Posted on 11/21/2003 6:16:46 PM PST by freetradenotfree
"Immigration and Disease: It's Enough to Make You Sick"
Uncontrolled and illegal immigration to the United States causes many problems for the nation. Just the tax revenues spent on welfare programs, education, health care, and housing for illegal immigrants is enough to make one question our immigration policies. Now, we can add another problem and cost associated with illegal immigration: illegal immigrants can make you sick.
According to an article at newsobserver.com and other news sources, a deadly Pennsylvania hepatitis outbreak has spread panic among many residents of the area. ''More than 500 people got sick and three have died from this hepatitis outbreak.'' Charles Sheehan, writing for the Associated Press, claims that ''The nation's biggest known outbreak of hepatitis A is causing such a panic that people are lining up by the thousands for antibody shots and no longer eating out.''
Health investigators are looking into whether contaminated produce--perhaps scallions from Mexico--may have caused the outbreak at the Chi Chi's restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. ''We're very concerned. It's very serious and we've sent a team of people out there to assist,'' said CDC spokesman David Daigle.
According to yet another article on station WPIX Pittsburgh's web site, ''In light of the hepatitis A outbreak from a Center Township restaurant, Chi-Chi's has pulled green onions from its menu nationwide as a precaution. As far as the investigation into the Chi-Chi's outbreak, the virus has been identified as the 'Mexican Strain.' '' Health officials reported, ''Workers may have contaminated food by failure to follow basic hygiene in cleaning hands after using the bathroom.''
The U. S. is not alone in its fight against illegal immigration and disease. Illegal Chinese immigrants to Europe are bringing to that continent malaria. Even Thailand has problems with diseases brought in with immigrants from Burma. The biological clock is ticking and a world health crisis is looming. Because the U. S. suffers more immigration than any country in the world, our health problems are growing faster. Certainly, the potential for biological disaster has come to the notice of terrorists and Al Qaeda.
Although the out break of Hepatitis A in Pennsylvania is the largest in U. S. history, it is just the tip of the iceberg in so far as disease and immigration is concerned. Frosty Wooldridge in his many articles reports that, ''Thousands carry head lice, leprosy, tuberculosis, and hepatitis A, B, and C into the U. S. Tuberculosis, five years ago, was almost nonexistent in the USA. A school in Sebewaing, Michigan, reported 30 children and four teachers had tested positive for tuberculosis infections.''
Wooldridge goes on to add, ''In the past four years, 16,000 cases of multi drug resistant (MDR) TB, which was formerly endemic ONLY to Mexico, crossed over the borders inside the bodies of illegal aliens. These adults and their children have spread out across the country to work in fast foods and harvesting. Another outbreak occurred in Austin, Minnesota, where eight police officers tested positive for tuberculosis.'' A similar outbreak reportedly occurred in Portland, Maine where 28 tested positive for tuberculosis.
And the list gets even longer: ''Leprosy totaled 900 cases in the USA in the past 40 years. In the past three years, according to a report from the New York Times in February, 2003, leprosy has infected over 7,000 people in the United States. It was brought in by illegal immigrants from India, Brazil, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Leprosy spreads by infected illegal aliens working in fast food, dish washing and hotels."
Then there is Chagas Disease. This disease ''is brought directly from Mexico and Latin America where it has infected over 18,000,000 people. One can contract it by eating uncooked food contaminated with infected feces of the Vinchuca Bug. It crosses over the border in the bodies of an average of 2,200 illegal aliens daily.''
Disease transmission by immigration is not limited to just the states that border Mexico. As far north as Kentucky and Illinois, problems of disease and immigrants are to be found. A Kentucky state legislator blamed illegal Hispanic immigrants for spreading disease in Kentucky and draining the shelves of local food charities. Illegal immigrants whom Kentucky State Representative Fred Nesler described as ''mostly your Mexicans'' have caused problems in his Western Kentucky district. He said, ''Whenever they come into a community, those people bring quite a bit of disease with them.''
In northern Virginia, state health authorities announced that ''tuberculosis continues to rise'' and that ''immigration is fueling the spread.'' According to the Washington Post, this strain of TB is the drug resistant strain (Washington Post, March 18, 2002). The state Health Department released figures showing an increase of nearly 5 percent in TB cases in the state between 2000 and 2001, and 57 percent of the increase occurred in northern Virginia itself.
As the Washington Post explained, ''Health officials say the rise of TB ... is largely a consequence of the migration of people from parts of the world where the disease is common. It is thought that two-thirds of the cases of TB brought into the United States originated in just three countries: Mexico, the Philippines, and Vietnam.''
