Posted on 01/17/2004 4:10:14 AM PST by sarcasm
Illegal immigrants would be barred from receiving many state services under an amendment to the Colorado Constitution proposed by Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo.
The outspoken anti-immigration advocate wants to block illegal immigrants from nonemergency services such as in-state college tuition and health care, according to a plan filed this week with the Colorado Secretary of State.
The proposal is a reaction to President Bush's plan to give legal status to foreign workers, said Charles Heatherly, Tancredo's director of research and planning.
"With President Bush proposing the sweeping new amnesty legislation that will, in our view, only encourage a new wave of illegal immigration into the country, we don't want Colorado to be a magnet the way California is," Heatherly said.
He said Tancredo hasn't made a final decision on whether to go ahead with the measure, but filed it this week anyway to meet deadlines for the November ballot, Heatherly said.
Conservatives applauded the "bright line" a constitutional amendment would draw between legal and illegal residents.
Hispanic activists were stunned and said it could be more divisive than the anti-gay Amendment 2 approved by voters in 1992. A national firestorm followed that vote, but the measure was later struck down in court as unconstitutional.
"That is just a cruel, mean-spirited amendment," said Polly Baca, CEO of LARASA, the Latin American Research & Service Agency. "I am shocked that he would do something like that."
State Senate President John Andrews, a Centennial Republican, said the proposed amendment would strengthen the law he helped enact last year in Colorado. That law, the first of its kind in the nation, barred state and local governments from recognizing Mexican matricular consular cards and other such identification for people trying to get services.
"I agree with Congressman Tancredo," Andrews said. "We should draw a bright line between legal and illegal residents of this country. We should do nothing to make it easier and more comfortable for law breakers to come here and stay here."
North Denver activist and businessman Paul Sandoval, who served with Tancredo in the state legislature, predicts problems.
"Anyone who looks different will find himself undergoing extra scrutiny. It will be absolutely divisive," Sandoval said. "This guy (Tancredo) is off the wall. He was one of the 'House crazies' when he served in the legislature. It's starting to show up again."
But Heatherly said the state is having enough financial troubles already without having to pay for services for more illegal immigrants. Tancredo's office gets hundreds of calls and e-mails about the issue every week, he said.
While he didn't want to name specific nonemergency services, he did give one example: in-state tuition. Illegal immigrants can't get the lower tuition rate to attend state colleges, but some in the Colorado legislature would like them to. A plan floated last year to offer that died.
"If a Colorado citizen goes to the University of Utah, they expect to pay out-of-state tuition. Why should an illegal get to pay in-state tuition?" Heatherly said. "They should pay the actual cost, not a subsidized cost if they're going to go at all."
In 1931, Winston Churchill was run over on Fifth Avenue and almost died because of being turned down by a hospital due to his being too injured to explain how he would pay. We live in kinder gentler times, but not because of the Hippocratic Oath, which requires docs to donate to their med school while saying nothing about donating health care. See: Hippocratic Oath -- Classical Version.
That being said, I do agree that travel insurance should be mandatory and proof presented by all visitors at the port of entry.
Sounds good, although swiping a credit card at the border showing at least, say, $5000 of available credit might be an alternative for the wealthy. And I wouldn't even mind some kind of intergovernmental agreement with countries such as the UK which already today have an official policy of providing free hospital care to legitimate foreign tourists in case of life-threatening emergencies. Of course, this is all dreaming given that we don't even keep track of whether they left on tme so we would know that their insurance expired.
That's impractically high, and would only be paid by a Wal-Mart. How about "All companies that KNOWINGLY hire illegal aliens are fined (one, two, you pick) years of each illegal employee's wages?
Agreed, and to Wal-mart, 10 mil is nothing. Instead, threaten to seize the assets of the entire corporation, and just watch how diligent they become. Everybody from the CEO to the part-time janitor will be on the look-out for illegals because they'll be out of a job if they don't.
This problem begins and ends with U.S. employers, period. Hell, I don't blame the Mexicans - if my family was starving and my only option was to break some other country's immigration laws, it's California or bust. But if there were no point in going there because there was no chance of employment, I'd sneak into France or Germany instead.
Yeah, and Sandoval's statement ISN'T devisive?
Yep. I should have mentioned this. The wording is:
"I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy."
Some med schools administer what they call the modern Hippocratic oath, but there really is no such thing. Instead there are dozens of different if-it-feels-right-do-it replacement oaths.
Mr. Sandoval considers anyone who doesn't want to support illegal aliens crazy? Sorry, Sandoval, it's just the opposite.
The "Race" needs to learn that there are people out there that will stand up for the "Rule of Law". An idea that is foreign to them.
That is fine as far as it goes. Few would deny anyone any needed emergency medical care. But if the undocumented immigrants suddenly become legalized through some sort of program or law, then we'll see if the Rulez Uber Alles crowd continues to tout the rule of law or not.
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