Immigration News

Although federal policy seeks to prevent illegal aliens from accessing taxpayer-funded health care, specifically Medicaid and Obamacare, they still receive substantial support for the use of medical services. An article in Forbes magazine calculates that "All told Americans cross-subsidize health care for unauthorized immigrants to the tune of $18.5 billion a year. O this total, federal taxpayers provided $11.2 billion in subsidized care to unauthorized immigrants in 2016."

More than one hundred and fifty members of the migrant "caravan" have arrived at the U.S. border at Tijuana, Mexico. They will try to gain entry into the United States by claiming asylum. Critics of this strategy note that if these Central Americans were truly seeking refuge from persecution, they could could have requested it in Mexico. The reason they want it here is that the U.S. offers more benefits and economic opportunities than Mexico.

Mary Doetsch is a retired veteran of the State Department with long experience in the refugee program. She says it is broken and "cries out for a fix." In the past, private charitable agencies in the U.S. resettled refugees with mainly their own money. Today the work is almost completely done by nine federal contractors called "Voluntary Agencies" or VOLAGS. The term is ironic because most of their funding comes from taxpayers. As Doetsch notes, "The VOLAGS receive between 57 percent to 99.5 percent of their funds from the federal government. Perhaps most troubling, top management typically receives salary and benefit packages in the mid-to-high six figures, ranging from $260,000 to more than $700,000 annually. [These] contractors have a vested interest in processing ever-larger numbers of applicants, since they make money on every refugee settled. "  As the VOLAGS enrich themselves from resettlement, taxpayers are hit again by having to pay for public assistance that the refugees receive.

A spokesman for the billionaire Koch brothers says they are "disappointed" that Congress has not passed an amnesty for the illegal aliens in the DACA category.  The spokesman, Tim Phillips, says that congressmen who do not vote for this amnesty could lose Koch campaign contributions in the upcoming midterm elections. He stated, "We've been disappointed so far this year, and it's going to cause us to closely evaluate the involvement we may or may not have in individual races, The Koch brothers are followers of the libertarian ideology, which supports virtually open borders so that businesses can enjoy a steady stream of cheap labor and keep wages low.

The Trump Administration has warned migrants in the "caravan" coming up through Mexico that they could face prosecution, detention, and deportation if they try to cross the U.S. border. Kristjen Nielson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, stated, "DHS will continues to monitor the remnants of the 'caravan' of individuals headed to our Southern border with the apparent intention of entering the United States illegally. A sovereign nation that cannot--or worse, chooses not--to defend its borders will soon cease to be a sovereign nation. The Trump Administration is committed to enforcing our immigration laws--whether persons are part of this 'caravan' or not."

A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 20 million children in the U.S. (23 percent of the total) have at least one immigrant parent. More than half them live in four states, California (23 percent), Texas (13 percent), New York (8 percent) and Florida (8 percent). Approximately eight million of the children with an immigrant parent are covered under Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  

Although California leans to the political left, many Californians support strict immigration measures. According to a recent poll, 24 percent say it is "very important" to increase deportations of illegal aliens, and 35 percent said it was "somewhat important" to do so. It also found that 49 of percent of Californians support a temporary ban on people coming to the U.S. from Muslim majority countries. The poll was conducted by UC Berkeley's Hass Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. 

More Misinformation from the Media: Among the daily noise of a dysfunctional government, the immigration debate has dragged on in Washington for so long that...

An Evangelical Christian group has called for immigration reform. The group, Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration, endorses six legislative proposals: 1) Build the  border wall, as promised and funded years ago. 2 ) Upgrade Border Patrol and ICE staffing. 3) End chain migration and diversity visas. 4) End "sanctuary cities." 5) Add voter integrity verification measures in all states. 6) Implement E-Verify in all states to help millions of Americans back to work.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) notes that sanctuary jurisdictions are releasing alien gang members rather than turning them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation. CIS states: "According to ICE statistics provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, over a nine-month period in FY2017, 142 gang members that ICE was seeking to deport were released by the local law enforcement agency instead of transferred to ICE custody.  Two-thirds of the releases occurred in California, which has had a strict sanctuary policy in effect since January 2014. Fifteen of the aliens were members of the MS-13 gang and 127 were members of other gangs."