Health Care

Note: More than half of immigration into the United States is illegal, thus more than half of the impact of immigration on our health care system is due to illegal immigation.

• There are over 300,000 estimated anchor babies born to illegal alien mothers each year in the U.S.- babies who automatically attain citizenship illegal alien sources in an average year before 1965.


• There are currently between 287,000 and 363,000 children born to illegal aliens each year.


• Arizona Health Department spends as much as 30 percent of its annual $9 million budget to illegal aliens.


• In 1994, California paid for 74,987 deliveries to illegal alien mothers, at a total cost of $215.2 million ( an average of $2,842 per delivery).


• "Illegal alien mothers accounted for 36 percent of all Medi-Cal funded births in California that year."

Illegal Immigration Healthcare Costs Affect You!

• More than half of Arizona's 4 billion dollar vbudget deficit was the result of paying for three areas of services to illegal immigrants: education, healthcare, and incarceration.

What does illegal immigration have to do with your costs and your access to medical care when you need it?

• Estimates are tat 20-40% of uncompensated ("free") medical services are provided to people in the U.S. illegally.


• Hospitals and clinics don't ask about citizenship... a medical version of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

What are consequences to taxpaying citizenships?

• Increased cost and reduced access to trauma care.


• Auto accidents involving overloaded vans of illegal aliens happen regularly in southern Arizona. The injured are flown by air ambulance and treated with state of the art care... all taxpayers expense.


• Proof of citizenship is not asked before providing free medical services such as; immunizations, Well baby checks, food stamps, WIC services, birth control, and even elective abortions. THESE COSTS ARE PAID BY TAXPAYERS.


• When funds are depleted, low income American citizens have fewer services and longer waits as a result.

The bottom line is that working, taxpaying legal citizens are bearing the brunt of failure of our government officials to document citizenchip before providing medical services.

http://www.theamericanresistance.com/issues/health_care/html

http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/001050

Arizona's Immigration Law

   Did you know that....."Arizona has about 1.7 million residents of Hispanic or Latino origin?"

What is Arizona's new Immigration Law?

The new law makes it illegal for undocumented citizens to remain in Arizona.  Immigrants are now required to carry their alien registration with them at all times.  In the event that a person does not have their papers, they may be prosecuted. 
Click the Link Below to watch the controversy that is rising because of this new law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxPXeuYwFU

 

When was this law passed?

In April 2010,  Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer signed the new immigration bill into law.

 Is this law unconstitutional?

This law is of course unconstitutional because racial profiling is not allowed in the United States. There has been an enormous up rise of protests in regards to this law. Many civil rights groups and religious groups are protesting this law because they feel it is infringing on peoples civil rights. Even before she signed the bill president Obama strongly criticized it.
Besides Obama, other individuals like Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles said "the authorities’ ability to demand documents was like “Nazism.”(NY Times) Massive protest by Hispanics and comments direct towards the governors decision have done nothing to overturn the law.

“Governor Brewer caved to the radical fringe,” a statement by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said, predicting that the law would create “a spiral of pervasive fear, community distrust, increased crime and costly litigation, with nationwide repercussions.”

People are already afraid of police brutality. This law is giving the police too much power in controlling the state of Arizona.

The Federal Court Needs to Block Arizona's Immigration Policy

Mexico is now asking the federal courts to block Arizona's new law. The Mexican government filed papers to the United States federal courts stating that the new law is unconstitutional. This new law will damage trade, tourism and ruin Mexico's work on trying to decrease drug trafficking and violence. Unfortunately, this law is going to lead to racial profiling which is unconstitutional.

Who is Bring this Case Forward to the Federal Courts?

This case is being brought forward by civil rights groups such as American Civil Rights Union, The National Immigration Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education fund.

Becoming a Citizen.....

To be consider a U. S citizen, one needs to have been born in the United States or have become one by law

You may only become a naturalized citizens if you:

 1.  Are at least 18 years old and a lawful permanent resident ("green card" holder);

    2.  Have resided continuously in the United States, having been lawfully admitted for permanent residence, for five years immediately preceding the date you filed your application for naturalization, or

    3.  Have, after having been removed from conditional permanent resident status, based upon your marriage to a U.S. citizen, having resided in the United States for one year after the date the condition was removed;

    4.  Have resided continuously in the United States at all times after your application to the time and date of your admission for citizenship;

    5.  Have, during all periods of time referred to above, been and still are a person of good moral character;

    6.  Have no outstanding deportation or removal order and no pending deportation or removal proceeding;

    7.  Have the ability to read, write, speak, and understand simple words and phrases in English;

    8.  Have knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of U.S. history and government;

    9.  Are attached to, and can support, the principles of the U.S. Constitution and can swear allegiance to the United States.

