Answering Michele, Part II

So here is the second installment in my response to Michele's four-part query on immigration. (Click to see Part I.) Michele writes:

2) In my own life – even after having worked (sometimes) two jobs since the age of fifteen and having paid into the system – I have watched people whom I believe are illegal immigrants (I know I am assuming here, but they could only speak Spanish) who were helped when I wasn’t. One example: I just quit my job to start my own business at home so I could be home with my newborn. Due to bad planning and circumstances, this all occurred as my husband’s work slowed. We were struggling. I went to a clinic in Canoga Park to see if I could receive low-income vaccines for my baby. The answer: No. Apparently the whopping $600 bucks I made that month in my business meant I made too much. Meanwhile, the Spanish speaking ladies and their babies were helped. My mother, who worked in a hospital, has similar stories. But still, I had compassion for those people and didn’t let it bother me…at the time. Does this seem fair?

No, it doesn't seem fair, but it also doesn't seem to be a matter of immigration, but of the laws and/or policies governing social services. Nothing from the story you cite suggests that the Spanish-speaking ladies were given treatment because they were illegal immigrants (if indeed they were), but because they had no income. You were discriminated against, or denied subsidized care because you earned income (however small) -- not because you are a U.S. citizen.

I agree this is insane, as it penalizes hard work, and it needs correction. This is a travesty that infects all sorts of public-assistance programs, which can encourage idleness. (Although the situation has become considerably better since the GOP Congress and Bill Clinton enacted welfare reform.) But ending immigration, or deporting all the illegal immigrants (even if that were possible), wouldn't change the rules that discriminated against you.

Moreover, enacting the sort of comprehensive immigration reform I sketched out in Part I, wherein all immigrants would need to be documented, identified, and paying taxes, would greatly reduce the possibility of fraud from people who claim not to be earning an income, but who are in reality just getting paid under the table. It would also bring in more tax revenue to help offset the costs immigrants impose on social services, which would be lowered by the enactment of reasonable self-sufficiency requirements.