Scapegoats, Illegal Immigrants, and the Costs of Politicking
Posted on | September 14, 2009 | No Comments
Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-SC) verbal assault during President Obama’s speech to Congress is just a preview of things to come when immigration reform takes center stage later this year.
As mentioned in a post last week, the conservative Right Wing frequently uses undocumented immigrants as scapegoats for domestic problems, seldom with any basis in fact or reality. That is not to say that the presence of undocumented immigrants has no cost—when it comes to traffic accidents, language barriers in public schools, and the cost of treatment at emergency rooms, undocumented immigrants do impose costs on society that weigh against the valuable role they play in our economy.
These are the costs and benefits of having a large number of undocumented workers, and they are relevant facts for the debate over how to address immigration reform. But, as the New York Times points out, it is an illusion—nothing more than political showboating—to pretend that undocumented immigrants draw upon programs like Medicaid en masse and need to be stopped.
According to the New York Times, “a House oversight committee reviewed six state Medicaid programs in 2007 and found that verification rules cost the federal government an additional $8.3 million. They caught exactly eight illegal immigrants.” Spending $1 million per violator is an extremely expensive approach to a very insignificant problem. Even though Wilson’s claim has been widely discredited, Right Wing elements continue to promote this myth to invoke its racial and class implications and stall Democratic initiatives.
The scare tactics to try to defeat health care reforms (e.g. “death panels,” socialism, illegal immigrants getting free medical care) will surely be employed again during the president’s push for immigration reform later this year. We all need to keep informed on these issues to explain the truth to our friends and neighbors whenever the Far Right employs misinformation, scare tactics, and anti-immigrant language. In that way we can all do our part in helping the immigrant community.
Tags: ICE Enforcement > Illegal Aliens > Immigration Reform > La Migra > Medicaid
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