Arizona mulling no health care for illegal immigrants

When Mini Militant was born, I was slightly disgruntled to discover that the illegal immigrants in the room next to us (lovely couple, by the way) were having their son's extensive hospital stay paid for by the hospital trust because they didn't have insurance.

The fact that they're required to do this by New Jersey state law explains why the birth of our baby boy wound up costing our insurer $40,000 or more.

'Paying customers' like us were basically picking up the shortfall for giving tens of thousands of dollars of 'free' care to the uninsured (and, if we didn't, the hospital would go out of business.)

In California, where there are many more illegal immigrants, the legal requirement to give treatment to the uninsured has actually resulted in a slew of hospitals and clinics shutting up shop. It's a very serious issue and one of the major reasons why health care costs are spiralling out of control all across the country.

Well, in Arizona they've said: "No more."

Republican lawmakers in Arizona have proposed a bill that would require hospitals to check the immigration status of each patient before they were checked in - and refuse them service if they were illegal.

Arizona SB 1405 "Before a hospital admits a person for nonemergency care, a hospital admissions officer must confirm that the person is a citizen of the United States, a legal resident of the United States or lawfully present in the United States."

The bill would require hospitals to refuse treatment to non-urgent patients, and force them to call federal immigration officers after giving urgent care to illegal aliens. These were important steps, the sponsors of the bill argued, to reining in what they defined as rampant abuse of Arizona's medical system.

"I get calls from doctors and nurses every day that work in the emergency rooms," argues State Senate President Russell Pearce, co-sponsor of the bill. "They're talking about the abuse. The millions of dollars spent for folks who come in for pregnancy tests, sniffles. They use emergency room services as their primary care physician. When do we stand up for the taxpayers? Those who pay for insurance? There's a cost to this. The cost of hundreds of millions of dollars."

"No, nobody is going to turn those folks down. The federal law still requires us to take emergencies and stabilize them. What we want to do is stop the inducement. Quit inviting people over the border. While we give them free stuff, they come here and get free medical. I have to pay for my insurance, they walk in, because they're illegal they get free care, they use the emergency room as the primary care physician. We're saying enough is enough."

Is 'enough' enough?

I admit, I share the frustration of Pearce and the sponsors of the bill - but ultimately I have a decidedly European outlook to health care and feel that providing medical care to all is one of the basic, fundamental requirements of a civilized country.

Yet with America spending more on health care than any other country on Earth - and medicare and other entitlements about to send the nation into virtual foreclosure - can we afford to give foreign nationals [illegal foreign nations, to clarify - not legal aliens - Editorial Bear] the medical care they should be getting at home?

What are you thoughts?

Job Americans Won't Do?

I'm a huge fan of Comedy Central's faux-conservative pundit Stephen Colbert - although I initially had reservations about his latest stunt.

Teaming up with the United Federation of Farm Workers, he boldly challenged the ranks of America's unemployed (whom, until recently, I was one of) to fill the thousands of farm worker jobs advertised each and every autumn.

Their website is Take Our Jobs.

The stunt's meant to draw attention to the plight of illegal immigrants in this country, as three-quarters of all farm workers were born outside of the United States, and more than half of them are illegal immigrants.

The challenge to 'take our jobs' is a direct attack on the notion that 'illegal invaders' are taking jobs away from American citizens. The United Federation of Farm Workers argue that farm worker jobs truly are the jobs American citizens 'won't do.'

(And to prove that point, during the last recruitment drive to get the unemployed Americans to fill the thousands of vacancies, just three even bothered turning up to be interviewed.)

But to my mind, this stunt highlights an entirely different problem. We shouldn't be celebrating the fact that illegal aliens are willing to do the jobs that Americans 'won't do.' We should be wondering how - in a modern, industrialized economy - we allow an employment model to exist that basically precludes anybody but undocumented aliens and those coming from nations of extreme poverty.

Colbert revealed what the life of a farm worker is like and it's not pretty.

For a start, it's one of the most dangerous jobs in America. Laboring for half a day in the blazing sun leads to heat-stroke and death on frequent basis. Yet I don't think long hours, hard work or danger are the reasons American citizens are refusing to accept these jobs.

In addition to this backbreaking work, farm labors earn a pittance. Many farms aren't required to give even minimum wage and many are excluded from paying overtime as well. What's worse, smaller farms are even exempt from workers compensation - so if you collapse in the field from heat exhaustion, you can't ask your employer to cover your medical costs.

It's basically little more than slave labor - no great step up from how farm workers used to live during the reconstruction following the Civil War. The reason these are jobs 'no American would take' is because they're jobs no human being should take.

And it's wrong. It shouldn't be allowed.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm fairly conservative and a fierce supporter of the free market system - however I have stronger support for the principle of a living wage.

I believe, without exception, that if you hire somebody to work for you full time (for more than forty hours a week) you are morally - and should be legally - obligated to:

• Pay them a wage on which they can live.
• Provide them with basic medical insurance.
• Offer them the basic protections required by law.

The farming industry fails to provide farm laborers with any of those things, which is why it's entirely understandable that no American wants to take that work. They shouldn't have to.

And before they open their opinionated mouths, right-wing types who argue about 'the free market' need to remember that the farming industry in America doesn't really count as part of the 'free market' anyway.

It survives on billions of dollars of government subsidy each and every year and therefore shouldn't be subsidized any more by the blood and sweat of exploited workers.