This information has been taken from Boyd F. Campbell, Attorney and Civil Notary

http://www.visaus.com/citizen.html

 

 

How many deportations have there been?

Unfortunately the deportation number is going to rise. According to Wikipedia, currently 200,000 undocumented immigrants are being deported back to their country a year.  If more immigration laws pass in other states, the deportation rate will climb.  Some individuals that are being deported back to Mexico were taken to the United States when they were a child.  They do no know anything in Mexico and may not even have family or friends in their country. It is not right to deport people when all they know is life in the United States.

Sources Used : 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/06/23/2010-06-23_mexico_asks_federal_court_to_reject_gov_jan_brewers_arizona_immigration_law_ctie.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html

Information presented by Nichol Ferrara

Immigration and Fraud Marriages

The great desire to come to America leads hopeful immigrants to loose their sense of integrity. Many Immigrants fall into the temptation for an "easy greencard" without thinking the risks that they are running. One popular route to an "easy greengard" is a bogus marriage. Bogus marriages are illegal  and the government is very aware of what to look for in a "bogus marriage".

Cases
-In Chicago an immigration fraud ringleader who conspired to arrange bogus marriages by pairing U.S. citizens and illegal aliens was sentenced in federal court to three years in prison. The sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

-Jeremy Starnes, 32, of Chicago, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Wayne Anderson to 37 months in prison and three years supervised release for conspiring to commit marriage fraud to circumvent U.S. immigration laws.

-Starnes pleaded guilty Sept. 19 to conspiring with others to arrange sham marriages between nine U.S. citizens and nine Eastern European foreign nationals. He admitted recruiting U.S. citizens by promising them $5,000 to enter into fraudulent marriages with foreign nationals. These sham marriages enabled the foreign nationals to illegally receive U.S. permanent residence and obtain what are commonly known as "green cards." Starnes promised to pay the U.S. citizens the $5,000 in installments over the time period beginning on the day of the marriage and ending at the time the foreign national received a green card.

-Several former and current Cook County Traffic Court employees were among those charged in allegedly arranging sham marriages to evade U.S. immigration laws.

- A formerly [sic] of Chicago and a one time traffic court worker. She allegedly doubled as a fake wedding planner who helped recent immigrants become legal residents, possibly shaving years off the typical wait for citizenship, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

- A YORKSHIRE woman who was tricked into marrying her Gambian boyfriend so he could stay in the UK has spoken of her ordeal after he was jailed for four years and three months for a string of con tricks

- According to the indictment, Cruz and others recruited U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, primarily Filipinos, who entered into at least 15 sham marriages to evade immigration laws.

 Consequences
-U.S. Immigration (USCIS) can punish this with a $250,000 fine and five-year prison sentence.

-  Both parties get the punishment.

-Other immigration fraud counts in the indictment carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

What is  Sham Marriage
-A sham marriage is not valid for immigration purposes. Usually, the parties of a sham marriage do not intend to enter into a bona fide marriage, reside together, or remain behaving as a true husband-wife relationship would. The sole purpose of the sham marriage is to enjoy immigration benefits or evade immigration restrictions

-Usually only the couple of a marriage themselves know the intention of their marriage. However, the USCIS will try to interpret the true intention of the marriage when the immigration officers are reviewing immigration petitions. The USCIS always takes into account the following factors while making their interpretation

The Cost of Sham Marriages
-The "husbands" were allegedly paid $3,000 up front and then $300 a month to marry the brides.

Sources
1. http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/080131chicago.htm

2. http://www.hooyou.com/marriage/notimmigration.html

3. http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Jail-for-conman-who-tricked.6026059.jp

4. http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2009/11/immigration-fraud-10-indicted-in-sham-marriage-scheme.html

Information by: Nancy Gonzalez

Immigrant Women and Jobs

“The less fortunate, isolated and apprehensive, suffer a dismaying array of abuses from exploitively low wages to sexual harassment”. 

