A Hoosier Problem

I've been thrown out of a lot of places in my lifetime, most of the time for reasons that I am not very proud of. But the recent ablation of my comment on the blog: Senator Delph [Rep, Ind]: Illegal Immigration Costs Hoosiers 'Millions' Annually on Health Care, Education makes me proud that I am a human rightist. I don't resent at all having my opinion deleted from the blog praising the tunnel-vision senator. I've reproduced my comment below for the benefit of anyone who might navigate through my website. I have the distinct impression that removing my comment is typical of many similar acts of deception that we've seen recently by our leaders in congress. Acts that have been responsible for the economic crisis, the healthcare disaster, and the management of the immigration crisis that we are seeing today. Read below and let me know you're thoughts.

Sure, take their education opportunities away. Let the children turn to gangs, turn to sexual exploitation, and turn to be drug-runners in order to survive. We don’t mind paying for the consequences of those social tragedies, do we?

Instead of helping these sojourners in our communities become good, self-sufficient, tax-paying citizens, let’s just grind them down, raid the workplaces, tear children away from their parents, put the family breadwinners in detention camps. And by all means let’s withhold health care. What have they done to deserve it? Not by being construction workers, housekeepers, restaurant workers, or engaging in countless other labor intensive jobs for the purpose of providing for their families and to make our lives more comfortable.

Senator Delph needs to ask Tim Kennedy of the Indiana Hospital Association if he has ever heard of the EMTALA law. If any of the illegal immigrants in Indiana are denied basic, outpatient health care they turn to emergency rooms where, by law, they can’t be turned away, and the cost of care does skyrocket. The same applies also to the millions of uninsured and underinsured “legals” in every community in the nation. The cost far exceeds the cost of health care for the “illegals”, most of whom are afraid to present themselves any place where they might be discovered and labeled as criminals.

I submit that Senator Delph consider focusing on the crisis issues of today–the economic disaster and the deteriorating healthcare system.

Senator Delph needs to ask Tim Kennedy of the Indiana Hospital Association if he has ever heard of the EMTALA law. If any of the illegal immigrants in Indiana are denied basic, outpatient health care they turn to emergency rooms where, by law, they can’t be turned away, and the cost of care does skyrocket. The same applies also to the millions of uninsured and underinsured “legals” in every community in the nation. The cost far exceeds the cost of health care for the “illegals”, most of whom are afraid to present themselves any place where they might be discovered and labeled as criminals.

charlesclarknovels

www.charlesclarknovels.com

October 15th, 2008 at 11:29 pms

Shades of Guantanamo

Our nation has a long history of global humanitarianism--fair and humane treatment of prisoners, avoidance of any semblance of torture, offering due process to detainees, providing aid to the underprivileged anywhere in the world, providing aid in the event of disasters, defending nations from aggression. When I think of humanitarianism around the globe, I think of one of my granddaughters who is in the Peace Corps, busy doing her bit to bring some pittance of educational light to the many illiterate and underprivileged in a foreign country. 

There have been times, I am sure, in the aftermath of terrorists attacks, that there have been occasions during interrogations of detained suspects, that the line has been crossed. Physical trauma, however, can never be condoned, but in the heat of any conflict it is understandable that every person has a breaking point--especially if that person is given the responsiblity of protecteing our nation. Thusly, we are thinking about stories, true or invalid, we've heard about the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

But I am talking about the treatment of millions of undocumented immigrants and their families right here in our own backyards. Click on this link and read the two Standing Firm articles posted on August 15th and on August 16th. See if you agree that these acts are not every much as dehumanizing and criminal as the stories we hear about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

One: About the story published in the Spanish-language newspaper, La Jornada--ninety thousand, (90,000), Mexican children deported across the border without any government protection. Thirteen thousand five hundred, (13,500), of these children were orphans and have been forced to survive by begging, stealing, or becoming drug runners or becoming sexually exploited--treatment that is an affront to humanity and is in direct conflict with International Conventions on children's rights.

The Other:  About the ICE raid on the Dulles Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country. 42 workers, busily engaged in repair work on the airport, all skilled craftsmen--dry-wall specialists and welders--arrested on the premise that they were a terrorist threat to the airport. There was no evidence presented that would incriminate any of these immigrants as terrorists. But likely all will be deported, leaving wives and families behind without any visible means of support. To add to the breakdown in due process, these workers were denied legal representation.

What's happening in our nation? Will the next encroachment on individual rights be the constitutional right of freedom of speech? I think I hear a knock on my door. As a writer with a passion for human rights, is my personal safety in jeopardy?

