This is an issue that touches closely on areas that I am interested in, both in the areas of immigration law and education law. The Georgia State legislature is attempting to pass a bill that will deny public services to illegal immigrants, including post-secondary education and health services. See this article for a description of HR-256 Rogers to Revise Immigration Bill.
Now, just for minute, lets concede that it is legitimate to deny health care and education to people who entered this country as adults. They came here of their own free will, they knew that they were breaking the law. But these same people have brought their children with them. These children had no say in where their parents chose to live and in what manner they chose to establish their residence there. Yet we are willing to allow a generation of children of illegal immigrants to be denied healthcare and education because of the sins of their parents? Not only will people without documentation be turned away from public clinics, any private clinics which receive funding from the government will be required to check the documentation of patients and turn away those who are here illegally! Guess they need to tack that clause onto the hippocratic oath.
When they first introduced the bill they wanted to deny access to public schools for the children of illegal aliens as well. Apparently someone finally figured out that the Supreme Court has ruled on this issue more than 20 years ago in Plyler v. Doe, ruling that you cannot deny primary education to children based on their immigration status. Despite the ruling in Plyler, this ruling has been severly limited in further decisions. Consequently, there is no fundamental right to education in the United States. Amazing isn't it? The "most developed" nation in the world does not guarantee the right to its children to receive an education. Ok well now I am off on a tanget.
If you want to send a letter to your Georgia State legislator asking them to vote no on HR-256, or a letter to your United State Representatives asking them to support education for ALL children in this country: click the link below
Letter Writing Action for the Coaltion for New Georgia
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
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Illegal immigrants are the current whipping boy, course they are here cause nobody want to wash dishes, mow there own grass or raise there own children or pay anyone a living wage to do it either.
ReplyDeleteby the way i am a muslim convert liing in the southeastern united states, how come i never see u at the meetings:)
Salam
Hi edward, are you the same edward ott who frequents the beliefnet boards? I go by feelacall there. I am more of a lurker than a poster though. LOL at the convert meetings. I wish there was something like that, but i have managed to meet converts via the internet and some in person! why you have a pakistani flag? i would be interested to know the story behind that :)
ReplyDeleteI work almost completely with illegal immigrants and most have false social security numbers, so each week money is taken out of their paycheck and put into the collective tax system of the U.S. government. The people I work with travelled thousands of miles, alone, to better the lives of their families back home. Most will have left this country without ever recieving the benefits that they should be entitled to by paying into the system. That's just my experience. I think that all this stuff about illegal immigrants taking away jobs and services is absolute rubbish. Keep blogging.
ReplyDeleteKhuda Hafiz
Salaam, Thanks for visiting my blog. I too have worked with many decent hardworking people who happened to enter the country illegally. After studying the history if immigration in this country I have noticed a pattern. Whenever the country is suffering under the yoke of war or economic repression, immigrants are the first scape goat to be used by the party in power. They are used to to distract the populace from the real problems confronting the country. By the way, se habla espanol? Hablo un pequito, ahora estoy olvidar todo mi espanol. Thanks for visiting my blog :)
ReplyDeleteKhuda Hafiz
It's so ugly how we're creating a new slave caste!
ReplyDelete