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.. and who cares, anyway, right?
Let me give you a practical case of WHY folks in "God's Country" (ya know, the red states?) need to be concerned about Mexico's "operation reconquistador", coming soon to every state in the union.
My daughter just spent two weeks in the hospital, and is still home in her second week of convalescence. Reason: Burst appendix.
Now, this was a complicated case. Diagnosis WAS difficult. I probably DID make a mistake of not taking her directly into the local ER (i.e. called her physician, typical symptom's of appendicitis did not "present", waited 4-5 more hours, took her to urgent care, they referred to ER, and etc.).
We arrived at ER on a Sunday, at about 2:30 PM. She was on the operating table at 11:00 PM. Why the delay?
Lots of reasons, but as must on the Western US realize, the local ER has become the "primary care" physician for illegal aliens. They cannot refuse service. There is no government agency to fund the care they provide, including expensive, long-term care (Medicare/medicaid sometimes applies). The bottom line is that ANY time we need to go to an ER, we can expect a 8 to 12 hour wait unless "life threatening systems" present. My daughter was in pain for over 24 hours with appendicitis, and spent the last 8 hours waiting for access to a physician and tests in ER, and her necrotic appendix burst. Three days after the first surgery, internal abscesses (infections) developed, and she had a second operation to clean up after the first. For the next nine days, she endured symptoms from nausea and discomfort to desperate pain. The nursing care was atrocious. And as I said, she's still home, now with a post-hospital virus (flu) because she lost so much weight and her immune system is so worn down from heavy doses of antibiotics.
Most of the battle was lost while my daughter waited in ER. However, the lack of treatment in ER and subsequent mistreatment by nursing was caused, in my opinion, by an understaffed and under funded hospital. Another example: When the surgeon briefed me after her first surgery, I was sitting next to three Hispanic folks from Mexico, who were waiting on a brother (I believe - my Spanish is weak). He was treated in Mexico a month before due to a leg injury, insufficient antibiotics were prescribed (or if prescribed, not taken), and after he migrated to North San Diego County, he developed severe symptoms of gangrene. The physician said he almost lost his life, had extensive surgery on his leg, but would probably not lose it. And of course, there would be months of hospital rehabilitation. My insurance paid over $150,000 for my daughter's care (we haven't seen all the bills yet, but yeah, $150K so far for appendicitis). That's probably $125K higher than it should have been with prompt, proper treatment, and of course, this will be absorbed by the insurance company and then charged back to the insured through higher premiums. But the Mexican gentleman's care? Will his country pick up the tab (i.e. the same country which sues American ranchers off their property in behalf of illegal, invading immigrants)? No, our local hospital just took another $1 million+ hit, which of course, will impact hopital and ER staffing.
I care very deeply about the poor, and the poor on the other side of the border. I NEVER look at illegal-alien-Mexican's wandering our streets with disdain or hate. But I'm also realistic about the cost; I only have to look in my daughter's bedroom to see it first hand.
I probably should have started a "vanity" thread to discuss this stuff, but ....
.. it's also a reason I'm getting to h*ll out of California.
SFS
This may be a little off topic, but may portend the future. In Mexico property seizure of Americans who had bought Mexican real estate was a major news topic in the 90's. Americans who had leased land there to retire had their property seized after they had made extensive property improvements, such as homes, etc.
Given the large Mexican illegal immigrant population, clamoring for the same rights as Americans in the Southwest, it would not be at all surprising if the property seizure process continued stateside for "non-Mexicans" sometime in the future if things continue as they are. The reason, of course, is the stated objective of many of them, which is a reconquest of the Southwest. If you really get to know these people, they are keeping to themselves, unlike other generations of immigrants, because liberal politically correct policies are not encouraging assimilation. They are not adopting English as their primary language, on balance, and they are not socializing with other Americans, as they had in the past. This says volumes about their private thoughts on the "reconquista" issue.
Of course, the U. S. Government's position on illegal immigration is that they are doing work "that Americans won't do". This all has the smell of a very sinister conspiracy on the sovereignty of the country and property rights of legal American citizens by the Administration and the U. S. Supreme Court when combined with the illegal immigration issue. I refer you to the recent U. S. Supreme Court decision affirming the right to use eminent domain to seize private property, then pass it on to a private developer, ostensibly because doing so would revitalize the area, thus increasing tax receipts.
If you look at Mexican law on the issue of property rights you will find that only under certain circumstances can foreigners own property in Mexico. Furthermore, having traveled in Mexico, I'm aware of how those who work for the Mexican government have been able to obtain property not available to foreigners, or even their own citizenry, because of the special advantages they have for working within the government when it comes to acquiring real estate.
http://www.ricardobarraza.com/legal.html
We Americans are inviting the same sort of corrupt practices in our own country if this issue is not resolved.
In my view the best way to do this is through the employment verification process, which, by the way, is vociferously being fought by immigrant rights groups because they know this is a solution that would work. It would be self funding through employer fines levied at amounts that would discourage future violations. It could be done humanely by forcing employers to pay the illegal aliens in their employ the going wage for their work. The aliens could have deducted from this the U. S. Government's deportation costs before they receive their net pay.