"But Illegal Immigrants DON'T Use Welfare!"
Bull$hit! They DO!
Let me be clear about my values.
Those who are LEGAL immigrants may enter our country, and even qualify for resident status, without my permission; they have the right to do so, in Black Letter Law. The only immigrants who generate my disapproval, concern, and opposition are those who entered illegally, or who overstayed a visitor’s visa.
There are several major problems I have with the current practice of not stopping people from crossing borders at will:
They are, largely, unvetted. They often don’t have papers proving who they are (or have paperwork that cannot be verified, without photo ID to prove they are who they say they are). Their backgrounds have not been thoroughly checked. Their biometrics - fingerprints, DNA, retinal scan - are not collected, nor available in an easily accessible database.
They come in without money (or, claim to have no money). One major criteria for immigrants of any kind is that they not be a burden on the American public.
It’s claimed that NGOs are - SO charitably! - providing food, medical care, and housing. They are NOT. Any money spent is coming from federal government programs meant to provide these services to American citizens in need. The rules/regulations have been stretched to allow such organizations to spend it on non-Americans.
It’s claimed that NO illegal immigrant qualifies for Medicaid or Marketplace monies. Completely untrue! The Center for Medicare Services - the agency that defines who is eligible for such services - has twisted the Black Letter Law to allow illegal aliens to be considered Legally Present - a designation previously used for those who have gone through the legal process of getting a visa, providing all documentation, and not entering until given permission.
Few of the illegal aliens (notice that I refuse to use the mushy language that soft-pedals the reality?) support themselves. Most of them rely on public money to pay their bills. Even those with a job (or two) are collecting money for housing, food, medical, and often utilities. They are collecting that money, meant for American citizens, and paid for by taxpayers. And, the people facilitating such use of the money are LYING about it. They know that if the public was aware just how much money was going to people who should not even be here, they would be outraged.
There has been a sharp rise in crime in those areas with large numbers of illegal immigrants. And, EVERY crime committed by them is a crime that didn’t have to be.
Some of the crimes that illegal aliens commit more than other populations include drunken driving - often with fatalities, drug dealing - there has been a sharp growth in gang-related crime in migrant communities, violent burglaries and robberies, and rape/sexual assault and trafficking. This is not a new thing for immigrant populations; almost all of the crime by Italians of the 1920s was by recent immigrants. And, it took YEARS to begin to reduce the impact of that activity.
Thanks to the chuckleheaded policies of many major urban places, much of the illegal alien crime does not result in either jail time, prosecution, or restitution for the victims. It’s not uncommon for aliens to be released without bail, even those with a deportation order, yes, in so-called Sanctuary Cities, even if the local prosecutors are aware of such orders. In many places, it is either public policy, or even public LAW not to cooperate with immigration officials. That an alien has priors is generally not a factor in those releases.
Sorry to be such a downer, but the situation is bad, and is not improving. I didn’t provide links to sources for the above. I usually do, but didn’t bother, as anyone needing the sources for this is also one who refuses to actually check them out.
I’m going to stop posting, either here or on social media, any memes relating to immigration, voting, or public spending. Too many of them have been proven to be false.
It’s a serious issue. Too many people - myself included - have passed along memes that have significant errors, omissions, or flat out lies.
Why?
Several reasons:
Something pops up that supports your frame of reference, and is amusing, so you post quickly and without checking it out. I do that, sometimes, particularly in my middle of the night web browsing.
You’ve seen the meme on multiple sites, and the info slipped from “possible, but needs to be verified” to “gee, this seems to be general knowledge”.
The way it was presented tickles your funny bone. Which may be a reason to laugh, but not to pass along.
Now, the REAL reason why:
Americans, having been flat-out LIED to by government, NGOs, politicians and celebrities, among others, just have no trust left in us. We START with the default position that our opponents are lying.
Which, in some cases, they are. But, not always.
The thing is, there is also a middle ground, one where the person stating a position is not actually lying, but also isn’t correctly stating the truth.
If you want to, feel free to use this TinyUrl to pass along in social media (X links tend to be suppressed).
Sometimes, the figures are from the government, and - whether through sloppiness or deliberate lies - is incorrect.
Take the example of jobs - here is a link, from the NY Times (NOT a crazy right-wing newspaper).
The U.S. labor market has been less resilient than was initially believed. On Wednesday, the Labor Department said that the economy had added 818,000 fewer jobs than it had previously reported for the 12 months that ended in March.
The number means employers had overstated job growth by about 28 percent per month, especially in industries like hospitality and professional services. The downward revision adds to growing evidence of a weakening job market: The unemployment rate, though still relatively low, ticked up to 4.3 percent last month.
