[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

But illegals are withheld income, some of it are used to fund these faculties.

I suppose it depends on how the employer is working with the illegal immigrant. I was under the impression that many illegal immigrants are essentially paid under the table and are not reported. The employer may be withholding some income from them by not paying them a fair rate, but they're pocketing what's withheld for themselves.

As to funding faculties (hospitals), I wasn't aware of taxes going into hospitals. It doesn't really matter if they do, because the trend is clear: it's not unusual for hospitals to have to close down, and in many cases the monetary losses incurred through the emergency department are to blame. Again I'll state that this isn't purely the fault of illegal immigrants, but they are a contributing factor.

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

In any case, this is but one factor, others being the state being terribly broke and the fact that our health care system is run in a way to deny the poor care or have them cost life and limb just to stay alive. I feel that they are being singled out.

I wouldn't say that our healthcare system denies the poor care. We are obligated to provide emergency care to anyone and everyone, no questions asked. Compare this to Switzerland (or was it Sweden?), where there are a variety of health insurance coverage plans (including some very cheap bare-bones ones) but the hospitals are not obligated to do a thing for anyone who is uninsured. (Or so I hear from physicians here - anyone with greater familiarity with that system, please chime in.)

We have a variety of assistance programs designed specifically for funding with medical issues. People often think about Medicare, but Medicaid is a program for those in poverty. Medical care is expensive no matter who you are, though. The poor have a hard time because of their lack of financial resources, but the system isn't running against them.

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

So essentially because your family was badly treated by people when you attempted to obtain citizenship, you believe everyone else should be...

I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through what my family went through, which I'd venture to say was worse than what kyp275's family suffered (which was already pretty bad - people outside of the process may read it as simply waiting around for a few years, but there's a lot of stress and uncertainty associated with that process, as there are ramifications for employment and even whether you'd need to move out of the country). I don't think either of us talk about the suffering that occurs on the legal end because we want others to suffer similarly, or to suffer at all. The fact is that there is suffering and risk being taken whether legal or illegal. Doing it legally is not simply a matter of luck, personal connections, or wealth; it is not impossible for these illegal immigrants to go through the process legally.