The Bush Administration pledged $1 billion on Monday to help hospitals and doctors provide emergency care for illegal immigrants. Members of Congress, especially those from border states, have complained in the past that the treatment of illegal immigrants places a massive financial burden on many hospitals. Hospitals are obligated to provide emergency treatment to patients in need, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay. For these reasons, the move is a beneficial one. However, it only masks the United States' larger problem of unchecked immigration.
California will receive the largest share of the fund, a whopping $70.8 million. While this might sound fairly significant, a spokesperson for the California Hospital Association told the New York Times that California hospitals provide $500 million a year in emergency care for illegal immigrants. That amount is half the entire federal grant, which includes disbursements to several other similarly beleaguered states. While the money will obviously help hospitals, it does nothing to remedy the greater problem causing their troubles.
Even as the Bush administration has created the Department of Homeland Security, complete with an elaborate color-coded system to warn Americans about possible threats, it has perpetually turned a blind eye to the staggering rates of illegal immigration into the United States. As it approves controversial legislation, such as the Patriot Act, and works to reform the nation's intelligence agencies among other ambitious initiatives aimed at ensuring greater domestic safety, it is seemingly bent on ignoring one of the most obvious obstacles to security.
Worse yet, as evidenced by the issue at hand, the continued lapses in border control have economic and public health implications as well. Meanwhile, citizens displeased with the government's lax approach to securing borders have turned to unthinkable vigilantism. Accordingly, the administration should turn to immigration control as a top notch priority, in the hopes of preventing the multiple problems illegal immigration precipitates.
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Immigration still large security issue
