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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (65982)	11/4/2004 12:50:45 AM
From: Mark Konrad	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Karen, it's a quagmire wrapped in a conundrum surrounded with catch-22's! Part of any solution can also be part of the problem. For example (and this is in very rough general terms): Conservatives tend to favor cutting off or limiting publicly funded social services to illegals as they provide an incentive for illegals to come here in the first place. California voters overwhelmingly passed Prop 187 but it was struck down by the courts. Moderates see any cutoff in services as exacerbating an existing problem; hungry and sick illegals will only get hungrier and sicker causing more problems. Radicals (and groups such as La Raza) want a complete subsidization of everyone; a financial impossibility. Those here illegally are frequently caught by local police for various infractions or vagrancy but are forbidden by state law to be reported to the INS (about 50% of the inmates in local jails are illegals, few are deported, and most of those that are simply come back). The Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles provides the most cost-effective and efficient services to the poor, legal or not, but is under attack by radical secularists who even want to remove the tiny cross from the city seal. The church also provides political and religious refuge but can't harbor many without reporting them to the state at some point. The US Constitution has been interpreted to allow offspring born on US soil to be citizens instantly even if the parent(s) came here illegally and further allows that citizen to sponsor additional relatives for citizenship....but the feds provide no way to pay for all that. The State of California recognizes the status of the new citizen and the family immediately comes under State welfare programs for food, housing, medical, etc. Absolutely none of these issues have been confronted directly since Reagan's general amnesty of 1986. The President's plan only affects seasonal and part-time workers...it's a start but barely one at that. Kerry's plan would have mandated additional education and medical assistance for illegals but that brings us all the way back to providing an incentive to come here illegally again. Hospitals, particularly emergency and trauma centers, bear an incredible load that increases daily. Any blanket solution is likely to be at least a partial replay of of the 1986 amnesty program WITH a national law allowing states to limit or exclude future social services as they see fit. I'm not holding my breath for any of this to happen soon--MK--