a little politics
I don't typically consider myself a very political person, compared to a lot of people I know. I vote, I care about issues, and I know who represents me, but I'm not crazy about the process or how "the game" is played in DC. That said, I was at breakfast this morning, eating eggs and sipping coffee with my NY Times, when I saw this article. I can't find the words to describe completely how angry it made me, but I'd like to try.
Basically, my problem is this: unless I was lied to throughout civics class in high school, you're a citizen once born in the United States, regardless of circumstances. Furthermore, once a citizen, you get the exact same rights as every single other citizen, according to my favorite Amendment (14), regardless of circumstances. We're supposed to be past the second-class citizen bullshit, right?
Well, obviously not, according to Congress. What this change says is that based solely on your parents' immigrant status, something over which you clearly have no control, you can get screwed out of health care that the government has (or ought to have) an affirmative duty to provide. I don't want to make this an argument about universal care--that's a little too heavy for me, and I don't feel comfortable enough with the economics of healthcare either under our present or a potential nationalized system to say either way which is better. However, this policy change basically says, "We, the United States, feel more comfortable assuming that you travelled here illegally with your less-than-one-year-old infant in tow and thus denying the potentially also-illegal child important preventative health services that could have long-term health consequences." In other words, it's better to deny real and substantial health benefits to an infant because we can't be *positive* the child is a citizen. As far as establishing two tiers of citizenship goes, this measure definitely helps further deprive some Americans (those whose parents are undocumented) of basic preventative care in early childhood, which can clearly have serious health consequences later in life.
Advocates of the measure claim that the proof of citizenship they require is easy to obtain, and that emergency services will not be affected. However, the pressures on undocumented immigrants (and, indeed, sometimes even on legal permanent residents) make any contact with the government, however brief, threatening. INS is fully willing to deport immigrants at any time regardless of how many times they've been let off the hook in the past, making the most routine traffic stops into pressure situations. Requiring undocumented immigrants to obtain legal proof of citizenship for their children will, in the end, strongly deter them from getting sufficient care. It is fundamentally unfair to the American citizens in question to enact this measure with full knowledge of its likely effect.
I'm so torn in my feelings about my country. Last night, I started reading Barack Obama's book (his first one), and I fell asleep with an abiding feeling of optimism, that the principles that have always stood behind the laws of this country will in the end lead us ever forward. Unfortunately, I woke up to this discriminatory Medicaid bullshit. It's hard carrying so much love and so much hate for a place at the same time, but America does so more consistently than any other person or institution I've ever come across. That said, I know that there's nowhere else in the world I would rather be--nowhere else that I would fit in visually, let alone anywhere that can tell a national story as compelling and hopeful as our own. Although I'm willing to write off most politics (like the Real Men of Genius campaign ads, also in today's NY Times) as stupid and not worth arguing over, there are some issues that represent fundamental attacks on the principles that I think more than anything else are America, and this is one of them.
Basically, my problem is this: unless I was lied to throughout civics class in high school, you're a citizen once born in the United States, regardless of circumstances. Furthermore, once a citizen, you get the exact same rights as every single other citizen, according to my favorite Amendment (14), regardless of circumstances. We're supposed to be past the second-class citizen bullshit, right?
Well, obviously not, according to Congress. What this change says is that based solely on your parents' immigrant status, something over which you clearly have no control, you can get screwed out of health care that the government has (or ought to have) an affirmative duty to provide. I don't want to make this an argument about universal care--that's a little too heavy for me, and I don't feel comfortable enough with the economics of healthcare either under our present or a potential nationalized system to say either way which is better. However, this policy change basically says, "We, the United States, feel more comfortable assuming that you travelled here illegally with your less-than-one-year-old infant in tow and thus denying the potentially also-illegal child important preventative health services that could have long-term health consequences." In other words, it's better to deny real and substantial health benefits to an infant because we can't be *positive* the child is a citizen. As far as establishing two tiers of citizenship goes, this measure definitely helps further deprive some Americans (those whose parents are undocumented) of basic preventative care in early childhood, which can clearly have serious health consequences later in life.
Advocates of the measure claim that the proof of citizenship they require is easy to obtain, and that emergency services will not be affected. However, the pressures on undocumented immigrants (and, indeed, sometimes even on legal permanent residents) make any contact with the government, however brief, threatening. INS is fully willing to deport immigrants at any time regardless of how many times they've been let off the hook in the past, making the most routine traffic stops into pressure situations. Requiring undocumented immigrants to obtain legal proof of citizenship for their children will, in the end, strongly deter them from getting sufficient care. It is fundamentally unfair to the American citizens in question to enact this measure with full knowledge of its likely effect.
I'm so torn in my feelings about my country. Last night, I started reading Barack Obama's book (his first one), and I fell asleep with an abiding feeling of optimism, that the principles that have always stood behind the laws of this country will in the end lead us ever forward. Unfortunately, I woke up to this discriminatory Medicaid bullshit. It's hard carrying so much love and so much hate for a place at the same time, but America does so more consistently than any other person or institution I've ever come across. That said, I know that there's nowhere else in the world I would rather be--nowhere else that I would fit in visually, let alone anywhere that can tell a national story as compelling and hopeful as our own. Although I'm willing to write off most politics (like the Real Men of Genius campaign ads, also in today's NY Times) as stupid and not worth arguing over, there are some issues that represent fundamental attacks on the principles that I think more than anything else are America, and this is one of them.
posted by sam at
2:43 AM
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