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Health care for illegals?

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By RON RAE

The Rae Way

Published: October 10, 2009

Is the Obama administration serious about universal health care reform? Yes. At this point, any old Democrat health plan will do.

Will health care reform include coverage for illegal immigrants? Contrary to the infamous two-word wisecrack blurted out by a now well-known rightwing racist senator from South Carolina, the answer is, "No way, Jose." It'll be close call though.

If Congress worms its way to pass legislation on health care reform within the next few weeks, why would it not become effective until 2013? The obvious answer is that it will be less of a political issue in the 2010-midterm elections. But there appears to be a scheme brewing to provide coverage to not only a fair number of currently uninsured 45 million Americans but also to a few extra million immigrants.

On Oct. 2 The New York Times printed an article on actions being implemented by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) that will reshape the social (unrest?) and cultural (shock?) makeup of America, resulting in an unprecedented change in political arenas, perhaps the defining moment that brings to fruition President Barack Obama's willful intent of "fundamentally transforming the United States of America." The new demographics may give Democrats the upper hand, especially among Hispanic voters.

The Times' article reported that CIS is taking the first steps to accommodate an anticipated stampede of illegal immigrants seeking visas in response to President Obama's stated intention to propose to Congress legislation toward comprehensive immigration reform. As quoted by CIS director Alejandro Mayorkas, "We are under way to prepare for that."

It's a given fact there are well over 10 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., of which about 6 million are said to typically seek legal status each year. Since the CIS anticipates millions of immigrants will apply for legal status within a matter of weeks if immigration legislation passes Congress next year, the agency is on an immediate hiring spree to play catch-up with a current backlog of pending paperwork. More jobs, bigger government.

Some lawmakers have already expressed concern that, as CIS becomes overwhelmed with large volumes of applications, haste will result in poorly processed paperwork and lax review of background checks will create a national security crisis.

Regardless of what may come from immigration reform, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano this past week revealed a strategy that will overhaul the way immigration violators are held in detention centers. With more than 60 percent of detainees classified as non-criminals, Napolitano said an initiative is under way "to make immigration detention more cohesive, accountable and relevant to the entire spectrum of detainees we are dealing with."

Which means, in the coming weeks Napolitano will submit to Congress plans to renovate vacant hotels and nursing homes and convert residential houses to provide less restrictive oversight of low-risk violators of immigration laws, primarily women and children. By doing so, savings are expected to lower the cost from $100 per day to about $14 per day for each detainee.

It's believed the new policy will greatly reduce the annual cost of $2.4 billion currently spent on about 380,000 immigrants, of which many were arrested during the past two years when ICE agents followed a practice of raiding neighborhoods, factories and other workplaces known to employ immigrants, thus terrorizing people and traumatizing children.

Rather than targeting employees, current practice puts businesses on legal notice to verify the legal status of immigrants.

The perfect example is the 1,800 employees of American Apparel in Los Angeles who were terminated in early September by the company as a result of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents identifying discrepancies and mismatches in employment records when compared to immigration records of the Social Security Administration. That is to say, they were proven to be illegal immigrants.

The action came as a result of a 17-month investigation by ICE that began with the Bush administration. Los Angeles Times journalist Tim Rutten called the action a "callous" turn of events under President Obama.

It doesn't seem to phase otherwise law-abiding, intelligent people that hiring and, at times, harboring illegal immigrants with subsidized housing are lawless un-American activities.

With the government displaying a change in sentiment toward the humanitarian aspects of non-violent immigrants, legal or not, new laws of this land will bring about change that we'll all have to live with.

Provisions are now in the works to address detainee concerns about the lack of proper treatment for medical and mental health conditions. The fact that seriously ill detainees have died while in custody cannot be ignored. Therefore, they will have health care before uninsured Americans.

So, will President Obama's health care reform include coverage for illegal immigrants? "No way, Jose." If enacted, by the time it's implemented in 2013, many of those illegal immigrants will have become naturalized citizens.

Ron Rae, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill. He can be contacted at hernandoron@yahoo.com.

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