This adjusted number is an initial estimate of an annual revision, in which monthly employment figures from the Labor Department are reconciled with more accurate state unemployment reports. This year’s revision was unusually large: Over the previous decade, annual updates added or subtracted around 173,000 jobs, on average.
“We’ve known that things on net were probably moving gradually in the wrong direction,” said Guy Berger, director of economic research at Burning Glass Institute, a labor market research and data firm.
Was ‘the government’ lying? Maybe. And, maybe, they really aren’t that good at managing data. It can be difficult to state just how much of the discrepancy was due to data collection (generally done by the lowest paid workers), differences in criteria for reporting data, or those devils that seem to lurk in the data that twist numbers, corrupt formulas, and otherwise mangle the work into unreliable numbers.
A certain percentage of the ‘wrong data’ problem comes from the abysmal math background, so common among the Liberal Arts grads. What errors there are in reports - and, there are ALWAYS errors in reports - are not picked up by the innumerate fact-checkers.
It’s pretty clear that, in this case as in many, Smaller is Better. The individual state data, derived directly from unemployment figures, was found to be a more accurate assessment.
This all reminds me of a course - Civil War and Reconstruction, offered by the History Dept. - that I took in college. I was fascinated by data analysis, and dove into the semester project with zeal. The professor, Dr. Allan Peskin, now deceased, assigned a project that had students researching individual Ohio units’ history. He was a wonderful teacher, and I learned a lot about historical research from him.
In class one day, another student mentioned that he was having trouble with the fact that BOTH sides reported major losses for the enemy, and only a few deaths for their own men. The professor loved that question, and took the time to explain.
Casualty reports went to their superiors. There was a lot of pressure to report their effectiveness in wiping large numbers of the enemy. So, from the field soldiers, who likely exaggerated their deadly accuracy with weapons, the death count of the enemy was high. When aggregated, those numbers looked quite impressive.
Similarly, the death tolls of their own side were minimized. No leader wanted to be seen as one who was reckless with their own soldiers’ lives. So, it would not be unusual for the numbers to be fewer than reality.
So, how did my professor suggest we come up with numbers that more closely matched reality?
Look at the muster call - that was a roll call, conducted every morning. Since no one was going to pay for a soldier that was not actually living, they tended to be far more accurate.
That’s why the state figures are more accurate. They are taken from state-level unemployment compensation figures. Now, some workers aren’t eligible for UC, so will not be part of that count, but, on the average, the figures are more in line with reality.
Sadly, the mistrust of government is not limited to the Dems. Many of the GOP no longer believe their own party acts in their members best interests.
Society as a whole, at present, is a very low-trust institution. I’m not confident that this can be repaired within my lifetime.
For this reason, among others, restoring non-familial connections is a high priority. It’s not enough to affiliate with others who share your background, heritage, and beliefs. So many people live in places where they are surrounded by others who echo their thinking. It sometimes leads us to think that EVERYBODY thinks like us.
That used to be one of the strengths of America. We had places where we could gather, where we did not fear attack, either verbal or physical, from other people nearby. We would attend the same schools (Except in the segregated South.), come together at community celebrations, and use the same public facilities.
Yes, we often attended different churches. Sometimes, as in the case of the Mormon church, that led to outright persecution. In other cases, such as Jews and Catholics, that constituted a barrier to full acceptance by the community, and led to those groups establishing their own school systems. Even with all that distrust, people would not generally refuse to patronize establishments run by those faiths, particularly if the price was competitive.
Today’s highest distrust levels are reserved for those of different racial backgrounds (both ways), language differences, educational disparities, and for Muslims, Jews, and Christians (practicing). These communities have high barriers to easy associations, and the situation does not seem to be improving. Many activities designed to explain faith tenets are often interpreted as proselytizing, and therefore avoided. Liberals are generally OK with Muslims talking about their faith, but not Jews or Christians.
The rest of this post is from 12/23. I’m digging into old drafts, and, if I think their content still holds some value, updating them and hitting Publish.
You know, I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve been lied to many times, straight to my face by people who apparently completely lack any sense of moral values.
Unashamed to lie. When you PROVE to them that they are lying, they shrug, repeat their lies, and are wounded - DEEPLY - that you will not longer trust their word.
Our best estimate is that 59 percent of households headed by illegal immigrants, also called the undocumented, use at least one major benefit program. We have no evidence this is due to fraud. Among legal immigrants we estimate the rate is 52 percent.
Illegal immigrants can receive welfare on behalf of U.S.-born children, and illegal immigrant children can, and do, receive school lunch/breakfast and WIC directly. A number of states provide Medicaid to some illegal adults and children, and a few provide SNAP. Several million illegal immigrants also have work authorization (e.g. DACA, TPS, and some asylum applicants) allowing receipt of the EITC.
