10 big questions on immigration

South Carolina is like many states grappling with the issue of illegal immigration from both an economic and legal perspective. It's important to know the basics before decisions are made. The Post and Courier researched answers for ten basic questions about immigrants living and working in the United States.

[hmmm]

hilarious.

[John In North Carolina]

Do I sense a slight bias in favor of "ILLEGAL ALIENS" in this article??

The "basics" I know are that "ILLEGAL ALIENS" and their "ANCHOR BABIES" they are dropping daily are causing havoc with our health care systems, our school systems and the supression of wages is clearly at the expense of "LEGAL CITIZENS" and "LEGAL IMMIGRANTS".

[HoneyC]

I would almost swear LaRaza wrote that article. Half the quotes are the biggest double talk I've ever seen. But, at least I got a good giggle when the hospital rep said their first question is "where do I pay?". I almost fell on the floor with that one.

[John in Charleston]

The Post & Courier needs to be renamed the Southern NY Times. They also need to research the term ILLEGAL!!!

[Cricket 23]

A: Immigration and Customs Enforcement prioritizes public safety and national security threats, such as gangs, drugs and human smuggling. Agents can't just pick up people on the street who appear to be from another country. They must follow investigative leads with limited resources, having only 26 agents for all of South Carolina.

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But local Police can?

The Bail Reform Act of 1984 created a powerful detention provision that authorizes a state of local police officer to arrest any alien other than a legal permanent resident for a federal “offense,” and to request a local magistrate to temporarily detain the alien for up to ten days without bail while awaiting transfer into federal custody, so long as the alien is found to be a “flight risk” or danger to any other person or the community.”

The authority to make arrest for federal offenses under 18 U.S.C. 3041 extends to state and local law enforcement officers.(U.S. v Bowdach, 561 F.2d 1160, 1168 (5th Cir. 1977) An illegal alien is an inherent flight risk.

Supreme Court Ruling Razes Artificial Fire Wall Between Local Law Enforcement and Immigration Enforcement (Muehler v. Mena) 9-0 Landmark Decision (Washington D.C.—April 1, 2005) In its March 22 ruling in the case of Muehler v. Mena, the Supreme Court removed barriers that prevent local law enforcement officers from questioning the immigration status of individuals they suspect to be in the United States illegally. In this groundbreaking decision, the high Court rejected the claim of Ira Mena, a permanent resident of the U.S., that police had violated the Fourth Amendment while conducting a lawful search of her home.

The Fourth Amendment provides protection by establishing that persons be shielded against unreasonable search and seizure. Mena argued that by questioning her, and the illegal alien detainees about their immigration status during a lawful search, officers violated her Fourth Amendment rights. Mena further claimed that questions asked about her citizenship required officers to have had independent reasonable suspicion regarding the unlawfulness of her immigration status.

Calling a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals “faulty,” the Supreme Court held that “mere police questioning [regarding one’s immigration status] does not constitute a seizure.” The Court continued its landmark ruling on this issue by stating that “the officers did not need reasonable suspicion to ask Mena for her name, date of birth, or immigration status.”

“Whatever legal fig leaf many police departments have been using to justify policies of non-cooperation with federal immigration authorities, has been stripped away by this landmark Supreme Court decision,”

“If local police are barred from cooperating with federal authorities in the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws it is purely a political decision on the part of local politicians and police chiefs. There is no legal barrier to local police inquiring about a person’s immigration status and then acting upon the information they gather.”

[Cricket 23]

: Do illegal immigrants collect public benefits?