                                                     What Immigrant Women Workers go through 

       to Find a Job and What They Experience While Working

          Women all over have suffered  a lot during the 1900’s they had to put up with tons of hardships and made ends meet.  These women migrated from different parts of the world to be able to live a better life, but instead got a result they weren’t accepting.  These women do not have a choice sometimes, they don’t have any education, and they don’t speak fluent english therefore they can’t get jobs they would desire.  They instead get a job that they much rather not have and get paid less than what they deserve.  Women live in poverty, but work day and night to be able to pay rent, care for their children, and help their families back home.

This is the latest pole from around the world for immigrant women:

“The poll reveals that many female immigrants (79 percent of them from Latin American countries, 73 percent from Vietnam, 70 percent from Korea and 63 percent from China) said that in addition to speaking little or no English, they were discriminated against, lacked health care coverage and were paid less—far less than what they earned professionally in their home countries”.

Why immigrant Women move to the U.S.:

“At a time when more than one-third of U.S. families are single-parent households, 90 percent of women immigrants are raising children in intact marriages.”

• Better education for their children

“Women immigrants reveal that they came to America not in search of streets paved with gold—making money was surprisingly low on their list of priorities—but because they saw the U.S. as a place to build better futures for their children and to make permanent homes for their families,” Close said.

• Some have to travel to support their families back home
• Widows
• Divorced
• Homeless
• They don't work in homeland
• Have no Family Left

I was never rich financially, but wealthy in love. I loved my husband more than anything in the world. We had seven children, the oldest is now thirteen…after years of hard work, my husband developed consumption…. My husband told me he had opened a small business in Colorado, and hoped to make a living. But I heard him cough, and when I questioned him, he answered with a bitter smile that there was no cure for his illness. I immediately saw my tragedy and wouldn't let him work. I went out peddling with a basket, and left him at home with my children."

Why Immigrant women don’t get paid what they should:

• Education
• Language skills

“Lack of knowledge and language barriers may make these women more vulnerable to abuse, harassment, discrimination and worse”

• They don’t have legal documents
• They don’t have any experience

“Immigrant women often face serious challenges in the workplace, the schools, and in dealing with health and social services”.

What type of jobs they get hired for:

• Cleaners
• Domestic Workers
• Baby Sitters
• Fields

“Close to Slavery” estimates that an estimated 121,000 guest workers were brought into the U.S. in 2005 for work that is categorized as “unskilled.” Of this number, about 32,000 worked in agriculture, and the rest—approximately 89,000—worked in forestry, seafood processing, landscaping, construction, and other non-agricultural industries"

Verbal and Physical Abuse immigrant women face during work:

"Chained to Their Employers"

• The can’t complain about overworking

“threatened with deportation if they complain about overwork”

• Sleep in closets and worse conditions because of employers demand 
• Sexual Harassment 

"These people can be very, very vulnerable, particularly if they're not documented”

What Women Have to Say about their Jobs:

• “We Have Been Treated Like Animals”
• "We were told that hundreds, if not thousands, of women had to have sex with supervisors to get or keep jobs and/or put up with a constant barrage of grabbing and touching and propositions for sex by supervisors."
• "Trapped in Dangerous Jobs"
• "The boss took our passports and kept them"

 Immigrant Women Deserve Better And Employers Need to Be Punished for all the wrongful actions

Sites Used:

~~~http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/global/Articles/Pages/ImmigrantsPoll.aspx

~~~http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/cfwtmpl.asp?url=/content/CFW/CFW/Projects/index.asp

~~~http://www.jobbankusa.com/News/Jobs/illegal_immigrant_women_taking_jobs.html