Offer farm laborers decent wages, decent health coverage and basic protection and I guarantee that American citizens would happily brave the blazing heat and punishing hours. Americans aren't afraid of hard work - they just expect to be able to earn enough to live off doing it.

And if the farming industry can't afford to pay its workers what they owe them? Well, perhaps that says more about the farming industry than the immigration debate. Maybe those farms don't deserve to be in business, and maybe billions of dollars of federal subsidies would be better spent elsewhere.

It's harsh, I know - and don't get me wrong. I love farming. I grew up on a farm, the countryside is in my blood and one of the things I love about America is the fact that it still manages to be remarkably self-sufficient when it comes to food.

But even I - one of the biggest advocates of farming going - believe the era of the great American farm might be over if this is what they've reduced themselves to in order to make a profit.

As far as illegal immigration fits into this problem, it's a symptom - not the disease. If the farming industry was obligated to pay workers what it owed, either Americans would fill those jobs or the source of production would move overseas (as, for all those 'free market' advocates, perhaps it should.')

In either eventuality, it would end one of the biggest lures this nation has for illegal immigrants.

Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs in Arizona

Much fuss is being kicked up about a new piece of legislation in Arizona, which makes it a legal requirement to carry ID with you wherever you go; and expands the rights of police officers to demand the paperwork of anybody they suspect of being an illegal immigrant.

This has outraged liberals across America, who claim that police demands to 'present your papers' will be akin to living in a police state, and that the law will be tantamount to racial profiling.

I, on the other hand, completely disagree.

Yes, it's true that 99.9% of people suspected of being illegal immigrants will be of Hispanic origin. That's not racial profiling, though - that's just the sad fact that 99.9% of illegal immigrants living in Arizona happen to be Hispanic (it does border Mexico, after all.)

If similar laws existed elsewhere in the country, like New York City, then it would be a different story. New York's teeming with illegals of all sorts of different hues - I know for a fact that many young Irish kids spend a couple of years working illegally in Irish pubs just for the craic of it. Visitors from Tel Aviv, or the Caribbean, are equally common.

And if it wouldn't be racial profiling here in New York, why is it considered so in Arizona? It strikes me that the law itself isn't inherently racist, just the demographics of Arizona.

The second criticism is one of civil rights - America is a 'free country' and many liberals argue that the notion of demanding that people carry ID cards is tantamount to fascism. Saturday Night Live even joked that every time an authority figure demands that somebody 'show their papers,' Adolf Hitler's family receive a royalty check.

However, I disagree with that notion on two grounds: Firstly, it already is law to carry ID if you're not an America citizen. I know this for a fact, since I'm required by federal law to carry my 'green card' everywhere I go (it even says so on the card.) This change in the law doesn't really make any difference to legal aliens in Arizona; just the illegal ones.

Secondly, it's already law in many parts of Europe to carry ID anywhere you go and as much as we might like to claim so, the EU isn't yet a fascist state. In a country with 300 million residents, targeted by both Muslim extremists and a tidal wave of illegal immigrants, the idea of a American ID card isn't offensive; it's inevitable.

In fact, a biometric ID card is one of the headline facets of Obama's touted immigration reform bill.

But my biggest problem with people wailing about this immigration bill in Arizona being racist is that it's not. It's dealing with a very specific problem that just happens to originate within a specific racial demographic.

I'm sorry that only Hispanic people will be affected by this bill; but it's been introduced to deal with an issue caused almost exclusively by Hispanics.

Illegal immigration isn't just the bugbear of rednecks and tea partiers - it's an enormous, legitimate problem and it needs to be dealt with. I'm not one of these lunatics crying 'send 'em all back', but I am a concerned resident of the United States forced to deal with the aftermath of rampant illegal immigration every single day.

Just what do I mean by that?

Here in New Jersey, illegal immigrants kill dozens on the roads every year, as they drive in uninsured, uninspected vehicles that simply aren't safe. Our neighbor, who was an illegal alien, got arrested and deported twice for driving drunk - yet was back in his apartment three months later both times, and cruising around in his rickety old minivan just hours later (often drunk.)

Other seemingly minor crimes - like fencing stolen goods, selling pirate DVDs and producing knocked-off merchandise - are often the only source of revenue illegal immigrants have access to; but that doesn't make it right.

Yes, I do blame these illegal aliens for breaking the law. There's no reason to. Take my drink-driving neighbor - who had no insurance. While in most states it's impossible to get a driver's license without legal immigration status, it's perfectly possible to get valid motor insurance (I drove legally insured on my British license for about three months after moving here.)

The simple mentality of too many illegal immigrants living here is that the America's laws don't apply to them, since they're already here illegally. This might seem unfair, but it's true; I bear witness to that every day.

There are a host of other issues that America's illegal immigration problem creates - such as driving down the minimum wage, taxing the overburdened free health care system and creating an underground, tax-free economy that depresses everybody's earnings.

(Paleo-conservatives have other concerns; like how every other sign and brochure seems to be printed in Spanish these days, and how what makes up quintessentially 'America' culture seems to be getting increasingly diluted by influences from south of border. I'm not sure how valid these claims are - after all, they said the same thing about the Italians and Irish at the turn of the 20th century - but it certainly goes a long way towards explaining why this immigration law is so popular in Arizona. )

But my issue isn't with any of those concerns - I'll leave them to the more rabid conservatives on the Internet. The reason I support this bill is because I object to people breaking the law with impunity; and having lived and worked in a country which required people to carry ID with them, I really don't see what the big fuss about this issue is.

