March 15, 2005

Immigration: “We must not misconstrue generosity with surrender.” - Madeleine Cosman

Anyone so naïve as to think that the millions of dollars spent on illegal alien health care is not the biggest contributor to his own rising costs of medical insurance needs to read “Illegal Aliens and American Medicine”[PDF file] by Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Ph.D., Esq. (e-mail her) in the Spring 2005 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Whenever I hear open border enthusiasts claim that America has to grant amnesty to illegal aliens so they can “step out of the shadows,” I scream:

“No one is in the shadows! They are openly driving without a license down Main Street to drop their kids off at K-12 schools for an education on our dime. They gather at hiring halls to work off the books. And they sit in the waiting rooms of medical clinics to receive taxpayer-funded treatment for ailments as basic as the common cold. When their medical needs are more serious, they proceed in broad daylight to major area hospitals for advanced treatment. Come one, come all!”

Madeleine Pelner Cosman is a California-based medical lawyer and Professor Emerita of City College of the City University of New York. What is truly shocking in her article is her detailed analysis of what goes along with the health care giveaway: translators, advocates, lawyers, respite care baby sitters—all provided pro-bono because of litigation by the usual suspects including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

I spoke with Cosman to find out the reaction to her essay.

She told me that she:

“…has received some of the most moving comments from people who appreciate that someone has stood up and told the true story. Even people whose own hospitals have disappeared because of the financial burden of providing care to illegal aliens did not fully understand the reasons why.”

Cosman confirmed my own experiences with the fraud-driven system that allows virtually unlimited access to a plethora of cash benefits and medical care.

The most blatant example is Supplemental Security Income.

For those who follow immigration issues only infrequently, few can believe that immigrants come to the United States and, without ever having worked a day in America or without being able to speak a word of English, can immediately quality for S. S. I.

But it’s true. Collecting S.S.I. is a simple three-step process:

Step one ---undertake the apparently easy task of finding an unscrupulous physician (preferably one of your own ethnicity) to “confirm” your “symptoms.”
Step two---submit bogus paperwork to the nearest S.S.I. office
Step three---proceed to your mailbox to pick up your monthly check.

The uninitiated might be also surprised at what qualifies for S.S.I --- popular disabilities include alcohol or drug addiction and the almost impossible to prove “post war traumatic stress syndrome.”

I have made dozens of phone calls---none returned--- to doctors asking them to please elaborate on how my student/ his patient’s condition was so serious that he could be excused on a revolving six-month basis.

Then there is the “anchor baby” outrage. Children born to illegal aliens are automatic U.S. citizens. When the child turns eighteen, he can then petition the federal government on behalf of his parents to change their status to permanent resident. This is done as a matter of course.

Cosman wrote that since 1994 anchor babies born in California and paid for by Medi-Cal have increased from 34% of all births to 50% in 2003.

And according to statistics gathered by Cosman, during 2003 the San Joaquin General Hospital in the sanctuary city of Stockton, CA., 70% of the 2,300 deliveries were “anchor babies.”

Cosman concludes that one of several steps that must be taken to regain control of our borders is to rescind the citizenship of anchor babies by redefining the current misrepresentation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Pointing out that the Constitution provides citizenship to such persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof ” Cosman insists that the illegal alien mother and her baby are subject to the jurisdiction of their home country.

Cosman, who said “it was only after I came to California from New York that I understood the magnitude of the problem,” has been lecturing for years across the country about the impact of illegal immigration and allows that she consistently receives “standing ovations.”

“What we need,” added Cosman, “is a critical mass of people—we are not quite there yet—to donate money, time and effort to immigration reform.”

I urge you to read Cosman’s piece---my summary has not done it justice. Forward it to those that you know who may be sitting on the immigration reform fence.

Joe Guzzardi [email him], an instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.