Immigration Visa Attorney Blog

Since July 2008, the County of Los Angeles has posted 81 people in 27 social service offices to check and verify immigration status of all applicants for social services. As the debate continues on health care, the lawyers at Romben Law, APC in Los Angeles remain concerned that immigrants are being made the scapegoats for a dysfunctional health-care system that they have had no hand in creating.

According to an article in today’s Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles County has so far not found one illegal immigrant masquerading as a legal resident in order fraudulently to obtain social benefits. Among Medi-Cal applicants, only about 0.1% of the total applicant pool was found to be ineligible because of immigration status.

One has to ask the question: is the expense of this verification system worth what we’re paying for it?

Representative Joe Wilson’s outburst on the floor of the House of Representatives, effectively calling the President a liar has continued to resonate throughout the country. As advocates for immigrants, Los Angeles immigration lawyers at Romben Law, APC have warned that immigrants will be used as scapegoats during the health care debate. And so they have.

The fact that Congressman Wilson was told by Republican party leaders to immediately call the White House to apologize should be a signal; Wilson did not choose to apologize himself. He has maintained that he is right, despite the facts. Instead, we are worried that he will become a symbol to radical right-wing activists that it is perfectly alright to shout down the President, perfectly acceptable to simply interrupt anyone with whom one disagrees, perfectly acceptable to ignore facts. This type of approach leads to a my-way-or-the-highway approach to politics, and no one gains from that.

We believe that as the debate on Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) begins in 2010, this form of argument, simply cutting off or shutting down civilized discussion, will become worse. This is a danger to our democracy and will harm immigrants and our country.

It is sometimes saddening and discouraging to be right. Yesterday, immigration attorneys at Romben Law, APC in Los Angeles cautioned in our blog that immigrants would be used to score points in the health-care debate. Last night (Wednesday, 9 Sept 2009), almost like a pavlovian response, a republican Congressman, Joe Wilson, heckled and insulted President Barack Obama during the President’s speech to a joint session of Congress on the question of health-care reform, using immigrant access to health care as the excuse.

During a speech describing his plan for health-care reform, the President clearly stated that no Federal money would be spent providing “illegal immigrants” with government-subsidized health care under his proposed plan. Wilson, a representative from South Carolina, shouted out, “you lie!”

It is sad that the debate has sunk to this level. Here’s why:

Romben Law, APC in Los Angeles is devoted exclusively to advocacy for immigrants. Recently, those opposed to meaningful health-care reform have started to use the immigrant community as a political whipping boy once again, using scare tactics and making false claims about immigrants’ use of, payment for, and access to health care.

Some important facts to keep in mind in this debate:

First: If more participants — including immigrants — pay into the insurance system and are covered by some health-care plan, this spreads risk over a larger group. It means that more people who need health care will be able to get it.