Lisa N:
Just curious if you read my other post about ways to restrict illegal immigration. Do you think illegals should be given drivers’ licenses? Do you think employers should be penalized for knowingly hiring illegals? Do you think that we should deport those found here illegally?
I am not talking about standing on the border with a gun or building a wall and I truly hope the “Guest Worker” plan will be successful. I do realize it is impossible for most to obtain legal RESIDENCY with the cost of legal services etc. Providing an inexpensive process for those who wish to come here to WORK, not sell drugs makes a lot of sense to me.
However I believe that the current system is mutually disgraceful as employers are able to take advantage of illegals who cannot turn to law enforcement while illegals take advantage of our generous welfare/medical benefits. It’s disgusting from both sides of this border. People who come here to do honest work should participate in our system of taxation. Employers should provide worker’s compensation and other protections. There is a mutual benefit of both sides complying with the law.
LIsa N
Lisa, you raise good points, and I’ve got no clear answers, obviously. I don’t think illegal immigrants should be given driver’s licenses, mainly because such liscenses are a privilege, not a right like adequate health care, food and basic education.
If all employers were to be penalized for hiring undocumented immigrants, parts of our economy would falter, if not collapse; the agriculture industry in particular is dependent on illegal immigration.
One reason I support a guest worker program is that, as you note, numerous employees take cruel advantage of undocumented immigrants becasue they know the employees have no resource to labor laws when they get stiffed. At the shelter for immigrants where I worked in Houston, I saw this happen almost weekly. The men would put in a full day’s work week (14 hours daily at or below minimum wage digging ditches, painting, etc/) only to be simply refused the money at the end of the week. Two of our guests at the shelter were shot at for demanding their pay later, and another was beaten up in the parking lot.
Regarding medical benefits - I recognize that illegal imigration is putting a burden on our hospital systems, but we cannot refuse basic emergency care to anyone, regardless of their legal status. Again, I have to say the thousands of immigrants who stayed at our shelter “only” went to the hospital to give birth, with bad internal infections or life-threatening, work-related injuries; they were not admitted, which is where the real financial drain on the system begins…They sure weren’t receiving plastic surgery, and the truly costly procedures such as dialysis and chemotherapy were fully funded by us (obviously the hospital wouldn’t admit such cases without insurance). All of them paid cash for clinic and dental visits, so no freebies were possible there either…
You ask whether undocumented immigrants ought to be deported. If they have been convicted of a crime (other than illegal immigration) I think they should. However, it is significant that deportation is listed as one of the most serious sins by the Church document *The Church in the Modern World *(No. 27) and also in *Veritatis Splendor, *(No. 8), and
Evangelium Vitae (No. 3):
This should give us Catholic pause.
Finally, I’d like to say for the last time : ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR WELFARE BENEFITS. This silly allegation has been running throughout this thread, and ought to stop. :banghead:
