Nine Individuals Detained At Sedillo Hill Exit
by John Weckerle
Undocumented immigrants at I-40 Sedillo Hill exit
This photo, taken a little after 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 11 at the I-40 Sedillo Hill exit, depicts eight men and one woman (not clearly visible in this photo) in the custody of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department. Other than the two law enforcement vehicles, no other vehicles were present.
According to Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department representative Erin Kinnard Thompson, the people shown here were detained during a traffic stop for a routine violation. Ms. Thompson indicated that “they were apparently undocumented immigrants and were turned over to immigration officials.”
2 Responses “Nine Individuals Detained At Sedillo Hill Exit”
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS CORPORATE WELFARE?
The injury court case of Luis Jimenez, an illegal alien from Guatemala, who was a patient at the Martin Memorial Medical Center in South Florida, will have far reaching impact, regarding mandated laws. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (42 U.S.C. § 1395dd, EMTALA) is a United States Act of Congress passed in 1986. Hospital and ambulance services must impart care to anyone needing emergency treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay.
The only problem with this is that this federal mandated law never pays the full amount to the institution, if any? So the hospital passes it on to other patients, the insurance company, which once again the costs fall on the taxpayer. Whoever this individual was working for at the time of his accident, should be forced to pay part or all hospital services. Jimenez’s lawsuit seeks nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of his care in Guatemala, because the hospital tried to relieve them of the financial burden.
The hospital spent more than $1.5 million on his care, over three years of treatment for his brain damage. If Washington pushes a Path to Citizenship, we can expect spiraling costs for the 20 plus million of legalized person who is already in our sovereign nation. I myself want an alternative to the corruption and greed, shown by insurance companies, which is a government run agency.
By enactment Immigration of reform, millions will demand health care, Pensions, retirement and a rush on government benefits. For those who haven’t already cheated the system, will be a major catastrophe for every taxpayer. On being given a green card they can immediately sponsor their family members. Once here, they can immediately place the burden of sick, handicapped and those with mental disorders, in the hands of welfare services.
WE should then be prepared to receive millions of more illegal aliens, who have absconded from their own country, to take advantage of US taxpayers. All Americans should watch this court case carefully, because the implications are sky high taxes. Clogged health care services, education for every child and section 8 housing, along with every benefit, citizens and permanent residents have no knowledge of; will be the absolute outcome of Obama’s AMNESTY. Get on the phone and tell your politician, you support THE SAVE ACT . Support for the bi-partisan SAVE Act, which will expand E-Verify and protect American jobs! Focuses on the heart of the problem-the jobs that attract illegal aliens. It would phase in a requirement for every employer to use the electronic verification system. NUMBERSUSA, AMERICANPATROL
We want to start out, here, by stating categorically that nobody should be living in the United States in violation of the law. We also acknowledge that, in the case of Luis Jimenez, Martin Memorial incurred a substantial cost under what might appear to be an unfunded mandate. There appears to be some question regarding actions on the the part of Martin Memorial, specifically in sending Jimenez back to Guatemala – against his will, according to his legal guardian, and by his request, according to the hospital. The case is the subject of a recently filed lawsuit, and we’re sure details will be emerging.
We agree that employers should not be knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants, and should be penalized for doing so. We also acknowledge that the Federal government should be securing the borders, and to date has not succeeded in doing so. This is not a criticism of the Border Patrol or other legitimate forces protecting the border. Rather, it appears to be the result of years, perhaps decades, of ineffective immigration policy, and that certainly needs to be fixed.
However, there are really two very different issues – especially from a logistical standpoint – here. One involves preventing illegal immigration, which should be a high priority, and one involves handling the undocumented immigrants who are already living here. These people arrived and were able to establish themselves here – admittedly, in violation of the law – largely as a result of the action or inaction of the U.S. government, depending on how you look at it. Just the cost of finding ten million or more of them, rounding them up, processing them, and deporting them (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimated in 2007 that this would cost $94 billion, not including finding the immigrants or court costs, story here) would likely be astronomical – and that’s not even considering the lawsuits and legal wrangling that would ensue. The situation is complicated by the fact that a good number of them have had children in the United States, and those children are, by definition, citizens of the United States. While many people may like the sound of “round them up and kick them out,” it is in all likelihood not possible to do so.
The question would then appear to be: Do we allow things to continue as they are, or find some way to get as many of these people onto the tax rolls as possible? The status quo seems unacceptable to most Americans. Let’s face it, many of them are already receiving a lot of the benefits of American residency, so we might as well be getting the income tax, etc. they should be paying. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be some substantial conditions imposed on the path to legitimacy; these people did, after all, violate the law by living here illegally. However, if it’s impractical to expel them, and unacceptable to keep things the way things are, then it seems logical that there should be some way to make it so that they are contributing to the system from which they are receiving benefit, just like the rest of us.
I can see why this rankles people, but as is often the case in life, the nation finds itself confronted with the difference between what people want done and what can be done. One thing is for sure – this problem was decades in the making, and we’re betting it takes a good bit of time to be resolved.