It's No Fun Being an "Illegal Alien"
In a new Newsweek piece that, for whatever reason, isn't online, the mag's contributing editor Ellis Cose takes issue with Texas State Representative Leo Berman's proposed legislation that would deny benefits to U.S.-born children of "illegal aliens." (That's Berman's phrase, not Cose's.) That'd be House Bill 28, incidentally, which Berman introduced at the end of January; it's currently before the House Committee on State Affairs.
Anyway, in his piece Cose goes on to mention the jailing of immigrant kids at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility down in Taylor and an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raid at a leather-processing plant in New Bedford, Mass., which allegedly employed hundreds of undocumented workers. And Cose concludes these three things are:
"...signs of a level of anxiety about illegal immigration not seen in years. Behind the proposals from Berman and others is a real concern about the leadership failure at the federal level and about mounting costs borne by the states. At Parkside Hospital in Dallas, for example, a spokesperson said that some 75 percent of total deliveries there were paid for by a Medicaid benefit aimed at women who can't provide proof of citizenship. Royce West, a Texas state senator who is pro-immigrant, has put forth a bill, less onerous than Berman's, that would tax international money transfers. The proceeds would go toward indigent health care."
Dunno what Parkside Hospital is. (I know, it's Parkland.) But we do know who Royce West is. --Robert Wilonsky
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