- Published: September 30, 2022
- Updated: September 30, 2022
- Level: Secondary School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 5
A Speech on Free Medical Care for Illegal Immigrants Introduction Ladies and gentlemen, as weare gathered here today, I take this opportunity to thank all of you for your presence. I am honored to address the issue of free medical care for illegal immigrants. As we all know, they need to be considered, but should it be at the expense of legal citizens. Free Medical Care for Illegal Refugees Illegal immigration can be defined in three ways basing on the existing situation. An illegal migrant might be one who has entered a country without the knowledge or the consent of the authorities or after a legal entry, overstays beyond the allowed period. Also an unauthorized migrant might be one who violates the set terms of a legal entry. In 2008 it was estimated that the population of illegal immigrants in the US was approximately 11 million, which was said to be a drop from 12. 5 million recorded in 2007 (Bogen 12). Bogen further points out that Mexican immigrant take the highest percentage (56%) out the total immigrants’ population. Studies reveal that majority of the current immigrant are well educated, many of them having at least a college degree. However, in general, the US population is better educated than that of the immigrants. Since 1990s, legal migrants continued to be outpaced in number by the illegal immigrants who are increasingly occupying various areas around the country. Most of the families in the US estimated to be 13. 9 million individuals have at least one spouse, who is an illegal immigrant and most of them settle in areas characterized by large immigrants’ population (Beasley 32). He observes that unauthorized contemporary migrants comprise of about 44% of the total population of us. Majority of them settle in Florida, Texas, California, New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsylvania with California harboring the highest population of approximately 2. 93 million illegal migrants. Although the government views illegal immigration as law violation, in real sense, this practice benefits the US government economically, with Hispanic businesses generating approximately $ 222 billion in 2002 in revenue (Borjas 4). The employers who are only interested in profit making get cheap labor as these immigrants are enticed by the readily available job irrespective of their poor working conditions in order to support and provide for their families’ needs. The home country of these immigrants also benefits from these illegal practices, as they are relieved of the burden of catering for high unemployed population. The annual entries of these unauthorized persons into the US are estimated to be a population comprising of five hundred thousand people. The social aspects are also affected by these illegal immigrations, because there are practices of conflicts among the different races, an example being the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 between the Latinos and the African Americans. The following 9/11 attacks, majority of the American population, are suspicious of the immigrants especially those ones originating from the Middle East. Other areas affected by the incoming of these immigrants include the politics, religion, education, security and the environment. The move by the US government to pass the health care bill for the creation of a government insurance that will authorize free Medicare and Medicaid to the unauthorized immigrants is a sensitive issue. The basic issue to be considered here is that this service is hardly available to the native population and the legal migrants. According to (Bommes and Andrew, 21) Offering it freely to the illegal immigrants would mean that the country has decided to ignore its tax paying legal citizens, who are hardly accessed to any meaningful health care, and instead care for the illegal immigrants, who mainly evade paying tax for the fear of being identified hence deported (Borjas 8). Conclusion Borjas (11) believes that the fact the US government is in a debt worth $ 1. 5 trillion means that the project of offering free health care will further indebt the government, this will adversely affect the economy, as their will be an increases in the standards of living with hiked prices of basic commodities hence a burden to the tax payers. On the other hand, majority of these illegal immigrants are working and therefore, they can afford to pay for their own health schemes. Instead of passing the free health care bill, the government should formulate ways of enabling these illegal immigrants to contribute to the tax paying process. These will go along way in enabling the government to plan for its population including these immigrants. To be precise, access to the medical care should be improved for the legal citizens first before thinking of making it free for the illegal immigrants. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for your attention. Work Cited Beasley, Vanessa. Who Belongs in America? Presidents, Rhetoric, And Immigration. 2006. Bogen, Elizabeth. Immigration in New York. New York; New York Press. 1987. Bommes, Michael and Andrew Geddes. Immigration and Welfare: Challenging the Borders of the Welfare State. Washington DC; Harvard University press. 2000. Borjas, George. Issues in the Economics of Immigration (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report) (2000) Statistical Essays by Scholars.