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Foreign Born Children and Health Care

Foreign Born Children and Health Care

As a result of the United States
facing financial crisis and suffering from a lack of accessible health care, a
large percentage of the American public disagree with an immigration policy
that allows illegal immigrants to have access to subsidized health care. While
illegal immigrants are not legally entitled to many of the forms of health care
citizens can get, they sometimes rely heavily on state emergency Medicaid
dollars–these funds are designated as part of government-sponsored health care
program geared towards low-income households. 

In cases of medical emergencies,
hospitals cannot turn anyone away, regardless of financial or legal standing.
Yet, illegal residents are not entitled to anything beyond emergency health
care unless they pay out of pocket for it. Many then choose to visit free
public clinics for medical help, but these clinics are often understaffed and
overbooked.

Aside from California, Texas is the most popular state for illegal adult and
child immigration, due mostly to its close proximity to the Mexican border. In
Texas alone, it has been estimated that illegal immigrants, many of which are
considered to be children of illegal immigration, cost hospitals roughly $1.3
billion in 2006–a number that has continued to grow.

Politicians are desperately trying to come to an agreement about the policies
that should go into effect involving illegal adult and child immigration. Some
are trying to cut the amount of money taxpayers have had to spend footing the
often-large medical bills that are required for basic care of illegal
immigrants. These same policymakers are trying to cut down the amount of money
that the American public spends on the education of a child born to parents
without citizenship.

Nationally, efforts to get health insurance for just a legal child immigrant
from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is still up in the air. Many
argue that illegal immigrants adversely affect the number of American citizens
without health insurance due to the increasing costs of adult and child immigrant
health care. 

America has been facing a health care crisis for some time now, and even with
health care on the national agenda, Americans are still struggling to get the
care they need. The question of whether or not illegal immigrants, regardless
of age, should be entitled to free health care is a notoriously controversial
issue.

The Nightmare of Deporting Foreign Children

The Nightmare of Deporting Foreign Children

To some people, the thought of child deportation is a horrific one, even children that are classified as illegal immigrants. In fact, approaching the issue of the deportation of children of illegal immigration is much different from that of adults who illegally immigrated into America.
Some children come from foreign countries on their own, such is a very common theme for children immigrating from Mexico. Some of these children are in their teens and will often attempt to migrate as a result of the requests of other family members.
Other children are brought illegally to the United States when they are young by their families. Statistically speaking, most illegal immigrants who come to the United States as children are under the age of six. The United States, then, will become the only home they know or remember. Their schools and friends will be in the United States and the child will become immersed in American culture. Whether or not the young child wished to come to the United States is not only irrelevant, but rarely considered in regards to that child’s deportation.
Due to this fact, child deportation from America is decidedly complex. While the United States should not be expected to be a home to foreign-born children without legal status, the moral imperative that compels policymakers to act on their behalf may leave them conflicted in regards to those children who cannot be saved by a green card petition.

The Social Stigma Surrounding Foreigners

The Social Stigma Surrounding Foreigners

Advocates for immigrants’ rights are usually quick to point out to adversaries that immigration is a tenet on which the United States was founded, as even the residents of Jamestown–the first established colony in America, which was established in 1607–had arrived on American soil from a foreign land. Yet, illegal immigration and legal immigration are two different subjects.
For most Americans of European descent, whose ancestors arrived at Ellis Island and made a new life in this country, did so by legally immigrating to the States. Thus, some detractors from the original argument would insist that it does not make sense to apply immigrant rights to those who unlawfully reside on American soil, because they never formally applied for legal residency. These same people might even refuse to employ the term “immigrant” to this debate, instead using the word “alien” with hostility and full implication that the illegal entrant does not legally belong in the United States.
Meanwhile, lobbyists for the enhancement of rights allowed to illegal immigrants would be apt to modify the term in favor of calling someone an “undocumented” immigrant, suggesting no person, as a human being, can be considered “illegal” in and of themselves. 
As hinted at by considerations listed above, even the names by which illegal immigrants and immigrants’ rights are called can involve some sense of social stigma. Extrapolating from the term “alien,” the word has connotations of strangeness or otherness.
Nevertheless, that general feeling of the individual being foreign, almost to the extent of not even being the same species, still applies. Those most heavily affected by such sensibilities would be apt to think that not only would immigrant rights fail to pertain to illegal aliens, but too, that basic human rights should not come into play.
Yet immigrants’ rights and civil liberties are two different concepts in themselves. While immigrant rights are often loosely defined by what a lawful permanent resident/green card holder may be entitled to, there are basic constitutional freedoms that are valid for all inhabitants of the United States, which after the 20th century, are in line with United Nations convention on universal rights.
Illegal immigrants, and by association, their children are often discriminated against when their status is discovered. While elements of racism may exist irrespective of immigrants’ rights in this discrimination, Mexicans–who comprise the biggest bloc of illegal immigrants–are frequent targets of racial prejudice.
Despite any valuable services a foreign worker might be able to provide, or any community service/scholastic aptitude the child of an illegal immigrant might exhibit, many staunch adversaries of the enhancement of rights allowed to illegal immigrants have already established both their own personal value judgments, as well as generalizations of what they perceive an illegal immigrant to be.
However, regardless of the contrast between any right or wrongdoing, a child under the age of 6 cannot possible be held accountable for their participation in any activity. As a result, the policy of immigrations transcends mere politics, thrusting it into a forum of ethics and humanity.