Charles Clark

www.charlesclarknovels.com

What's to Be Gained

Yet another raid: on the plant that manufactures parachutes for the military in Asheville, North Carolina. Over 50 immigrants captured and detained for deportation, for many it will tear families apart, separate husbands from wives and children. When will this country ever address the immigration crisis by doing a root-cause analysis of the cause and direct efforts toward measures to discourage immigrants from illegal entry in order to support their families? There are so many ways to accomplish just that.

If any reader of this blog is so inclined, he/she might wish to read Leviticus (19:33-34), "When strangers sojourn with you in your land, you shall not do them wrong. The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Are we a God-loving country of immigrants, built on the above premise? If we profess that we are, then we must cease this inhumane, shameful, cruel treatment of immigrants and pursue avenues other than the current enforcement measures to resolve this national disaster.

charlesclarknovels

www.charlescllarknovels

Dream Act

Few people have ever heard of the so-called Dream Act, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act. It is proposed legislation that has been kicked around Congress for over a year--much the same as illegal immigrants have been kicked around for a much longer period of time--that with its passage would make young undocumented immigrants eligible for certain benefits, if they qualify. It failed to pass when introduced in the Senate. It might come up for debate again since there has been growing interest in alternative means, other than enforcement, to address the immigration crisis. It should be passed since it would a step forward in a humane approach to a growing problem.

There are 1,800,000 U.S. raised children, many of whom were toddlers when they were brought into this country by parents who migrated here illegally. These children know no other country, they know no language other than English. These young people are not eligible for many of the social benefits that their contemporaries enjoy, such as tuition or student loans. They cannot apply for or hold a legal job, and unfortunately they are subject to being torn away from their families and homes and deported.

Should the Dream Act or a similar legislative act be passed, an undocumeted immigrant must meet certain qualifications to be eligible to participate:

• Must have arrived in the United States at an age of 15 or younger
• Must have been a resident for a consecutive period of 5 years
• Must have graduated from an American high school or hold a GED
• Must show evidence of good moral character and have no criminal record

The Anti-immigrationists often campaign their cause by inciting fear that the increase in the number of immigrants in the country will increase criminal activity. Think for a minute: if the 1,800,000 undocumented, young immigrants are deprived of education opportunities and cannot find a legal job, would they not likely be attracted to gang participation and be a threat to every community in the nation?

www.charlesclarknovels.com

Update on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 09:43PM by Charles

It is inconceivable that the Senate would defeat the DREAM ACT legislation. It was a calloused, inhumane action that will have disastrous consequences. The DREAM ACT gave hope to millions of young people who, through no fault of their own, were brought to this country by their parents who entered illegally. These children have grown up here, speak English, have attended our schools, many have graduated from high school, have assimilated into our culture.

What do they face now? At a time in their lives when they are on the threshold of opportunity to realize their potentials in society, they face the gloom of the difficulty finding employment, of joining the armed forces, of expanding their education, and of contributing to our culture. Think what path they will face. On top or the bitterness they feel, the discrimination, hopelessness,  feeling of worthliness, and the fear of deportation will drive many to a life of crime, street gangs and drug trafficing.

Any way you look at it, the defeat was purely politically and partisan driven and will be a black mark on our future from a human rights standpoint. How can that group of senators that voted againt the DREAM ACT celebrate the holy day of Christmas and sing: "Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men?" Have they no heart.  Disgraceful!   

Merciless Treatment

Does anyone care about the inhumane treatment of immigrants? How can we stand by and allow this flagrant disregard for human rights to continue? We condemn and sanction other nations for the very acts that our enforcement agencies are engaged in every day. An undocumented immigrant, the father of two children, beaten to death by a bunch of racist hoodlums. The murderers should be the targets for detention--in some prison for a long enough period to assure that they have learned that we don't condone that type behavior.

But the xenophobic, racist, bigots in that community probably sit back and bask in their victory: they've taken matters into their own hands and have eliminated one immigrant. And they have no sensitivity to the fact that they have taken a father and a husband away from some family. The victim worked at any job he could get to support his family. I'm sure he dreamed of pursuing the opportunities of the new world in which he had made his home. He probably dreamed of the educational opportunities for his children, that they could rise out of the destitution in which he had been imprisoned all of his life.

Raids, detention, deportation, fragmented families, destroyed hope, now murder--who feels proud of our ICE policy? The architects of our ICE policy need a lesson in Texas "law and order."

charlesclarknovels

www.charlesclarknovels.com