These are the programs that were studied:
We follow the Census Bureau definition of welfare and limit our analysis to means-tested anti-poverty programs. The major programs examined in this report are the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), free and reduced-price school lunch and breakfast (school meals), the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also called food stamps), Medicaid, and subsidized and public housing.
All of the above programs were designed for, and intended for, US citizens.
The common practice of so-called ‘Chain Migration’ - the practice of getting ONE individual to establish himself/herself in the USA, followed by other members of the family, ad infinitum, is one of the factors making this situation even more expensive.
Note, this is NOT a new thing. I went to school with many who came here, later brought multiple relatives and friends here, and - as very few of the later arrivals were as productive nor ambitious as the original traveler - watched as the burden on the rest of the nation’s inhabitants grew more oppressive. It happened with MANY of the Middle Eastern immigrants of my youth.
However, at that time, there were comparatively few welfare programs available, so the layabouts were primarily the responsibility of their family members.
There are few long-term solutions, other than working to reduce the size of the Federal Budget. If Uncle Sugar is not doling out the sweets, it will start to dry up the pull to come here and live the Good (Not Paid by Self) Life.
Over time, without support by others, those living the Non-Productive Lifestyle will gradually give it up. Not because they have had ‘better luck’, nor suddenly developed a conscience, but because even the congenitally lazy will generally improve their lives, if we refuse to fund them.
Don’t believe me?
I remember the Reagan years. During that time, it wasn’t so much that the economy improved, but that, forced to take responsibility for their own income, people generally DID.
Sure, there were a few who were hard-core - often those with some degree of mental illness - but most, eventually, started working. And, once they did, their lives improved.
Imagine that!
I remember a program - I think it was 60 Minutes - that focused on the long-term unemployed. They were a group that had failed to secure, and keep, employment, sometimes for decades.
BTW, this was a racially mixed group.
Many went through a program especially designed for them. It provided assistance in getting the interviews, coaching on handling the interviews, assistance with clothing and transportation to make having a job possible, and ongoing assistance for the first year or so.
Some did fine, with that help. Others had setbacks, as their ingrained habits and attitudes got in the way of their success. Still, the program could justly point to many success stories, who then worked their way out of dependency for good.
And, then, there were the continual failures.
They weren’t technically crazy - not by the normal definitions.
But, they were hard-core resistant to changing the way they approached work. Among their issues:
Inability to manage interpersonal relations at work
Arguing with co-workers or customers, often in crude and violent terms. Sometimes, actual physical assault.
Bodily smells or grooming lapses - not small time, I accidentally skipped the deodorant today, but major exceptions to the norm. Cutting toenails in their cubicle, showing up with ratted hair, exposing a WHOLE lot more skin than desirable or necessary at work, etc.
Refusal to follow the directives of their bosses.
Not showing up, or chronic tardiness.
Showing up drunk or high.
Stealing from the business or co-workers.
Having sex or propositioning people (co-workers or customers) on the job.
Insisting on exaggerated degrees of “respect”. For example, boss asks, “Hey, can you give me a hand here"?” with some task that is normally within their job description. Employee gets in boss’s face, insisting that they are being disrespected, and DEMANDING that the boss apologize, beg forgiveness, and ask again, this time with PLEASE and groveling.
I’m not kidding about the above - those were some of the examples from the program.
The guys who ran these programs - and, they were worthwhile programs, with some terrific results with many of those in the programs - were MEGA-frustrated with the resistant hard-core. Even KNOWING that they would be cut from benefits should they not comply, few of them could/would.
Now, that expectation - losing benefits if not cooperating with employment directives - has NOT been the standard experience of most immigrants, whether legal or illegal. Many of them are on the bottom rung of employability, and don’t earn all that much. Most of them have more family than they have money. So, they will qualify, at least for the present generation, for some benefits.
I had started this quite a few weeks ago, but failed to complete it. I looked at this again today, and decided that it needed to be published.
I never in my life thought that I would so casually - and CORRECTLY - use the term REGIME to refer to the government of the USA.
I’ve been watching this, uneasily, for some time. The use of government for illegal, unethical, and/or partisan purposes has been accelerating for some time.
As the old book title had it - “It Didn’t Start with Watergate”. Sadly, it’s not available for Kindle. My public library system, which encompasses over 1 million people, has ONE copy, that is not available for lending.
I also have the books below:
Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite
Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years
Abuse of Power: Inside The Three-Year Campaign to Impeach Donald Trump
Just in case you had nothing else to do over the next few months.
Think that NGOs need to be audited. I’m sure that if one follows the money, it returns into the hands of the politicians who get them the contracts in the first place. As for illegals, I’m right there with you