Ok, let’s try another angle.
“If I can just successfully commit this crime, then my kids will have a better life.” Do you think that such an illogical statement has ever come to the mind of a bank robber, or an extortionist, or a blackmailer? What about another kind of criminal: One that doesn’t have children yet, but knows that if they can bear children within the border of the United States of America, they not only have a better chance of getting away with their crime by preying on the hearts of American citizens, and also survive on the welfare programs of our nation. Meet this nation’s most expensive criminal—the illegal immigrant. In fact, bearing children in the U.S. is such a better life for “profitable” illegal immigrants than where they came from, that the majority of illegal immigrant parents live in circumstances of poverty and thus reap extensive benefits of our welfare programs.
Heartstrings will bankrupt us all, folks.
Let’s be perfectly blunt here. Do you really think it’s fair for law-abiding citizens to wait, dot their “I’s”, cross their “T’s” and pay the proper price to become citizens of the U.S. while others simply circumvent “the system,” sneaking in like a thief in the night, only to be rewarded? Yes, REWARDED. And we reward them in a big way here in the U.S. due to the faulty interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1 reads: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside (bold and italics added). Our government officials have interpreted this Amendment to mean that if a child is born in the U.S. then he/she is automatically adopted as a citizen of the U.S. But are they truly subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. under such circumstances? Now, let’s look at this for a moment. The consequences of this politically motivated interpretation are dire for our nation.
More bluntness here. Please don’t feel sorry for the illegal immigrants who live in poverty. They do so because their illegal status makes it difficult to obtain jobs in which they can be gainfully employed. Statistically speaking, many are very gainfully employed--with a house that’s fully paid for, a car that’s paid for, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash on hand at any given moment. It’s called drug trafficking work, and apparently it pays very well. Unfortunately, such “workers” regularly show that they have no income. (Come on, really. Would you report your illegal income when you see political leaders who don’t even have to report their legal income?) As such, these individuals still qualify for much federal and state assistance including medical benefits.
I spoke at length with a senior DEA agent this past weekend. He gave me a very interesting view on the consequences of this situation.
As a DEA agent he is repeatedly arresting illegal immigrants for drug trafficking (and who are usually guilty of many other crimes as a part of this trafficking). Unfortunately, he stated that the majority of these traffickers have their wives and their U.S. citizen children as a part of the game. When the parents get arrested, the children inevitably get placed in our foster care system. Note that since the income of these drug traffickers is illegal, although quite abundant, many of them make use of our welfare programs such as W.I.C, food stamps and other programs in addition to their ill-gotten gains. Needless to say, the I.R.S. has no record of a drug trafficker paying taxes on their income either.
When a U.S. child is disabled in our nation, they are given disability and social security benefits, but such benefits are paid to their legal guardians, legal or not.
In addition, a study released Tuesday, April 14, 2009 by Pew Hispanic Center reported that children of immigrants are twice as likely to live in poverty, which means that they are also living off of our nation’s welfare programs, education and healthcare. While many illegal immigrants were not permitted to receive welfare previously, many states have passed laws allowing them to receive benefits which were originally intended for our nation’s citizens. Nearly one-third of their children live in poverty which is double the rate of legal U.S. citizen children.
Seven percent of the children enrolling in your child’s school are children of an illegal immigrant according to this same study. And yet illegal immigrants are typically not property owners (due to lending regulations), thus they do not pay taxes to support their children in school.
There are approximately 5.5 million children of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. presently who are recognized as legal citizens. As such, the parents of such children are able to literally live on your dime without contributing to society in the form of taxes, community activism, or contributing to the law-abiding culture of our society.
In America, education is the largest public cost of caring for these children due in part to the language barriers necessitating special teachers, paid lunch programs, and larger class sizes. This price tag is estimated today to be above 13 billion dollars, not counting any special education programs according to Donald Huddle of Rice University. An additional $2 billion goes towards special care programs in our schools. This number is expected to actually be quite conservative given that the cost for education of these children in California alone was posted at $3 billion in 1993. The illegal immigration population has nearly doubled since then. Health care is at least triple that cost for the nation both public and private costs combined. (For more information, click here)
Think of the impression that such parents may have on their children. They begin their relationship with our nation by defying our laws and are financially rewarded for it. Hmmmm. I wonder what message this sends to their children? Go ahead. You take a guess. Are they naturally inclined to obey the laws of our nation or defy them?
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security reported that over 100,000 parents of “legal” U.S. children were deported in 2007, thus prompting them to make alternative considerations prior to deportments. In other words, the fact that they got away with a crime, but were able to procreate may be reason enough to reward them with amnesty in our nation. I truly believe that by our government even entertaining the proposal to allow such parents to stay here, they are simply reinforcing criminal acts. Once you get away with one crime, why not another, and another?
How do these children grow up and vote? Do they vote for the best candidate who promotes honor and virtue? Or do they vote for the person who’s most likely to keep their parents in the country?
Did you know you’ll now have to work until May 29 of each year JUST to pay your taxes? You presently pay more in taxes than you spend in housing, food and clothing for your family! While I’m not one to believe in scarcity, the fact of the matter is our nation is in serious peril. Contrary to what the Federal Reserve and Congress believe, there is a FINITE amount of money that this nation has at present and that finite amount is in the largest negative balance than ever before. Millions of legitimate Americans are suffering financially with no “bail out” in the form of food stamps, health benefits, W.I.C. in-state tuition prices, preferential and even mandatory admittance into colleges or FREE education. Heart strings or not, the crimes of these parents must not be rewarded socially, emotionally, or financially.
Even if we accept the current interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, let’s ask ourselves this question. Was such a law intended to affect the U.S.-born children of a few thousand, or even tens or hundreds of thousands of immigrants who made the difficult journey and entered our country through Ellis Island or other authorized ports of entry? If our forefathers had known that 1 million to 3 million illegal immigrants (solely from one country) would attempt to illegally enter our country every year, would they have desired to generously grant birthright citizenship to the children of these same immigrants who flagrantly violate our laws? Will you be as generous at the cost of the well being of your own family? It becomes even more painful when we realize that countless illegal immigrants intentionally give birth to “anchor babies” for the specific intent of later legalizing their immigration status.
Not that I give merit to the legal actions of other countries as a basis for our behavior, but it’s interesting to note that in November 2004, Denmark rescinded automatic citizenship due to the unforeseen financial crisis it placed upon their country. Ireland did so a year prior to that. Most of Europe was being overrun with immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East and thus are considering the same measures at present.
Bottom line, we literally cannot afford to grant legality in the midst of illegality. It makes for a horrible relationship.
Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved.You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.