If people accuse me of being racist for supporting this law, they're wrong. What's more, I think many liberals know that themselves; and are only using the 'racist card' to try and shame people into silence. That's a bad ploy, and has forced formerly moderate people like me to side with the right wing on this issue.

The Bureau of Immigration Triumphs Again!

Tonight, we got a knock on the door at about 8:30pm. Opening it up, I found myself staring into the face of my former neighbor. Fortunately I don't know the Spanish for 'Holy Crap!' because that's exactly what I would have said to him.

You see, my neighbor was an illegal immigrant. He'd been arrested and deported a couple of years ago and, after popping straight back across the border, been subsequently arrested again and banged up by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services - in a federal prison where, I'd been led to believe, he was going to rot.

Except here he was, on my goddamn doorstep.

Not that I'd wanted him to rot, I kept reminding myself. I had nothing against this guy, apart from the fact that he had flagrantly and repeatedly violated the immigration law's I'd spent five years as a slave to, reaped the benefits of New Jersey's free health care and schooling while I struggled to pay for insurance and daycare, didn't pay a dime in taxes (and subsequently pulled in more a month than my wife did) and insisted on driving his unregistered, uninspected, uninsured minivan home drunk off his arse every night.

But seriously. Apart from that? Nicest guy ever.

Anyway. Instead of being behind bars like I'd been led to believe he was, the guy was standing on my porch, politely inquiring if our landlord was around.

After a moment's disorientation, I shook his hand, invited him in and Mummy Militant and I found him our landlord's number. During the process, we exchanged what niceties we could given the language barrier.

"You've lost weight!"

"Thanks, so have you."

"Well, I've been in a federal prison for five months."

"Ah, right." Awkward pause. "So, erm. What happened then?"

"I got deported back to Mexico."

"And?"

"I came back here."

"Like, immediately?"

"Oh, no." He paused. "It took three weeks."

So with another shake of his hand, I sent our border-hopping pal on his way and closed, locked and bolted the door. Pressing my back against it, I asked Mummy Militant: "These immigration guys... Are they freaking kidding me?"

Since President Bush left office, a lot less attention has been paid on the question of illegal immigration of America. In fact, Obama's accomplished more in the past year regarding the issue than Bush and his cohorts did during two terms in office (which isn't necessarily a good thing. Obama's policies are brusque and unforgiving.) Tie that into a crappy economy - when even illegals find difficulty getting a job - and you're looking at the best immigration situation for years.

But the fact is, my neighbor was back. Being arrested, imprisoned and deported - twice - was as minor an inconvenience to him as renewing his motor-vehicle registration.

Which, incidentally, he never did.

It just goes to show that, whether the government's Democratic or Republican, they're all equally pathetic and powerless in the face of illegal immigration. In fact, it seems like the only reason people like my drink-driving neighbor are considering leaving the Land of Opportunity is because our crappy economy means those 'opportunities' are fewer and further apart than they used to be.

Mini Bus

We live in a largely immigrant neighborhood and are no stranger to the ubiquitous 'Mini Bus' - the transporte de choix of our many illegal immigrant neighbors.

These are clapped out mid-nineties mini-vans (Dodge Caravans and the like) with expired inspection stickers and out-of-state plates. They're normally seen swerving in and out of traffic crammed to the gills with friendly folks inside, as a sort of communal bus service.

We often wonder why we bother paying for insurance and maintaining our vehicle, since they seem to be able to drive about with impunity. If an mini bus ever does get pulled over, this is the result:

Illegal Immigration

So the bills started coming in for the birth of our son.

It was a roller coaster ride, I won't lie to you.

It's a rude introduction to the American health care system when you realise you have to fork over significant wads of boodle to pay for everything.

However, the care we received was so astonishingly good - so head and shoulders above what we could have expected from the good old 'National Health Service' back in England - that you can't help but think it's a fair rap having to shell out for it.

The care might have been good, but one thing I've learned is that medical billing isn't. We went to one hospital and had one baby - yet we've received about five separate invoices from five different departments - each one lulling us into a false sense of security since we think 'that's got to be the last one...'

The medical billing proved to be even more mismanaged when we called up to arrange payment and found that $500 of charges were actually a typo. Fortunately, we hadn't paid it yet!

The cost itself is astonishing. Unlike the NHS, where you just sign off and walk out, in America you get an invoice telling you how much you owe and how much the insurance company picks up. And health care apparently costs A LOT.

We were in hospital for about four days. The medical care (which the insurance company covered) was enough to pay for an entry level BMW, with accessories.

Many people reading this will say: "Thank goodness you have medical insurance!"

Well, to be honest, that's a double edged sword in New Jersey.

While our baby was getting checked out in Neonatal Intensive Care, he shared a corner with a cute little Spanish baby, who's parents didn't have medical insurance because they were 'undocumented.' Because of New Jersey state law, the hospital still has to give full treatment and service to this new baby and his parents even though they will never receive a dime for it.

Which is great - they brought a happy and healthy new baby into the world. But it winds up with the Spanish family paying nothing and my wife and I paying (through insurance) tens of thousands of dollars.

