LP>>The major fact that I see being ignored here (except by Ron) is that
LP>>many of these children are US citizens.
 CB> I am sorry you are being ignored - this is the first message I have seen
 CB> from you on this topic.
I didn't say I was a major fact, so please don't think I felt I was
being ignored.  That was the first message I've posted on this---at
least, recently.
LP>>To make a real dent in cutting the cost of illegals receiving government
LP>>services, the first thing to do is to change the constitution &
LP>>immigration laws, as did Great Britain in approx. 1981, so that being
LP>>born on American soil is not an instant guarantee to citizenship.  One
LP>>would have to prove that at least one parent is a citizen or become
LP>>naturalized through the process already in place.
 CB> Another way, if it is possible, is to stop the illegal immigration.  If
You know, I totally neglected to say that.  You know why?  I think in AZ
we have come almost to a mind set of being resigned to it happening.
The US southern border is just too immense to be policed effectively.
Short of employing thousands more INS officers, installing electric
fences for thousands of miles with motion sensing machine guns every 50
or so feet, it just doesn't seem a feasably viable feat.
 CB> we can make it more attractive for employers to check for identification
 CB> when hiring, it would go a long way to stopping the flow of illegal
Supposedly, the Immigration Act of 1986 already addressed this.
Employers are all briefed here about the procedures & forms to use.
 CB> immigrants.  It is simply too attractive for foreigners to come here
 CB> (higher wages and more work) and for farmers and factories to hire them
 CB> (lower wages, lots of laborers willing to do dirty work).
And there is the rub.
 CB> I agree.  And we might make the same argument for many of our
 CB> disadvantaged children who ARE citizens - it's such a shame that the
 CB> parents don't raise them with love and caring, but they don't.  If we as
 CB> a society don't pitch in to make their education better, they will
 CB> become an even bigger burden on society as adults (welfare, crimes.
 CB> etc.).
Ooooh, I could make a whole 'nuther thread there.  I have a problem with
spending $16,000/year to educate one child who will require managed care
until death & only $2,500 on others with the potential to become high
earning taxpayers (but don't because the funds for their education is
spent to teach the 1st kid to get dressed.  [Ducking.])
LP>>AZ's public health system has stopped providing anything but emergency
LP>>care unless one can prove citizenship.
 CB> Well, that IS one way of dealing with the problem.  If they are dead,
 CB> they can't apply for welfare.
EMERGENCY care.  Life-threatening stuff is treated.  However, you raise
a point.  If we wait until something is life-threatening, how much more
do we spend on treatment, how has the patient's chances for recovery
been diminished & how much more does the patient suffer as a result?
LP>>Certainly.  They're not going to pick up & just go back wherever because
LP>>we gripe about it.  Mostly, the ones who are here are going to stay
LP>>unless forcibly picked up & taken away.  The first priority should be
LP>>enforcing our borders, followed by making it clear that living here
LP>>illegally will not ultimately be rewarded with resident alien status or
LP>>citizenship just for being able to evade the long, frail arm of
LP>>immigration authorities for X number of years (which was what the last
LP>>immigration reform acts effectively did.)  Many were able to wait it out
LP>>then use the posturing of baffled politicians to slip in through the
LP>>cracks of legislation designed under a flag of surrender.
 CB> I think we see things very similarly.
Uh, oh.  I can see it now.  You're gonna get me called a liberal & start
a whole political thread & Sheila will have to moderate us.  Uh, uh.
That bird don't fly.
Leona Payne
... GOP? I don't *think* so.  GDI--Gol' darned Independant. I think for 
myself.
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