A study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform in the St. Louis Business Journal (August 20, 2003) reports that Missouri spends about $21.4 million a year and Illinois spends $484 million a year to educate school-aged illegal immigrants. The report goes on to state that, ''The money spent in Illinois is enough to supply healthcare to every person under the poverty line for two years or to supply financial aid to the nearly 34,000 college students denied it.''' Clearly, illegal immigration is lowering the standard of living of all American citizens.
Writing in the National Review, James R. Edwards cites the dramatic increase in diseases immigrants bring to the United States. He states, ''TB is especially prevalent in Mexicans....Mexican immigrants have an infection rate of 35.5 cases per 100,000, far above the native-born rate.'' Edwards then goes on to ask, ''Does America have the resolve to safeguard public health first, even at the risk of being politically incorrect? Do American taxpayers willingly accept the additional burden of the costs mass immigration places on the nation's healthcare system?''
The answer to Edwards' question is, ''No.'' It is obvious there is no desire or resolve to safeguard public health in either political party. Nor do the politicians want to do anything about illegal immigration, especially illegal immigration from Mexico. What is lacking here is a long term vision of what is good for the U. S. Instead, everyone is looking at short term political or economic gains.
A solution to the problems of illegal immigration probably will hurt some people in the short run. That is the pain that precedes a cure. Some families may be broken up and some decent, hardworking people sent back to a country that has no jobs for them. Nevertheless, in the long run, policies that deport illegal immigrants will benefit the U. S. These policies may even force Mexico, among other nations, to get their house in order. But because there is short term pain for a long term benefit, politicians will stay away from doing anything to solve the immigration mess and its attending public health problems. The problem of illegal immigration and disease will just grow worse. It's enough to make you sick!
That didn't happen though --- after NAFTA was signed, immigration from Mexico became extreme. In the mid 80's it was estimated there were about 300,000 illegals in the USA. Now --- after NAFTA it's close to 20,000,000.
Distrito Federal— La apertura agropecuaria prevista por el TLCAN y aprobada por el Senado de la República ocasionará que, en los primeros meses del 2003, unos 5 millones de mexicanos abandonen el campo, luego de que en la actualidad son ya alrededor de 600 personas las que diariamente emigran a las ciudades mexicanas y a Estados Unidos, dejando en muchos casos sus tierras en manos de mujeres y ancianos.
Un estudio de la Comisión de Desarrollo Rural de la Cámara de Diputados y el Frente Democrático Campesino (FDC) advierten también que, como resultado de la liberación arancelaria programada por el acuerdo comercial para el 1 de enero, la migración campesina acarreará además mayores problemas urbanos en el país.
Se trata del éxodo creciente que, en vísperas de la entrada en vigor del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, auguró hace casi 10 años el investigador José Luis Calva, del Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas de la UNAM, para quien ahora el problema del campo es una “caldera social sin escape”.
(I'm assuming your response isn't sarcasm. Correct me if it was)
"These people" contribute next to nothing to our economy. They degrade our education and culture. They provide a downward thrust to the salaries of our neediest citizens, taking away jobs that would be full-time with benefits were it not for the availibility of cheap part time labor. They cause a situation where people are becoming dependent on others to do things they could better do for themselves. They cause pressures on housing and the environment.
Besides, with us picking up all their healthcare costs they are bound to get shots after they come over the border anyway.
And who's going to pay for the shots? There is always the danger of a mutation of a disease or of a new disease.
This article seemed to be too much of a hit piece. The disease danger is not just from Mexicans who do not wash their hands. A disease could come from any part of the world, it could affect soldiers serving their countries, ordinary tourists, the affect on unsanitary conditions in refugee camps or among those displaced by war, etc. The disease factor is a compelling one, for all of these reasons, but like most things, the government won't react until a certain threshold is reached and people get outraged. Sadly, three deaths in Pittsburgh won't be enough to stop the problem.
Exactly! I have stopped eating out. The idea of eating a meal prepared by an illegal alien with remnants of fecal matter on his hands is just too much. And now I'm nervous to even buy fresh produce, after learning how crops are fertilized, watered, and picked in Mexico.
Just one more way in which illegal immigration and political correctness are ruining the lives of Americans.
Criminal Aliens-Counterfeit Americans
CA-CA...
They sneak across our borders to rob us blind. The least they could do is wash their hands.
Maybe they'd use the soap and water if we locked it up and they had to steal that, too. Giving it to them free takes all the fun out of it for them.
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