It's because so many people default on payment in New Jersey that the hospital needs to charge their 'paying customers' so much. Take our baby and his Spanish neighbour. If each of their bills came to $15,000, but only one of them is going to pay, the hospital decides to bill us $30,000 to cover their costs.

A lot of people say: "Suck it up" because illegal immigrants don't make much money and can't afford to pay for insurance (even if it was offered to them.)

Well, let me retort with this:

A hypothetical salary in New Jersey is about $40,000 (the household income for two working parents averages out at about $60,000.)

After tax, somebody earning $40,000 will bring home about $30,000.

My illegal immigrant neighbour gets $15 an hour 'cash in hand' for working illegally. He has no tax to pay and therefore brings home $30,000 a year as well.

The difference? The native New Jerseyite pays for health insurance and co-pay. The illegal immigrant, thanks to New Jersey state law, gets the same level of service for free. Basically, he 'makes' more and is rewarded for not being part of the system.

Now that's hardly right, is it?

Don't get me wrong. This is one specific example in the wonderful, liberal state that is New Jersey. It's not so much fun being an illegal immigrant in 'bag 'em and tag 'em' Texas, where you earn $3 a hour and five families live in squalor in a farmer's chicken coop.

But here in Jersey, our neighbour brings home what a tax paying citizen does, but doesn't pay health insurance. He doesn't pay co-pay. He doesn't register his car and doesn't have to pay for insurance (and inexplicably doesn't get arrested for this. Often.) All in all, he saves about $800 a month that the rest of us have to pay - and gets away with it.

What with Bank of America offering bank accounts, credit cards and mortgages to undocumented aliens, the hassles of living under the radar have all but evaporated. My illegal neighbour has credit cards, bank accounts and a smart new iPhone (which I couldn't afford, even if I wanted to give my hard earned money to Apple.)

Now I'm not going to go on an out-and-out rant about illegal immigration, but I will say this. It's a pretty crummy situation in which 'the system' rewards you for breaking the rules. When it comes to immigration, though, that's how it works - and we've seen it again and again and again.

Homeland Security? EPIC FAIL

So about three months ago, our neighbour disappeared.

He and his wife lived underneath us and, although I don't know this, it's a pretty safe guess that they were illegal immigrants. They didn't speak English, they received mail in about fifteen different combinations of Spanish-sounding names and he drove a beaten up old Dodge Caravan with mismatched Pennsylvania plates.

From various sources, we pieced together the reason why he didn't come home one night. Apparently, he'd been driving back from his black-market job, drunk (as he tended to be most nights) and got pulled over by the police.

No licence, insurance or registration, plus a prior record and tequila-scented breath you could light with a match, were enough to get him locked up and, unbelievably, the Immigration Department actually came and collected him.

That in itself is surprising - the local police are forbidden from demanding a prisoner's immigration status and unless there's a busload of them, the Immigration Department normally argue that it's not worth their while 'taking ownership' of prisoners.

For once, 'the system' apparently worked. Our plucky Mexican friend was bundled into a detention centre and then sent back home to Mexico.

That was three months ago. He turned up back on our doorstep yesterday.

In the intervening three months, his wife and kid has stayed in the house (still paying their rent in cash every month) and insisted to those who spoke Spanish that 'he'd be back.'

But I didn't believe her. I mean, this guy was a convicted criminal who'd been deported. I got 'refused entry' for a visa misunderstanding and it took me FIVE YEARS to return. Surely it was impossible - inconceivable - that this little Mexican bandito would be back in just three short months.

But he was.

So it looks like business as usual downstairs. The same slamming doors, the same swerving, rattling, smoking minivan knocking over dustbins every morning. A familiar, friendly smile from his nut-brown face as he scurries past our front door every night.

It just leaves one question unanswered:

HOW THE HECK DID HE GET BACK?

As it happens, the answer to that is obvious. He made use of the thousands of miles of border between America and Mexico that are only defended by a handful of rangers and a bunch of rednecks calling themselves a 'militia.'

Maybe he snuck over in a truck. Perhaps he floated across the Rio Grande in an inner tube (how many illegal immigrants earn the nickname 'wetbacks.') Perhaps he paid a 'coyote' to sneak him over the border - or crawled through miles of stinking sewer pipes like many illegal immigrants do.

Whatever the reason, it highlights the complete and utter incompetence of the Immigration Department. While they mercilessly harass legitimate immigrants at airports, the real problem is ignored - how illegal immigrants continue to sneak across the border into America.

Reports have claimed that a 'crack down' by the Immigration Department has successfully reduced the number of illegal immigrants in America by 20%. If that's true, they obviously weren't working in Jersey this week.

Now, don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against this guy. His wife is very sweet and their son is adorable (and an American, since he was born here.)

I just resent the fact that the current system rewards illegal immigrants. Whether McCain or Obama gets elected, they'll be given a safe route to citizenship despite breaking the rules. As it is, the local police turn a blind eye to them working under the table and driving cars without insurance or registration.

It's only the legitimate immigrants who get punished. They get harassed at the airport, they get stung with thousands of dollars in 'processing fees' and they spend years waiting for stamps on forms from a unaccountable bureaucracy. They get screwed.

When you reward the rule-breakers and punish the law abiding, you reap what you sow. That's why the immigration situation in America is such a God-awful mess.