~~~http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001974/Jacoby/Jacoby07/Jacoby07.html

~~~http://revcom.us/a/083-special/guestworker-en.html

Edita Ambarchyan

Women in Immigration Detention Centers

“The U.S. government detained approximately 380,000 people in immigration custody in 2009 in a hodgepodge of about 350 facilities at an annual cost of more than $1.7 billion.” (1)

"Demonstrators, many belonging to immigrants rights groups, held a rally to protest a $60 million, 2,000-inmate detention center in Brownsville, Texas -- the largest prison in the United States. This facility is criticized by many as a holding camp for illegal immigrants. These fears certainly aren't assuaged by the government's pride in the facility as a "centerpiece in their crackdown on illegal immigration."

Women in an immigration detention center

   Approximately 10% of all the undocumented immigrants in the United States are immigrant women. In the U.S., immigrant women are more susceptible to exploitation, abuse and human rights violations. These women face certain challenges due to the inequalities between men and women, but also because of the additional responsibilities of family and home. At the workplace, immigrant women may suffer gender discrimination as well as prejudice based on their accent, ethnicity, or place of birth. (2)

   Many of these women have been living in the United States for several years and are now the victims of immigration profiling. Many detained women have been secured in raids in the workplace, picked up in their homes, or neighborhoods. Sadly, many of these women have families, small children, are pregnant, or even seriously ill. (3) Many of these detained women are leaving lives of violence, torture, rape, or discrimination, and may have significant medical and mental health issues. There are numerous stories of women who have suffered at the hands of a broken system in these immigration detention centers. Furthermore, cultural and language barriers result in the denial of access to outside social services and make it harder for these confined women to acquire the medical and mental health care that they need. Rarely do these women have a criminal record. (4)

   There is hardly ever any mention of immigration detention centers in the media or print. The reason could simply be because this is a multi-billion dollar industry. The only people benefiting are private prison corporations and state and county governments. Because they contract out bed space, the government is able to save money, or so they say. Consequently, while the government is saving money there have been reports of poor detention conditions and abuse among detainees, that imply the facilities are cutting corners at the expense of the immigrants’ well-being. (5)

Documented cases of neglect in Immigration Detention Centers.

"I was supposed to be checked [with a Pap smear] every six months. I asked my daughter to send the records. I got it and I brought it to medical so they could see I'm not lying. I have asked a lot of times. ... It's terrible because you feel like you have something you can die for ... and you don't have no assistance.
 - Lucia C., New Jersey, May 2008. Lucia C. did not receive a Pap smear in over 16 
 months in detention. (6)

 "Immediately, my body started shaking. I felt so cold that I thought I was freezing to death, but at the same time I was sweating. ... Within minutes, I had a seizure and my body began to shake so violently that I fell off the bed onto the floor." 
 - Zena T. Asfaw, on her near-death experience after being forced to take the wrong
 medication at a California detention facility (6)


“A woman being held at the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence who experienced excruciating abdominal pain for months after she had been forced to undergo female genital mutilation in West Africa was told by the center’s staff to “exercise and watch her diet,” her lawyer at the time, Raha Jorjani, said. After nearly six months, the woman, who had been convicted of a nonviolent crime, was taken to a hospital where an ultrasound revealed a cyst the size of a five-month-old fetus. Immigration officials then suddenly released the woman with no money or health insurance to treat the cyst.” (7)


“Rosa Isela Contreras-Dominguez and Victoria Arrellano died in Federal custody awaiting deportation to Mexico; Contreras-Dominguez was 38 and pregnant at the time of her death, and Arrellano who had AIDS, deteriorated steadily in a San Pedro, California prison, eventually dying there at the age of 23.1 In another tragic loss, Jiang Zhen Xing, pregnant with twins miscarried when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials tried to forcibly deport her.” (8)

Two documented cases of abuse:

“Robert Luis Loya, 43, pleaded guilty to three counts of depriving the detained women of their civil rights and three counts of abusive sexual contact for attacking three women in the spring of 2008 at the Port Isabel Detention Center operated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE uses the facility to hold immigrants without documentation.” (9)



“In September 2003, a 21-year-old Turkish female detainee was raped by an ICE agent in an Arkansas motel. The agent, who was supposed to have taken the detainee to the doctor, was subsequently arrested and charged with felony sexual assault.” (10)

Immigration Detention Reform

There are many more cases that have never been investigated. Today, there are numerous groups advocating for immigration detention reform. Below are several recommendations for policy changes.

• Stop detaining women who are suffering the effects of persecution or abuse, or who are pregnant or nursing infants; (11)
• Adopt specific standards addressing women's health services, including reproductive health services; (11) and
• Prohibit the shackling of pregnant women (11)
• Comprehensive immigration reform must include legal and safe immigration options for undocumented women, ; (8)
• and a path to citizenship that allows immigrant women to obtain work permits, travel internationally, and access higher education and Federal financial aid. (8)
