Illegal Immigrants
E. Noel Preston, M.D.

   Except for those of us who come from a family of Native Americans, we are all immigrants. It would be un-American to want to stop immigration altogether. Our ancestors wanted a chance at a new life and new opportunities, and it's only fair
we allow other people to have the same chance that earlier, other Americans gave them.

   That said, there's something enormously wrong with all the illegal immigration to the country today. Earlier immigrants, our ancestors, were willing to learn English, find employment, pay taxes, and assimilate into the community. I know Cuban doctors, fleeing Fidel Castro, who took jobs in Miami car washes to avoid going on welfare. My great-grandfather was a full-blooded Basque born in the Pyrenees mountains, and when he came to Ohio he worked as a pharmacist's assistant. He swept floors and unloaded boxes and eventually his employer trusted him to start keeping the books and finally to start filling prescriptions. His son, my grandfather, went on to found the Springfield Machine Tool Company and after he retired, was elected Mayor of Coral Gables, Florida.

   Contrast that now with today. When I was in active practice, I had a Medicaid patient's mother ask if her child would be well by Thursday. I said I certainly hoped so, and what was happening on Thursday? She answered that her family of five was flying home to Africa to visit the child's grandmother, and she wanted the child to be well enough to travel. It costs about $9,000 for five people to fly round trip to Africa, and yet she and her children were on Medicaid! Only yesterday I was working at a clinic in Doraville to help a doctor who was on vacation, and a Medicaid mother took her car keys out of her purse to look for her cell phone. I recognized the keys as belonging to a Lincoln Town Car -- and yet she and her child are on Medicaid!

   Part of the problem is the government of Mexico, a country blessed with petroleum, silver mines, and a hugely profitable tourist industry. Even so, the Mexican government depends on the money its citizens living here send back home to their relatives still living in Mexico. Why is it the Mexican government doesn't do something to stop making life in that country so miserable for so many people that they would literally risk death to get out of there and come here? Shame on them all, from El Presidente all the way down to the local police department.

   Anyway, that is beyond American control. So what can we do about illegal immigration here? First of all, I agree a lot of illegal immigrants are willing to do the jobs most Americans don't want. Some of our employers actually depend on them, such as restaurants, farms, hotels, and building and highway contractors. The workers get paid, and the employers don't pay income withholding, Social Security, or Medicare taxes. So the first thing I would suggest is that we grant large numbers if not unlimited amounts of non-expiring temporary work permits. These permits would require the recipients to have drivers' licenses and to have automobile insurance, and there would be appropriate penalties if the permit holders failed to comply.

   Secondly, I would require the employers of illegal aliens to withhold State and Federal income taxes from the workers' pay. The workers are benefitting from our military, fire, and police services, our public schools, our water and sewerage
services, our libraries and national parks, and our highways, bridges, lakes and dams, and they should pay for benefitting from them. This will, of course, make it more expensive for the workers' employers, who can be expected to pass on the
higher price of labor to their customers, meaning you and me.

   I would not withhold Social Security or Medicare taxes from the workers' pay, as the workers are not American citizens and these services should be for American citizens only. If the workers want health insurance, it should be available to them, but they should pay for it themselves -- not the rest of us.

   Similarly, I would say that Medicaid, Food Stamps, and the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) Programs are financed by and thus should be reserved for U. S. Citizens only. We don't allow illegal immigrants to vote, so why should we allow them access to Medicaid, Food Stamps, or other welfare programs?

   Lastly, I would end the tradition of bestowing U.S. citizenship on someone simply because he or she is born within our territorial boundaries. We should take the position a child is the nationality of the child's mother, period.

   These measures might induce illegal aliens to apply for full U.S. Citizenship, and we should not be unwilling or reluctant to let them earn it -- but we should not give it to them for free. Americans are basically good-natured people, and most of us are willing to lend a hand to someone in trouble. But most of us also believe 

   God helps those who help themselves.

E. Noel Preston, M.D. is a pediatrician in solo practice in Peachtree Corners, 6063 Peachtree Parkway, Suite 202-A, Norcross. (770) 448-1553. More information can be found at www.PeachtreeCornersPediatrics.com

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