Absolut Disgrace

Yay! Another thing I'm boycotting! Although it's no great hardship. I've always prefered Stolichnaya.

This advertisment for Absolut Vodka recently got pulled from the media after a number of Americans made angry protests about it. You can't really blame them. Since a number of illegal immigrants are branding themselves 'reconquistadors' and demanding American territory (claiming it's still part of Mexico) this advert seems wildly offensive.


Reverse Vampyr, over on his blog, dredged up some very funny immitations of this commercial. Go and check them out over on his blog.

United States or United Kingdom?

My father forwarded me this article from The Telegraph, which declares that the standard of living is better in England than America. It's followed by over two hundred responses from various interested readers.

The article itself is fairly throwaway. It's single assertion - that "the UK has been catching up steadily with living standards in the US since 2001," comes from Adrian Cooper, managing director of Oxford Economics.

I'm pretty skeptical of that theory - but the responses it triggered make for interesting reading.

"I visit the UK often," writes one American, "but avoid buying much because I spend a pound in the UK to buy what costs a dollar in the US. Furthermore, as an engineer in the US, I get paid three times the salary I would receive in the UK. Always have!"

A rather snobby Brit replied: "I'm no linguist, but I think I understand more of what's said and written in France than when I listen to some Americans speaking "English"."

Richard Pritchers ignores the issue completely, in order to make the politically charged assertion: "Not many posters seem to have remembered the numbers of young Americans who've been caught up in and died in the wars that America has and is still fighting. I was born in 1949 and have lived luckily at peace during my whole life as a UK citizen."

Ken Hall points out that: "Korea, Suez, Aden, Cyprus, The Falklands, Bosnia, Iraq 1 and Iraq 2, plus Afghanistan," kind of interfere with Pritcher's rather blinkered view.

Reading the comments, two things are clear. Firstly, even the most confirmed libertarian would start questing a 'right to free speech' after reading some of the responses. Secondly, the most valid comments stem from people who've actually have personal experience living in the UK and US.

My Personal Experiences

I have to admit that I moved to America with flaming ambitions that have only been tempered slightly by the weight of experience.

Living in the United Kingdom, Tina and I both had reasonable jobs and lived very modestly, in a two bed roomed rented terrace in the suburbs of Winchester.

We struggled for money every single day we were there.

Rent, bills and food made up all but £100 of our combined monthly income - and all it would take was one urgent car repair or an unexpected bill and we'd find ourselves in the red.

Living in England, in pretty much an average middle class lifestyle, saw us creep further and further into overdraft every single month.

What were the killers?

Taxation, for a start. While on the face of it, income tax in America and Britain are roughly equal, that's soon obliterated by National Insurance, council tax for renters and the blanket 17.5% Value Added Tax. It seems whatever you do, the likes of Gordon Brown have their fingers in your pockets in the United Kingdom.

When we moved to the United States in June of last year, we both got low-paid temporary assignments that paid well below our equivalent income in the United Kingdom... But do you know something astonishing?

We could live within our modest budget.

Land of Opportunity

Even though we were as close to New York City as we were London in the UK, our rent was 30% cheaper and we had no council tax to pay every month.

Weekly grocery costs were exactly the same figure. Except the 'figure' was dollars in the United States and pounds in the United Kingdom - and even though I was earning less equivalent to my salary in the UK, it still meant I had more dollar bills that I used to have pounds coins.

What really won me was the chance to find a 'real' job a few months later. Doing largely the same work in largely the same industry, I was paid 30% more than in the UK.

So I'm earning more, my money goes further and my bills are less. The quality of life in the United States, on the surface of it, is significantly better than in the UK.

Putting things into Perspective

Very few people would argue with that - although one of the more concerning aspects of life in America has to be the lack of a 'safety net' to catch you should things go belly up.

For example, there's no nationalized health service like there is in the UK. Private health insurance is the only way to guarantee adequate health coverage and that costs both you and your employer money. Currently coverage for my wife and I costs $300 a month and two thirds of that is covered by my company.

There are two things to consider about this situation.

Firstly, given my salary and tax bracket, it's actually cheaper for me to live in America and buy private health insurance than it is for me to be taxed on my UK income and enjoy 'free' private health care.

Secondly - just what sort of health 'care' are we talking about?

Our local British hospital, the Royal Hampshire Country Hospital, was recently rocked when two women both died of the same staph infection after giving birth the same day. While the NHS avidly denied any possible link, it's impossible not to be suspicious of two people in the same ward of the same hospital dying of the same thing within days of each other.

My wife actually toured the wards in question and her opinion? "They were just dirty."

By contrast, the local hospitals in New Brunswick are both brand spanking new, gleaming with polished tile, steel and wood and a powerhouse of efficient nurses and doctors scurrying about. Currently our health insurance package has provided us with top-notch service for a negligible cost and fingers crossed, long may that situation continue.

American Dream

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? But currently, our life is considerably better off under the Stars and Stripes than it was beneath the Union Jack.

It's the brutal level of taxation that really cripples people like us in Britain. It's like Gordon Brown had his eye out specifically to nobble the middle class.

In fact, the 'middle class' is a demographic that's rapidly extending downward. There is no 'working class' in much of Britain and the only people I met who claimed to belong to the 'Working Class' were tiresome pub-bores who spoke in effected 'common' accents, but spent the week working as salesmen, teachers or middle managers.

