Border crossing dumbassery

Seen on Facebook:

Interesting…If you cross the North Korean border illegally, you get 12 yrs. hard labor. If you cross the Afghanistan border illegally, you get shot. If you cross the U.S. border illegally you get, a job, a driver's license, food stamps, a place to live, health care, housing, childcare benefits, education, & a tax free business for 7 yrs. No wonder we are a country in debt. Re-post if you agree

How could I NOT agree!

Wait, what? Are you asking if I agree that the Communistic dictatorship of North Korea and the conservative Islamic government of Afghanistan should be role models for how our government should work? Really?? Should we really look to the insane dictator of North Korea for guidance on how to deal with illegals? (Note: I don't know if North Korean illegal immigrants really receive that punishment.)

First, do illegals in the US really "get" all those things?

A tax free business for 7 yrs

The only reference I could find for "a tax free business for 7 yrs" is in this Snopes article which is rated false. It talks about immigrants in general, not specifically illegal ones. This appears to be made up.

Jobs

Sure, they get jobs, yes, but that's hardly a social service that is given to them. In fact, it's the opposite of a social service. They get jobs and most pay state and federal income taxes.

Food stamps, a place to live, housing, childcare benefits

Illegal immigrants would be ineligible for most federal welfare programs like subsidized housing, food stamps, etc. They can obtain them illegally, of course, and some do, but the services are not given to them.

• It seems odd to claim that illegals get jobs while claiming they get all these welfare programs. Some may be scamming the system by collecting welfare illegally while working, but surely in general as the number of employed illegals goes up the number illegally receiving welfare goes down.

Health care

Illegals do "get" emergency services like emergency room visits. But these are not a service that is supposed to be free: there is a bill that never gets paid. The costs are passed on to other patients and yes, state and federal money is sometimes involved.

This is bad, yes.

The alternative, however, is for emergency rooms to not accept anyone without the proper paperwork.

• First reason this is bad: You might let people die just because they aren't American citizens.
• Second reason (for the overly-cynical patriots) this is bad: you could let American citizens die simply because they have an accent and no wallet.

Driver's license

Most states require forms of identification which would also establish citizenship. A few states require identification which would not necessarily establish citizenship, so illegal immigrants can take advantage of that and get a driver's license. They go through the same testing process as everyone else. I'm not seeing the issue here.

And how does an illegal getting a driver's license equal more debt?

Others

I'm willing to believe that many illegals receive some level of social services (legally or not), but mostly they are not given to them like some life on the gravy-train.

Debt

Are illegals the cause of the debt? Well, no, and no. While illegals certainly use social services, the net cost is very hard to determine. In any case, whether it's 1 million, 10 billion, or 100 billion, our federal annual budget deficit is in the trillion range, and many of these costs are not paid by the federal government. Besides, in many cases illegals pay local, state, and federal taxes, and pay billions into systems like social security which they have no hope of using.

Summary

The single short status seems to mean a) that we should try to mimic the practices of a quasi-Communistic dictatorship which was placed on the "axis of evil" by our former president, b) that illegal immigrants are living the easy life and are simply handed everything they could ever want, and c) that this is a major cause for the debt of the USA.

I'm scared by "a", and find "b" and "c" laughable.

Good reference: Wikipedia article on the economic impact of illegal immigrants in the UnitedStates