Stephen Green points me at this:
Republican lawmakers in Texas have spent the past year implementing regulatory changes to limit access to services for the estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrants residing in the state, prompting both support from state officials and criticism from activist groups.
A report by the Texas Tribune detailed the steps taken, which include tightening eligibility requirements for occupational licenses, restricting access to commercial driver’s licenses, and limiting who can qualify for in-state tuition at public universities. According to the report, more than 6,400 refugees and DACA recipients have lost their commercial driver’s licenses. Additional restrictions are expected to affect non-citizens working in licensed industries such as construction and medicine.
State officials are also examining the 1982 Supreme Court ruling Plyler v. Doe, which requires public schools to educate non-citizens.
In a sane world, none of this would even be a topic under discussion. Of course illegal immigrants should not get any kind of state (or federal, for that matter) benefits whatsoever. Tax-based (i.e. government) funds should be spent exclusively on the citizens who paid those taxes, and not just on anyone who happens to be standing there.
I know, I know:
“That’s Krool & Hartless, Kim. Why would you deny education to the CHIIIILDREN? It’s not their fault their parents brought them here; why would you punish them so?”
Ask their parents that question: why would you bring your children with you and involve them in your criminal enterprise? (Yes, illegal immigration is a crime, ipse facto.)
No. Nobody deserves to be rewarded for criminal behavior — which is what all this is — and while I agree that it would indeed be cruel and heartless to deny medical care to anyone, it still doesn’t make it right that our hospitals treat illegal immigrants for their ailments and injuries, especially when it is precisely that (free) treatment which gives them an incentive to come over here in the first place. Ditto child education.
Here’s the thing. What did people think was going to be the result of our government actually following and enforcing immigrant law to its proper extent and function? Of course this was going to create hardship on the illegal immigrants and their families — in the same way, incidentally, that sending a criminal to jail for, say, armed robbery creates hardship for their family. That should be part of the deterrent.
But guess what? Failure to enforce the law — as the Biden government failed to do — simply creates an incentive to break the law. If you are not going to prosecute people for the crime of shoplifting, for example, then don’t be surprised when shoplifting becomes endemic. We’ve seen this happen in cities governed according to this foolishness — why would we think it would be any different for any other kind of crime, such as in this case illegal immigration?
I’m really glad that Texas legislators are doing what they’re doing — what they’re supposed to be doing — which is to take away incentives for people to break the law and suffer no consequences. And ignore idiots like this squish:
“These all represent a broader and more coordinated shift … to create a pipeline of exclusion that stretches from limiting access to K-12 education, all the way into participation in the workforce and basic mobility through the state,” Corinne Kentor, with the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, told the outlet.
Yup. Keep going, guys, and get rid of the benefits of criminal behavior; this is what we voted for.
“Tax-based (i.e. government) funds should be spent exclusively on the citizens who paid those taxes, and not just on anyone who happens to be standing there.”
Nice in theory, in practice impossible.
Say I’m a tourist in your state. According to your statement I should not be allowed to use the roads there, as they’re funded by taxes.
Now I commit a crime. According to your statement the police and courts should not be used to find, arrest, and try me, and the prison system should not house me for my sentence. All those are funded by taxes.
If you limit yourself to things like welfare, jobs programs, government funded healthcare (except emergency care, especially emergency care for infectious diseases), sure.
For your first item, reciprocity is the key. You are a legal citizen of your state and legally visiting my state. You get to use the roads my taxes paid for on you vacation. When I visit your state, legally, I can use the roads your taxes paid for. We are both legal citizens of the same republic and share reciprocal rights in that regard.
For your second item, having the police investigate, track down and arrest a criminal is not a service for the criminal, it’s a service for the citizens of the state. Same with prison, it’s not a service from the criminal, it’s a service for the citizens. So that doesn’t fly.
Oh no.
It’s a service for the criminal. Because the other option (besides police) is that we shoot the fücker ourselves. Or hang him.
“I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we’re gonna hurt some people.”
“Whose car are we gonna take? “
To a certain degree *everyone* pays taxes.
Remember, corporations don’t pay taxes, they just collect it for the government, right (meaning all corporate taxes are paid for by customers). So even if the tourist does nothing but stay in hotels, eat, and get driven around by tour busses or taxis, they’re paying a LOT of taxes for the short time they are there.
