Why do illegals come for a better life and free medical care for them and for their unborn child?
CBS) It was 5 a.m. and CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts is with a woman who is nine months pregnant. She’s rushed to a south Texas hospital to undergo a C-section – a ,700 medical procedure that won’t cost her a dime. She qualifies for emergency Medicaid.
She gave birth to a healthy, 8 1/2 pound baby boy – born in America. His Mexican mother gave him an American name: Eliot.
Eliot is one of an estimated 300,000 children of illegal immigrants born in the United States every year, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. They’re given instant citizenship because they are born on U.S. soil, which makes it easier for their parents to become U.S. citizens.
That’s because those babies can eventually sponsor their parents – when they turn 21 years old.
As for Eliot’s mother, no longer as fearful of deportation, she told CBS News her name, Fabiola, and her story.
"I am very glad that he was born. That’s why I came here – so my children, my husband and I could have a better life," she said through a translator.
Back in December, when she was six months pregnant, Fabiola, her husband and their two daughters – ages 4 and 11 – crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S.
Once on the other side of the river they walked for two hours in search of a better life and free medical care for their unborn child.
"Do many women in Mexico make the choice to have their children in the United States?" Pitts asked.
"Yes," she said through a translator. "I know people who have done that. Things are much better here in the U.S. because they help children so much more."
It’s a "better" life … that American taxpayers help pay for.
Take healthcare for example — an estimated .1 billion per year for undocumented men, women and children, according to the Rand Corporation.
Joe Riley is the CEO of the McAllen Texas Medical Center near the Texas-Mexico border. Forty percent of the children born there, nearly 2,400 last year, were the babies of illegal immigrants.
Riley has seen and heard it all.
"Mothers about to give birth that walk up to the hospital still wet from swimming across the river in actual labor … dirty, wet, cold," he said.
But here to have a child?
"Here to have a child in the U.S.," he said.
McAllen is part of a large hospital system. Like all hospitals, it is mandated by law to treat all emergency-room patients, not verify citizenship.
"We have uncompensated care of over 0 million a year," Riley said.
"Of money that you’ll never see again?" Pitts asked.
"Yes," he said.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said: "It is not fair to the taxpayers who have to foot the bill."
Congress has all but given up on comprehensive immigration reform. But lawmakers like Smith want to solve birth citizenship to illegal immigrants, in part by challenging the 14th Amendment, which guarantees U.S. citizenship to any child born in America.
"It seems fundamentally wrong that we ought to give the greatest honor of their citizenship," Smith said. "His or her mother came across the border illegally."
Many Americans who struggle to take care of their own families think it is unfair that they should take care of a family and they are not U.S. citizens.
"I don’t understand the resentment," said. "I know that God will help them, too."
That’s what Fabiola’s doing for young Eliot. Relying on her faith, her family … and the U.S. government.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/07/eveningnews/main4000401.shtml
Mail this post
Tagged with: american taxpayers • cbs news • children of illegal immigrants • daughters ages • deportation • fabiola • free medical care • joe riley • mcallen texas • medical procedure • mexican mother • mexico border • national correspondent • pew hispanic center • pitts • pound baby boy • rand corporation • rio grande • texas medical center • unborn child
Filed under: How To Find A Person Online
As a registered nurse teaching in a hospital, I happen to know first hand about the staggering mounting costs of those illegals who enter the ER->Unable to pay. Because physicians and nurses are required by law to treat everyone, regardless, we do. But keep in mind us nurses DON’T WORK FOR FREE.
So as you meet Anchor Babies young or old, remember this: You paid for them.
Illegal fathers don’t man up and take care of their own. They come to get taken care of along with their baby mama.
The US is becoming one blank check for Mexicans who come to use the 14th Amendment because the men are incapable of being men and fathers. They donate sperm and call them Americans.
"Eliot is one of an estimated 300,000 children of illegal immigrants born in the United States every year, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. They’re given instant citizenship because they are born on U.S. soil, which makes it easier for their parents to become U.S. citizens.
That’s because those babies can eventually sponsor their parents – when they turn 21 years old."
This is not true for these illegal immigrants. If they sneaked across the border they cannot get a green card and of course not citizenship at any time. The fact that their kids are US citizens is irrelevant. It is true that a US citizen over age 21 can sponsor his non-citizen parents but only if those parents came here legally. People that came here by swimming across the Rio Grande can never get a green card or citizenship.
Our politicians let this happen no matter how much we protest. If decided to withhold our tax money to make sure it goes to the health of our OWN children, we would be placed in prison and the illegal children would still get free health care as we sat in jail. America is only the land of the free to people from other countries. The citizens are one big money cow that politicians milk dry with taxes and then distribute to illegal aliens and numerous other countries. To add salt in the wound, illegals despise us and call us racists. Yay for us.
ABS —- Anchor-baby Syndrome
This is so infuriating it is beyond sickening. You have an illegal right there, you know they won’t pay, why not deport them and the baby from the hospital?
And saying they can’t get a greencard or citizenship is a crock…Obama ordered USCIS to drop deportation cases when they have anchor babies.
Well maybe if america wasn’t the best place in the world, they wouldn’t come here ?
Ask Obama, the great decision maker. His Aunt is,has been here illegally for years on welfare and living in the HUD projects on the taxpayers dime. It’s okay as long as they are related to me, or to my gain has become the norm. They just want to work. Okay let me get a fake I.D. fake social security card just so I can get a good paying job that requires a background check. I get caught I go to jail. I just want to work all of sudden is no excuse yet illegals say it and it’s….(clap,clap,clap) those mean ole rich people are racist!
@ Carlos,
If illegals keep coming and sucking us dry this WON’T be the best country in the world!
It will just be another Mexico, another corrupt third world dump!
Tell me? Where will the locusts, oops! I mean Mexicans move on to then to consume and destroy?