www.royce.house.gov
Royce
Contact:
"ObamaCare: Magnet for Illegal Immigration" by Rep. Ed Royce
Washington, Mar 26 -
The following oped by Rep. Ed Royce appeared in today's FlashReport:
This weekend, Congress held a marathon session debating health care reform. The Democrat Leadership's goal was to get a health care bill through at any cost, making backroom deals and abusing the legislative process to get it done.
One faction of the Democrat Party held off on supporting the health care legislation in order to get an amnesty bill to the House floor. After meeting with pro-amnesty legislators, President Barack Obama pledged to do everything in his power to get immigration legislation moving in Congress. This pledge coincided with the release of an amnesty legislation outline pushed by Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham. And open borders activists congregated on the steps of the Capitol building the Sunday of the vote to remind the President of his promise.
President Obama claims his health care plan won't cover illegal immigrants but how can you promise illegal immigrants won't be covered if the bill doesn't contain enforcement mechanisms to verify whether an individual is here illegally? The answer, you can't.
California's health care system is already heavily impacted by the cost of illegal immigration. Roughly $1.4 billion a year in taxpayer dollars goes toward providing health care to illegal immigrants in our state. Expanding government control of our health care system only compounds the problems of illegal immigration and health care costs. Additionally, there is nothing in the bill to monitor whether illegal immigrants are using our health care system. Most government programs use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to prevent access. But once again, there is no enforcement mechanism in the legislation. Illegal immigrants will be able to access all the services provided by this health care bill.
Although the bill bars illegal immigrants from using the health exchange, there is no requirement to check anyone's immigration status. Without any enforcement, it becomes as ineffective as our immigration laws.
The government takeover of healthcare also vastly expands the number of people eligible for Medicaid. While illegal immigrants are theoretically barred from this program, last year the Democrat Leadership eroded the Medicaid verification process. Under S-CHIP reauthorization, a person now only has to provide a Social Security number and name in order to get benefits. Before this change, documentation like birth certificates and driver's licenses were required to ensure that the person enrolling was the same person whose Social Security number and name was being submitted. I supported an effort to stop this change but it was defeated.
The Social Security Administration receives about 8 million mismatches from the IRS every year, for reports filed under names that do not match the Social Security numbers. This is why I supported efforts requiring the use of identity documents under the House health care bill, but again this was defeated by the Democrat Majority.
So what does this all mean? It means that the health care legislation the Democrats just passed will be a magnet for more illegal immigration. It means that amnesty will be pushed with as much vigor as the health care bill, creating another inducement to cross U.S. borders. At the time of the passage of the 1986 amnesty, the number of illegal immigrants who took advantage of it went from what was thought to be only 1.5 million to a total 4 million. This time around we are talking about legalizing around 12 million who are here illegally, but in the end how many will it be?
No comments:
Post a Comment