ICE crackdown forcing some families to self deport

[Benton]

(07-11-2017, 06:02 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Back then there was no social safety nets or handouts.   If you want to dissolve all safety nets and benefits then sure we can let people come and if they make it they make it....   if they starve they starve.  

Back then you could come to America and if you didn't work you starved.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/green-card-holders-qualify-obamacare-not-medicare-article-1.1728340

Quote:Permanent residents qualify for Medicare (a federal health insurance program) if they have worked in the United States for a total of 40 quarters — 10 years. U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents at least age 65, who have been here five years, may buy into Medicare if they don’t have the work history. 

It's the same with a lot of the safety net programs, there's typically work or time requirements. Immigrant (legal or illegal) impact on safety net programs is minuscule and nothing when compared to the taxes paid and income generated. If immigration services are working correctly and immigrants are checked up on to make sure they're holding down jobs, paying taxes, etc., then it's not really an issue if those same citizens eventually have to use some of the same safety net they've already been paying for.

If a guy comes here from Mexico, starts a catering business, becomes a legal citizen, pays taxes for 20 years and then has to go on food stamps for a couple months because his business hits a speed bump, I've got no issue with that. Same as I don't have any issue with an American born construction worker having to draw a couple months unemployment when he inevitably gets laid off in the winter — he was already paying into that system, it's his tax money he's getting back.