JB Cases said:
How do immigrants take advantage of our health-care system? It seems to me that most hospitals don't take people who don't have health insurance and most people who don't have legal jobs are unlikely to have health insurance. Hell, a lot of people who do have legal jobs don't have health insurance.
And I guess for the time being there are still some schools that they can enroll their children into without fear of being arrested when they pick their children up. But how are they taking advantage of our "education" system? They pay rent, buy groceries, gas, lotto tickets and other things that contribute to the tax base. So what if they don't pay income tax or SS, they are probably in an income tax bracket where they aren't going to pay tax anyway. And if they don't pay into SS then they get nothing out of it either.
And if they want to gamble with their income then that is their choice.
By the way, what is the difference between paying the kid down the block $50 to wash your car and paying an illegal immigrant? Nothing.
Or paying Fred Jones Lawn Service? Do you check Fred Jones to make sure he has a business license and a landscaping degree before you turn him loose on your grass?
Anyone who has ever paid anyone else for work "under the table" is guilty of tax evasion so get off the high horse. Every single person on this board has either paid someone this way or done work this way at some point in their lives. It's the way society works, irrespective of laws that seek to reign in human nature.
Quick show of hands; how many of us want to live in a world where we check each other's credentials with every meeting and turn each other in to the Gestapo when we find a "violator"? Aren't we living in a country that is supposed to hold as it's highest ideal the very freedoms we are eroding?
They take advantage of our infrastructure in many ways. Some examples of what happens here in Baltimore and other areas are:
1) Gangs such as MS13. Violent crime, robbery, etc. Cases have to go through the legal system. Paramedics, police and other state agencies, and some times federal, have to get involved with prosecution, investigation of the crime and what to do with the offenders when caught. Some of the offenders are even repeat offenders who have been deported and come back.
2) In Baltimore a common occurance is that they call 911 for something like a common cold. Get taken to the ER by the ambulance, FD paramedics, or police. None of which gets paid for, so it falls on tax payers. This doesn't even include the major medical expenses.
3) In Maryland the state gives them better than in-state tuition, grants and other financial aid while American citizens who live here are struggling to get an education.
4) Banks such as Wachovia, Bank of America, M & T, Wells Fargo and others that offer illegals favorable mortgage rates, credit cards, loans and bank accounts which they use illegally obtained social security numbers to open, aka identity theft. These loans and other services sometimes have lower interest rates than even Americans with "perfect" credit can obtain.
5) Sure they pay taxes when they buy gas, food, cigarettes and other consumables, but a bigger hit is the lost income the state absorbs from state income taxes they don't pay. All those taxes go to pay for schools, police, infrasturcture and many other state funded programs that they use but don't pay their fair share for.
The only thing they bring to this country is cheap labor. They will do the work that many unemployed or underemployed Americans don't/won't do. A good way to block that hole is to make it a requirement that recipients of state aid, such as welfare, work these jobs. Sure the pay is low, but the aid received from the state is there as a supplement.