Yes!
Quote: In June, an article in the Washington Post concluded that emergency-room care "is on the verge of collapse." From 1993 to 2003, the newspaper reported, the American population grew 12 percent, but emergency room visits grew 27 percent. "In that same period, however, 425 emergency departments closed, along with about 700 hospitals and nearly 200,000 beds." As well, in 2003, ambulances were diverted from emergency rooms 501,000 times because the emergency rooms were full.
But the article doesn’t mention that much of this care is for routine, non-emergency illnesses. Nor does it mention a main cause in the crisis: uninsured illegal immigrants. Such an omission is surprising, given the news just one month earlier, reported in the New York Times and other papers: the Bush administration announced in May that it would send $1 billion to hospitals to pay for the care of illegal immigrants. "The largest allocations this fiscal year," the Times reported, "are going to California, which will receive $70.8 million; Texas,$46 million; Arizona,$45 million; New York,$12.3 million; Illinois,$10.3 million; Florida,$8.7 million; and New Mexico,$5.1 million." And the $70.8 million for California, the newspaper reported, won’t come close to covering the cost of the state’s $500 million bill for illegal immigrants.
According to the Washington Times, citing the American Hospital Association (AHA), "hospitals in 24 Southwest border counties in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico reported uncompensated care totaling nearly $832 million in 2000. A subsequent report prepared for the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition determined that about 25 percent of those nonreimbursed costs resulted from emergency medical treatment provided to undocumented immigrants." Reported ABC News, "researchers at the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank, analyzed data received from about 2,400 people in Los Angeles County in 2000 and 2001, and applied that information to the nation’s undocumented population at large. The number of uninsured adults in the United States grew by about 8.7 million between 1980 and 2000. If the trend for Los Angeles County held true for the rest of the country, about a third of that growth can be attributable to illegal immigrants."
About 35 percent of immigrants are uninsured, data show, and 65 percent of illegal immigrants are uninsured. Citing data from Center for Immigration Studies, immigration writer Ed Rubenstein concluded, "Immigrants accounted for more than half — 59 percent — of the growth in the uninsured population during the 1992-2001 period. When you include the 3.5-million immigrants enrolled in Medicaid, almost half of all immigrants either are uninsured or have it provided to them at taxpayers’ expense."
All these data point to a culprit in the crisis that shut down 700 hospitals and 425 emergency rooms in 10 years: illegal immigrants.
Hospitals must treat illegal immigrants gratis because of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) of 1985, which requires hospitals to treat all emergency cases, regardless of ability to pay. However, thanks to lawsuits by the ACLU, the militant lobbying of the "immigrant rights" agitators, and Medicaid profligacy, hospitals also routinely provide billions of dollars annually in non-emergency treatment to illegal aliens."

[Cricket 23]

Do illegal immigrants pay taxes?

A: Yes. They pay sales taxes. Many also pay into Social Security and Medicare through payroll taxes, unless they're paid under the table by employers, but do not receive much in return. Their impact is debatable. The Social Security Administration says it collected about $11.5 billion from about 10.3 million W-2s where the name and the Social Security number did not match."

The Facts!

Social Security Agreement with Mexico Released After 3-1/2 Year Freedom of Information Act Battle

Illegal Mexican Workers Could Receive Billions of Dollars from U.S. Social Security System

January 4, 2007 (Washington, DC)– After numerous refusals over three and a half years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has released the first known public copy of the U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. The government made the disclosure in response to lawsuits filed under the Freedom of Information Act by TREA Senior Citizens League, a 1.2 million member nonpartisan seniors advocacy group.

The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.

A loophole in current Social Security law could allow millions of today's Mexican workers to eventually collect billions of dollars worth of Social Security benefits for earnings under fraudulent or "non-work authorized" Social Security numbers, putting huge new pressures on the Social Security Trust Fund.

If an illegal worker working in the United States today gets a "work authorized" Social Security number through guest worker immigration legislation, the Totalization Agreement, or perhaps just over time, that worker could eventually apply for Social Security benefits once he or she has met eligibility requirements.

In addition, that worker could be able to claim credits for work performed while in the U.S. illegally. The SSA maintains an "earnings suspense file," which tracks wages that cannot be posted to individual workers' records because there is no match for a name and Social Security number. Once an immigrant gains access to a work authorized Social Security number – whether a legal citizen or not – wages earned while in the U.S. unlawfully could be reinstated to the worker's new Social Security account.

The Congressional Research Service reports the earnings suspense file currently stands at approximately $520 billion. According to the congressional testimony of SSA Inspector General Patrick P. O'Carroll in February 2006, "We believe the chief cause of wage items being posted to the earnings suspense file instead of an individual's earning record is unauthorized work by non citizens."

[Uncle Ruckus]

ROFL -- leave it to the media to continue the lies about illegal aliens. You know how to check? See who is cleaning the bathrooms in the newspapers building and who is cleaning the homes of the editors. We exposed our local daily newspaper for using illegals and really got some egg on their face with the TV media a couple of years back.

American Media --- does not publish the TRUTH.

[Jacqueline]

truth if ppl would open their
eyes they will see hispanics are da
ones cleaning your trash of the ground
yea sounds bad but im jus sayin
da real stuff unlike the da media...
and they want us 2 go........
think again..........

[camille]

Jacqueline wrote:

truth if ppl would open their
eyes they will see hispanics are da
ones cleaning your trash of the ground
yea sounds bad but im jus sayin
da real stuff unlike the da media...
and they want us 2 go........
think again..........

Where I live hispanics are the ones throwing the trash on the ground, not picking it up.