Many actual working class people (who did shifts in factories or industry) actually ended up earning more than a so-called 'middle class' writer like me!

In England, if you're not rich or you're not broke, you're screwed.

American Underclass

On the other end of the spectrum, the working class - and the downright poor - are demographics very much alive and well in the United States.

I have been fortunate never to part of their group, but honest-to-goodness poor people exist in America on a scale unheard of in Great Britain. There are families in the backwoods of Virginia or the deep south who live not much differently to depression-era families.

But here in gorgeous New Jersey, we are blessed by good incomes, cheap produce and the ability for even those of modest means to hire/purchase a wide-screen television and RF remote which means they can change cable channel from their garage.

But if you're poor, you can't afford health insurance. That's a fact.

Free Healthcare?

This doesn't mean you can't get health care. If you don't have insurance, but you lop your arm off with a chainsaw, you can still journey to the local Emergency Room and they'll patch you up. They're legally required to - and writing off the 'cost' of that treatment will eventually find it's way onto their tax write-offs for the year.

But that's very different to having the level of health care most people consider 'adequate.'

Nevertheless, I like to think I have some experience living 'poor' in the United States. Way back in 2001, I visited America for an extended period as I tried to get a work permit. That never panned out - and during my months living in the states, I lived cash-in-hand on a very insubstantial income.

Poor in Money, but not in Hope. But broke.

I learned two things from this.

Firstly, that money goes a lot further in America than in does in Britain. A lot, lot further.

£5 is worth about $10 and for ten bucks a day, you can live like a king in America. That's a six-pack of domestic beer and three days worth of hot dogs, bread, eggs and milk from the local dollar store. The sad thing is, even $5 buys your more than £5! You could still pick up that six pack of beer and six hot dogs and buns.

I didn't say living was 'living' as such, but there's an enormous sense of opportunity when you've got your hands full of American money. Living 'broke' in America taught me how to live within my means - but it also taught me the true value of money.

Secondly, it illustrated to me how things have changed in America in the years since I was last here - dramatically, as it happens.

Los Rollandos Illegos

Just for the record, I have never been an illegal immigrant to the United States.

However, during my extended visit to the States in 2001, I kind of lived like one. I was renting an apartment for a few months and, as the holder of a tourist visa, did not have the ability to get a US driver's licence or bank account.

Back then, that was quite a problem. It meant I had to cash cheques at unscrupulous 'cash checking' places (who took 11%) and in order to get insured on my British driver's licence, I needed to pay a whopping $5,000 a year (I now pay one fifth of that.)

I discovered first hand that people really take advantage of the poor. Everything costs more when you're poor. It seems the fewer dollars you have, the more of them it takes to get anything accomplished.

But that was then and this is now.

Returning to America five years later, I have been astonished at the transformation. There's one single driving force behind the changes and that is illegal immigration.

BCIS! Driving down the cost of your Illegal Immigration!

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in America and if their arrival has done anything, it's brought the free market to the black market.

More and more illegal immigrants are driving, for example. Throughout the United States, it's impossible to get a driver's licence without a resident's permit, so most illegal immigrants simply don't. They drive uninsured, unlicensed cars without valid inspections. The roads in New Jersey are littered with exhaust pipes, drive wheels and lugnuts. I've contributed a couple myself.

I was stupidly law abiding in 2001 - and had to search far and wide for an insurance company that would accept my British licence as proof of competency (it is legally valid.) I ended up going with the same Long Island company that insures British diplomats. I paid the cost for it, too!

But now that there's a market for those law-abiding few who want to insure their cars, the 'big boys' have jumped on board and now legitimate insurance companies like Progressive offer affordable insurance for foreign licence holders.

Likewise, I couldn't get a bank account as an American tourist. Now, places like Bank of America offer not just bank account, but loans, mortgages and credit cards to undocumented aliens - without anything to guarantee they won't steal the money back across the border (and we wonder why there's a crisis on Wall Street!)

Basically, the free market has arrived to offer more and more affordable services to illegal aliens. And what's this done? Just encouraged more and more of them to come running to America.

And the moral of this story?

Well, I've digressed once or twice, but I think my opinion on the matter is perfectly clear. While you might miss out on the history and majesty of Great Britain - or just the Marmite and yorkshire puds - the cost of living has always been and will continue to be less in the United States of America.

Whether the idea of a free market left running amok fills you with pleasure or dread, it always eventually does what it does best. America really is the land of opportunity. If you're lucky enough to get the chance to move there - and you're willing to grasp the opportunities when they're presented to you - the quality of life in the United States will always be the best in the world.

Why? Because unlike the nanny states of England or Europe, you're in charge of your own destiny in America - and despite obstacles and advantages, the ultimate ability to succeed or fail lies in your own hands and nobody else's.

Roland Hulme and Editorial Bear are recent legal immigrants to the United States.

The jury is still out on whether they've succeeded or failed (and whether they can take credit for it or not.)

Al ordenar, hable por favor español

The future of America is at (cheese) steak!

Joe Vento runs a Pennsylvania steak joint called Geno's.

Demand for his famous 'Philly Cheese Steak' keeps the lines long outside of Vento's door - but the ever-shifting demographic in Philadelphia isn't doing anything to help that line move any faster.

Joe Vento and his staff keep running into problems because visitors to his store - specifically Hispanic immigrants - aren't ordering in English.

