Thoughts on the Immigration Issue
Lately, the status of the 12 million largely Hispanic illegal immigrants now in the U. S. has become a national issue with lots of media coverage , but damn little thoughtful analysis of the true situation.
Criminalization of the illegal immigrants, as the current, mean-spirited Republican-controlled House of Representatives would have us do is clearly simplistic and unworkable. It seems to me that the key to devising a workable and just solution is how we handle those Hispanic families consisting of a mix of illegal and legal immigrants and American citizens. To my mind such families are a worst-case situation. Solve it and you have solved all cases.
Here’s what I’m getting at. My understanding is that there is on the books in California an Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) of 1985. Under this act, any patient requesting emergency treatment at a hospital, must be treated regardless of immigration status or ability to pay. It certainly is a vital humane statute, but it not only costs much more than that of the medical treatment, it creates families of mixed immigration status.
Pregnant illegal alien females come to hospital emergency rooms in LA to have their babies delivered for free under EMTALA. However, the instant the baby of the illegal mother is born, the baby, of course, becomes an American citizen. As such, I’m told, the baby, mother, and siblings become eligible for welfare. Since you cannot deport a native-born American citizen, and you really ought not separate an infant from an undocumented mother, in LA, these babies are called “Anchor Babies” because they, in effect, hold most of the family safely in residency without fear of deportation.
In my view, we should begin with the premise, that the revised immigration legislation must maintain every immigrant family intact, regardless of current immigration status of individual family members. If we can figure out how to do that, all other aspects of the problem with fall into place.
Criminalization of the illegal immigrants, as the current, mean-spirited Republican-controlled House of Representatives would have us do is clearly simplistic and unworkable. It seems to me that the key to devising a workable and just solution is how we handle those Hispanic families consisting of a mix of illegal and legal immigrants and American citizens. To my mind such families are a worst-case situation. Solve it and you have solved all cases.
Here’s what I’m getting at. My understanding is that there is on the books in California an Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) of 1985. Under this act, any patient requesting emergency treatment at a hospital, must be treated regardless of immigration status or ability to pay. It certainly is a vital humane statute, but it not only costs much more than that of the medical treatment, it creates families of mixed immigration status.
Pregnant illegal alien females come to hospital emergency rooms in LA to have their babies delivered for free under EMTALA. However, the instant the baby of the illegal mother is born, the baby, of course, becomes an American citizen. As such, I’m told, the baby, mother, and siblings become eligible for welfare. Since you cannot deport a native-born American citizen, and you really ought not separate an infant from an undocumented mother, in LA, these babies are called “Anchor Babies” because they, in effect, hold most of the family safely in residency without fear of deportation.
In my view, we should begin with the premise, that the revised immigration legislation must maintain every immigrant family intact, regardless of current immigration status of individual family members. If we can figure out how to do that, all other aspects of the problem with fall into place.
posted by Bob Baker at 3:56 AM
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