[Victims of the System]

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx...

[PRJester]

MPM wrote:

<quoted text>
Yea I am sure that is the first ? ask...lol
More like where are the free samples....Like pain pills...I had a NYPR working for me and that was all he thought about...

This is an interesting post.

[Upstate Setup]

http://www.wyff4.com/news/16117781/detail.htm...

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll...

http://newsradioword.com/pages/2115442.php ?

[Biker Mom]

Jacqueline wrote:

truth if ppl would open their
eyes they will see hispanics are da
ones cleaning your trash of the ground
yea sounds bad but im jus sayin
da real stuff unlike the da media...
and they want us 2 go........
think again..........

In my area, the suspected illegal immigrants are the biggest issues in regards to many things from downtrodden properties, overcrowding, etc. Out of all the houses with "issues" currently - most are Hispanic, one is black and one is a senior woman and various county agencies have stepping in.

The LEGAL Hispanic immigrants take as much pride in their homes as anyone and many are professionals and excellent tradesmen. And they are happy to be US citizens.

[USC 8 Section 1325]

there is only one "issue"

round them up and ship tham alllll! back

'nuff said

[Mike]

Biker Mom wrote:

<quoted text>
In my area, the suspected illegal immigrants are the biggest issues in regards to many things from downtrodden properties, overcrowding, etc. Out of all the houses with "issues" currently - most are Hispanic, one is black and one is a senior woman and various county agencies have stepping in.
The LEGAL Hispanic immigrants take as much pride in their homes as anyone and many are professionals and excellent tradesmen. And they are happy to be US citizens.

We made the mistake of accepting legal hispanics as Americans. Now we all realise that the legal hispanics are the ones promoting the illegal invasion of the country. Every statement they make blurrs the distinction between legal hispanics and illegal aliens. Look around the country. The organizations that promote the invasion are ALL legal hispanics. They are like a cancer. Once it starts you need to eliminate every last spec (no Slurr here) or the cancer will destroy other healthy cells.
So don't fool yourself. We are at war with hispanics and they are the enemy. When you see MALDEF and La RAZA helping to stop the illegal invasion then you will know that legal hispanics have become Americans. Until then just listen to them and don't be fooled by their money!

[NE Red]

If you didn't watch Lou Dobbs last night, please read the show transcripts. LaRaza's statement made me sick. Apparently they think the American people are stupid, well I've got news for them, we're NOT!

[Biker Mom]

Mike wrote:

<quoted text>
We made the mistake of accepting legal hispanics as Americans. Now we all realise that the legal hispanics are the ones promoting the illegal invasion of the country. Every statement they make blurrs the distinction between legal hispanics and illegal aliens. Look around the country. The organizations that promote the invasion are ALL legal hispanics. They are like a cancer. Once it starts you need to eliminate every last spec (no Slurr here) or the cancer will destroy other healthy cells.
So don't fool yourself. We are at war with hispanics and they are the enemy. When you see MALDEF and La RAZA helping to stop the illegal invasion then you will know that legal hispanics have become Americans. Until then just listen to them and don't be fooled by their money!

Not all of them are. Many I know personally are against it. The problem is many do not want to speak out as they are afraid of retribution from gangs and stuff. But some of the most vehemently against illegal immigrants on local news reports were coming from the Hispanic community. Sadly, that got very little coverage in the media as opposed to the "red necks" that the media loved to splash all over the TV and papers.

I have heard many call local talk radio shows furious at the image the illegals are giving all the legals - just because they share the same ethnicity.

Michael Graham when he was in DC

Chris Core, when he was on WTOP,

They would both get a lot of calls when they did this topic from legal residents from Central and South American who was just as outraged as many of us.

So no, they are not all supporting the illegals.

That belief just perpetrates hate.

Have you ever heard Carlos Mencia go off on illegals on his show or comedy tours? He is an immigrant...

[1st Circuit Scarlett]

http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2007...

[Indyeast]

Biker Mom wrote:

<quoted text>
In my area, the suspected illegal immigrants are the biggest issues in regards to many things from downtrodden properties, overcrowding, etc. Out of all the houses with "issues" currently - most are Hispanic, one is black and one is a senior woman and various county agencies have stepping in.
The LEGAL Hispanic immigrants take as much pride in their homes as anyone and many are professionals and excellent tradesmen. And they are happy to be US citizens.

You should visit California. You might think different.
There are many "professionals" like teachers,politicians,doctors,l awyers in this video supporting illegal invaders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

I could also give you a video of regular folks who support the invaders,still doesn't make the invasion right.