• Reproductive health care coverage that is financed through public funds must be provided to all immigrant women regardless of their legal or economic status. (8)
• Equitable access must be guaranteed to confidential and non-coercive family planning services; and to linguistically, culturally competent, and medically accurate reproductive health care services. (8)
• Funding must be provided to research specific data on the reproductive health disparities, needs, and services for immigrant women, as well as for outreach to engage immigrant women and their children in care. (8)
• Federal policy should impose a moratorium on immigration raids, and ensure better access to medical and legal services for immigrant women held in detention centers.(8)

Race, Gender, and Class

The distressing reality of the incarceration of immigrant women is they are typically victims of racial, gender, and class profiling. These women do not appear to be “white” or congregate in “white” areas. Instead, these women are taken into custody based on a petty crime, if even a crime has been committed, then asked for their identification. If they cannot produce what looks like a legitimate document then they are immediately detained. Furthermore, if they are in a known area of illegal immigrants, then they are at risk of random raids. In addition, they can be stopped on the street in their own yard or neighborhood, if law enforcement sees an opportunity. Many of these women leave their home countries in search of a better life for themselves and families. Sadly, for some women they leave one abuse for another because of how our country sees them as individuals.

Sources


 The information I have presented comes from theses sources. If you would like any further information please visit any of these websites. There are many ways we can come together to help bring awareness to the problems with women in immigration detention centers.

(1)http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/about detention

(2)http://www.now.org/issues/diverse/immigration.html

(3)http://www.nowfoundation.org/news/fall-2008/immigration.html

(4)http://www.immigrantwomennetwork.org
(5)http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/node/2381
(6)http://us.oneworld.net/article/361130-us-immigration-detention-centers-neglect-
    health
 (7)http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/21immig.html?_r=2
 (8)http://nwhn.org/immigrant-womens-health-casualty-immigration-policy-war
 (9)http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/women-102886-three-loya.html
(10)http://www.justdetention.org/pdf/NoRefugeHere.PDF
 (11)http://us.oneworld.net/article/361130-us-immigration-detention-centers-neglect- health

The information above was compiled by: Francine Goms

Abuses Within Immigrant Women

Many immigrant women are faced with sexual assault in the U.S. Most of the time women immigrate alone or with their husbands and children. Once they get here, the support of their family is gone, since they are in  foreign countries. The cultural barrier is a major fact of why women get stuck in a labyrinth of abuses. Not knowing English deprives them of looking for help. The following describes some of the abuses immigrant women face.

Emotional Abuse:

• Lying about her immigration status.
• Telling her family lies about her.
• Calling her racist names.
• Embarrassing her in front of friends.
• Telling her that she has abandoned her culture and become "white", or "American".
• Preventing her from visiting sick or dying relatives.

Economic Abuse:

• Forcing her to work "illegally" when she does not have a work permit.
• Threatening to report her to INS if she works "under the table".
• Not letting her get job training or schooling.
• Taking the money she was supposed to send her family.
• Forcing her to sign papers in English that she does not understand.
• Harassing her at the only job she can work legally in the U.S., so that she loses that job.

Sexual Abuse:

• Accusing her of sleeping with other men.
• Alleging that she has a history of prostitution on legal papers.
• Telling her that "as a matter of law" in the United States, she must continue to have sex with him whenever he wants until they are divorced.

Using Threats:

• Threatening to report her to the INS and get her deported.
• Threatening that he will not file immigration papers to legalize her immigration status.
• Threatening to withdraw the petition he filed to legalize her immigration status.
• Telling her that he will harm someone in her family.
• Telling her that he will have someone harm her family members.
• Threatening to harm or harass her employer or co-workers.

Using Children:

• Threatening to remove her children from the United States.
• Threatening to report her children to the INS.
• Taking the money she wants to send to support her children in her home country.
• Telling her, he will have her deported and he will keep the children with him in the U.S.
• Convincing her that if she seeks help from the courts or the police the U.S. legal system will give him custody of the children.

Using Citizenship or Residency Privilege:

• Using the fact of her undocumented immigration status to keep her from reporting abuse or leaving with the children.
• Telling her that the police will arrest her for being undocumented if she calls the police for help because of the abuse.

Isolation:

• Isolating her from people who speak her language or who are from her community, culture, or country.
• Not allowing her to learn English.
• Reading her mail and not allowing her to use the telephone.
• Strictly timing all her grocery trips and other travel times.

Denying and Blaming:

• Convincing her that his violent actions are not criminal unless they occur in public.
• Telling her that he is allowed to physically punish her because he is the "man".
• Blaming her for the breakup of the family, if she leaves him because of the violence.
• Telling her that she is responsible for the violence because she did not do as he wished.

*The information above was obtained from the following source.

http://new.vawnet.org/category/index_pages.php?category_id=891

Information compiled by: Viridiana Moreno Herrera