete because they have to play by the rules. I appreciate it when a person wants to have the ability to work hard and be compensated for it honestly, but at the same time the US only stays a great place to come to so long as its well-managed. You can never save the whole world, but you save a lot more if you can maintain a stable system.

60

In what sense does illegal immigration cause the US to be “held back technologically”? Would we have personal jetpacks by now if not for those pesky wetbacks?