Immigration a lightning rod in health care debate
By Max J. Castro
mcastro@gmail.com
But beyond the GOP’s lies and the Democrats’ rebuttals there is the question nobody dares ask. What about the undocumented immigrants? Are they a lesser form of humanity? Don’t they get sick, injured, bleed, suffer and die like the rest of us?
A Who’s Who of the nation’s xenophobes met at the Washington DC Phoenix Park hotel last week. The event, attended by about 200 people, including 45 talk radio hosts, was energized by Georgia Representative’s Joe Wilson’s recent disruption of President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress. Of all the components of the health care legislation, it was Obama’s statement that illegal immigrants would not be eligible that unleashed Wilson’s infamous “You lie!”
The event, titled “Hold their feet to the fire,” is organized as a lobbying exercise yearly by the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), the leading anti-immigrant organization in the United States. Among the top speakers at the event was none other than CNN’s Lou Dobbs. Fox talk host Glen Beck received the “WE the People” award although he did not attend the event.
The Washington independent reported that some attendees complained that certain Republican members of Congress were less than enthusiastic with regard to taking up the issue.
“They think it’s a toxic issue,” said Julie Dunston, a Florida activist who also attended FAIR’s event in 2008. “When they hear you’re asking about immigration, they freeze up.”
The immigration issue was inserted into the health care debate as part of the Republican attempt to throw everything but the kitchen sink at health reform proposals. Conversely, anti-immigration activists see the health debate as another argument in their arsenal.
The truth is that undocumented immigrants are not eligible under the bills being debated in Congress. But beyond the GOP lies and the Democrat’s rebuttals there is the question nobody dares ask. What about the undocumented immigrants? Are they a lesser form of humanity? Don’t they get sick, injured, bleed, suffer and die like the rest of us?
Do we really want emergency rooms across this country to deny care to undocumented immigrants who have been hurt at work, suffered a traffic accident or been struck by a heart attack? Is crossing a border illegally a capital offense?
The fact that almost no one is asking this question speaks volumes. In the coming years, the votes of Latinos must speak louder still.