Same with illegals–and I’m all in favor of denying them MOST government services–they’re living somewhere, so their rent is what the property owner uses to pay property taxes, they’re buying food, so they’re paying the same sales tax there as anyone. They’re buying gas, so the excise taxes are being paid.
There *some* government services–police and fire for example–that we would want them to avail themselves of for reasons of second and third order effects. We don’t want “them” to be so afraid of being deported that they won’t talk to local police about serious criminal matters (sex and drug trafficking, gang violence, really abusive or unsafe landlords).
First, a LOT of the illegals are operating under the table (or black market, or whatever euphemism you prefer). That means cash business and no taxes paid. I know, I’ve seen it. So if they are contributing to the tax base, it’s the bare fucking minimum. And yet, for all the under the table stuff they do, they are completely above the table for collecting welfare, SNAP, WIC, and other govt bennies. That are net consumers of tax money, not net payers. Their so-called tax payments you believe they pay don’t even come close to what they cost society.
The second and third order effects you mention? The illegals are afraid to go to the police not because they fear the police, but because they fear the traffickers, the pimps, the drug lords, and the cartels. The police are wimps compared to that. The best way to solve that gordian knot? Deport all of them and seal the border.
Sorry, I’m a life-long Texan and I’ve seen way too much of this shit. Even the Texas-born Mexicans here are tired of this shit. We’ve had enough.
I will never agree to the gov’t stealing money for any reason at all.
Having said that, since the criminal gov’t does indeed steal on a gargantuan basis, I have no qualms at all with anybody stealing from the thief.
Ghost, you have no problem with two thieves stealing your hard earned tax money?
If it’s already stolen from me by the gov’t, why should I care where it ends up?
FWIW, I haven’t paid income tax since 2004. Yes, I make less, but I get to use ALL of it as I see fit.
Mittens Romney had this as part of his immigration plan back in 2012 or so. Turn off the social welfare program to criminal migrants and they’ll self deport. This is definitely one strategy worth pursuing.
It’s a sad realization that simply enforcing the FUCKING LAW AS WRITTEN is the gold standard for a good politician.
Back in the 90s there was this thing called “Usenet”, and there was a particular corner of it where a bunch of cynical IT bastards hung out. Mostly Unix/Linux geeks, with a small smattering of Windows types, and some dinosaur riders.
This is the first place I heard the now well known conversation about training your people:
“What if I train them and they leave?” says the boss.,
“What if you don’t train them and they stay” was the response.
Yeah, we don’t want to reward illegals for coming here. We should not have provide *any* non-emergency government services in any language other than American English. No government money should go to supporting illegals, except for (off the top of my head) police and fire support. Maybe EMT service, because they shouldn’t take the time to verify legality.
And primary and secondary education.
Because both “What if we don’t train them and they stay” and “What if we DO educate them and they leave”.
Now part of this is breaking the monopoly the leftist have on curriculum in the US. We should be teaching not just the what of the constitution and the bill of rights, but we should be teaching the *why* of it. And as children’s prefrontal cortex grows we should be teaching the ramifications of it.
If we did this to children of illegal immigrants–taught them what their rights are, and what rights REALLY are[1], and WHY those rights are, then the whole world is better off.
The children (usually) aren’t criminals (yet). They were too young to have a choice and too young for “Mens Rea” to be a thing.
The flip side of all of this is that our government needs to stop fücking around with these countries. Either you fix the corruption, the violence and the graft that makes your countries such shitholes, or we completely cut off aid. Yeah, that might send some into the arms of China, but so what? They already aren’t reliable allies.
Ideologically I have a problem with “Public” anything. Public welfare, public land, public….
My only objection is that Texas is making this harder when the word should be impossible. Then tie whatever state benefits you want to offer to a persons 1040 (or whatever Texas has). If you contribute nothing into the pile, then you get nothing…zip,zero,nada. If you can’t live in Texas off nothing, move the fuck to Oregon. That will have the dual benefit of attracting the productive to Texas, and encouraging the deadbeats to leave.
I have to know”
when did the U.S. (and state) government become a charitable institution?
The U.S. Constitution is written in English (not Spanish, German, or French); how can we expect “immigrants” to understand what the United States of America is all about if they are unable to speak, read, and understand English; few enough grade school teachers understand enough to relate the meaning to their students, though they can (and do) teach them all about the rainbow and 47 genders.
Sooner or later I wouldn’t be surprised if I see a lot of politicians roaming the streets in their tar and feather tuxedos.