This led Vento to put up a controversial sign: "This is America. When ordering, please speak English."

This immediately incurred the wrath of various groups who claim his sign violates a city ordinance prohibiting discrimination in employment, public accommodation and housing on the basis of race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Their argument? That putting up that sign discourages customers of a 'certain background' from eating there.

But there's a hole in their argument. It's utter bunkum.

Bunkum

Professor Camilla Charles, of the University of Pennsylvania, claims that Vento's sign harks back to the 'Whites Only' signs of the segregated 1950s. But that's apologetic rubbish.

First off, Vento's not banning anybody from coming into his store or enjoying his cheesesteak. He's just asking that they speak English when they order it. Secondly, a request to speak English isn't discriminatory against Hispanic people. It equally targets tourists and immigrants from non-English speaking countries across the world.

The real issue is that Joe Vento and his staff do not speak Spanish - or Serbo-Croat, Swedish, Swahili or French. Therefore it's totally unreasonable to demand that they do business in a language they do not understand.

Like it or not - and despite the enormous numbers of Spanish speaking immigrants - America continues to be an English-speaking country.

Hypocrisy

What annoys me about this situation is how hypocritical it is.

In today's 'politically correct' world, a reversal of the situation - a Mexican diner that had a sign saying; "Ésta es América latina. Al ordenar, hable por favor español," would never be subjected to the same level of scrutiny because the left-wing 'thought police' dismiss any criticism of Hispanic culture as 'racist.'

But the very core issue here is not racism on Vento's part - but a refusal to integrate on the part of the disgruntled Spanish speaking customers of Geno's Steaks.

And that isn't an issue restricted to Hispanic immigrants to America.

For any responsible traveller, there is a clear duty to speak the language of the country you're visiting. Nobody goes on holiday to the Costa Del Sol, Mexico, France or Germany without at least attempting to learn a few words of the local language. [I believe British holidaymakers regularly do just that - Editorial Bear] And immigrants especially can't expect to live or do business in a foreign country without some grasp of the lingo.

When I lived and worked in France, I discovered pretty quickly that speaking French was the only way to get things done and be taken seriously. Surely the same rules apply to Spanish-speaking immigrants to America?

Not according to the 'politically correct.'

Neatly ignoring how far they'd get in Tijuana without a bit of Spanish to back them up (not far) apologists in America seem determined to grant Hispanic immigrants (especially the illegal ones) all the benefits of living in America without them meeting us halfway and making some conciliatory gestures (like learning the language and obeying our immigration rules.)

What's worse than that, they're willing to string up innocent, well-intentioned Americans like Joe Vento just for the crime of standing up to them.

America is a nation of immigrants - but a true 'American' immigrant embraces the culture, history and language of the country he intends to call his home.

If an immigrant refuses to learn even the most basic tenants of English (ordering a cheese steak isn't exactly difficult) then one has to accept that the issue isn't whether or not they're welcome in Joe Vento's steakhouse - but whether they belong in the United States at all.

Recent immigrants Militant Ginger and Editorial Bear still live under the misapprehension that American immigration regulations are mandatory.

Fred Thomspon on Immigration

My presidential hopes are pinned on Stephen Colbert at the moment - who is running in the South Carolina primaries as both a Democrat AND Republican.

But on the off chance Comedy Central's finest can't pull a win out of the hat, my general feelings are still pointing in the direction of the Republican candidates. Rudy Giuliani is an excellent 'moderate' choice, seeing as he's supportive of gay rights and other issues which the evangelicals get their knickers in a twist about, but make very little actual difference in the grand scheme of things.

If two gay men want to get married, how does that negatively impact my life? It doesn't - not one jot - and it makes two gay men happy at the same time. Win / Win. Further evidence that religion and politics need to be ruthlessly separated.

But Rudy has always been soft on immigration. As mayor of New york City, he fought hard for the rights of illegal immigrants and won them schooling for their kids (fair enough) and the right to avoid questions regarding their immigration status from city employees (not really right.)

Since he threw his hat into the ring, Rudy has flip-flopped about immigration. He's done an about-turn and come more in-line with the Republican party's official policy. That doesn't mean he buys it, however.

Fred Thompson, on the other hand, seems to know exactly where he stands on illegal immigration and he won't let the Republicans or Democrats tell him any different. Today he released his 'presidential' policies regarding the thorny topic and they make for compelling reading. Read them here.

My highlights include: "Amnesty undermines U.S. law and policy, rewards bad behavior, and is unfair to the millions of immigrants who follow the law and are awaiting legal entry into the United States." Hooray! My one major gripe with illegal immigrants. Why should they be patted on the back for skipping over the border while I obey the rules and get stiffed out of three years of my life and thousands of dollars in 'fees.'

"Without illegal employment opportunities available, fewer illegal aliens will attempt to enter the country, and many of those illegally in the country now likely will return home." If illegal immigrants were unable to work, companies would have to rely on American labour - and pay them appropriately. The minimum wage in some states is barely $5 a hour. If a company is too cheap to pay an American citizen even that pifling sum, they have no rights employing anybody in the first place.

"Reduce the backlogs and streamline the process for immigrants and employers who seek to follow the law. Also, simplify and expedite the application processes for temporary visas." I waited nearly four years for the right to enter the United States because the immigration process was so backlogged and inefficient. If the systems were in place to give immigration hopefuls a 'yay' or 'nay' within a few weeks - instead of years - maybe there would be fewer incentives for illegal immigration to take place.

