Welfare Immigrants

One of the most compelling examples of why we need to sort out the illegal immigration issue from John Derbyshire at NRO. Brings to mind the case of the 'welfare queens' that eventually led to the Welfare Reform Act.

"Some of our other middle-class friends are not doing as well. One family, supported by both mom & dad, has had to forgo using an obstetrician in favor of a midwife due to cost and rather shoddy health insurance. They are praying for no complications. Another family of our acquaintance is in the same boat: they simply can not have children in the way Americans are accustomed to: hospital, doctors, nurses, etc. That the middle class is being squeezed economically is debatable. [The logic here suggests my correspondent missed out a 'not' in that sentence, but that's what he wrote.] Below-replacement birthrates by its members do not bode well for its viability over the long haul.

"Having ones' friends consider a riskier birthing regimen due to cost is galling enough. What makes it nigh enraging is seeing that at [name of local mega-hospital] 70% of their 16,000 births per year are to illegal aliens (11,000+). That is my property tax dollars at work. No attempt is made to get payment from the illegals themselves, as the cost is written off when incurred from illegals. If my wife or our friends' wives were to give birth at [name of hospital], that debt would follow us like a hound dog. If it went over 90 days past due, it would be turned over to a collection agency and our credit would be trashed. A $25,000 bill for a Caesarean section would sink our family ship.

"This is not how my folks (degreed, middle class) and their friends had to live."