"Caps for any category of temporary work visa would be increased as appropriate, if it could be demonstrated that there are no Americans capable and willing to do the jobs." If people are talented, dedicated and hard working - and can really contribute something to the American economy - give them a shot at working there. If the opportunities are available, people will choose legal immigration over illegal - and aliens would enter American based on their skills and knowledge, rather than their ability to scale fences.

"Make English the official language of the U.S. to promote assimilation and legal immigrants’ success, and require English proficiency in order for any foreign person to be granted lawful permanent resident status." Are you reading this, Bank of America? Quit sending me stuff in Spanish just because you saw the 'non-American citizen' box was ticked on my application.

These are all sensible, reasonable and - most importantly of all - effective policy suggestions that could positively transform the dismal state of American immigration as it currently stands.

Fred Thompson? You have scored some brownie points today.

Oh, illegal immigration...

Oh, illegal immigration!

What a nightmare this farce is. It's the elephant in the living room every American is trying to ignore during their day-to-day existence - but arguing vocally about in the presidential debates and elsewhere.

The scope of the problem is far greater than most people are aware of. Take where I live, for example. In North Brunswick, the census reports a mere 10-15% of residents as being Hispanic in origin. If that's true, every single one of them must live on my street. Although some of my Hispanic neighbours are perfectly legal, there are others who speak no English and drive rickety old cars with out-of-state licence plates - making me highly dubious of their immigration status.

Not that they do us any harm. This is why I refer to them as 'an elephant in the living room.' In pubs and at dinner parties, I'm more than happy to rant about how unfair it is - but on a day-to-day basis, I smile and nod and ignore 'them' because they just seem like normal, peaceful, everyday people trying to make it like everybody else.

And that's the problem, really.

People like me, who topple just over the 'moderate' knife-edge towards liberalism, see illegal immigrants as regular folks who want to make a better life for themselves and their families. We live in the same communities as illegal immigrants and they do us no harm, except when we can't understand them (Carlos Mencia has a skit about the immigrants working at the local fast-food place saying "Weyo to Madonnas" instead of "Welcome to MacDonalds.")

However, there's a steady shift going on regarding people's attitudes to illegal immigration. The right wing has always gnashed their teeth at the thought of immigrants exploiting America's welcome policy. Now more and more left wing people seem to be joining them.

Events like this can't help:

At a recent protest for illegal immigrant rights, the arguments the illegals used shifted focus. Instead of the old cries - demanding the right to earn a decent wage and support their families - the illegal immigrants held up signs protesting America's very existence.

White people and Europeans (and presumably African American people as well, since we Europeans were responsible for 'importing' them) were genocidal invaders and the American nation was built on land that belonged to the native Americans and Mexicans.

In Texas, New Mexico and southern California, some illegal immigrants are explicitly declaring that this is THEIR land and the Americans living on it are the REAL illegal immigrants. They call themselves the 'reconquista' - a play on the Conquistadors who travelled from Spain to conquer the Americas five hundred years ago.

As far as the Right Wing is concerned, these protesters are no longer illegal immigrants, but an unofficial invading army.

With thanks to Jenn of Take A Stand Against Liberals. I shamelessly stole these photographs from her website while she was distracted by the oncoming California wildfires.

When this Spanish Language Codswallop goes too far...

So I know we have a lot of Spanish-speaking people living in America. But the national language is ENGLISH. Anglais! Ingles!

It's an English speaking country. We COLONISED the bloody place.

Yet today, when I received my shiny new Bank of America credit card in the post, the letter and leaflet sent with it was in SPANISH.

Not half-in-English-half-in-Spanish. Not English translated into Spanish. Spanish.

The entire document. Plus the stickers on my card, including the instructions on how to activate it. Everything in Spanish, without a single word of English written anywhere.

I assume that some bods at the Bank of America - who I've already blogged about being the first bank in the United States to offer bank accounts to undocumented aliens - saw that I was a foreign resident and just sent the Spanish documents as a matter of course.

It might not seem like a big deal, but I'm really offended and annoyed. This is an ENGLISH speaking country and I am ENGLISH, so when my bank writes to me in a foreign language I must assume something WRONG is taking place.

I spent thousands of dollars and almost four years of my life getting LEGAL residency to the United States. I really shouldn't have bothered. I'd have got more respect and appreciation from the American institution if I'd just hauled ass across the Rio Grande like the twelve million unauthorised guests currently living here.

Driving in New Jersey

These are the rules, as far as I can figure them out:

1. All traffic laws must be obeyed whilst a cop is in view.


2. Signs that say: Stop, Yield, No Turns, No U-Turn, No Left Turn or No Turn on Red are only suggestions.


3. If an approaching car has it's turn signals on, it is going straight ahead. That signal has been on for about twenty minutes and the driver just hasn't noticed yet.


4. If an approaching car has no turn signals on, it might turn left or right sharply at any time.


5. Correct procedure at a junction is: Brake Sharply, Make Turn, Accelerate Sharply, Survey Carnage in Rear View Mirror.


6. The bigger car always has right of way.


7. He Who Has Insurance Wins.


8. If you spot a police car, slow down to 10mph, irrespective of the speed limit.


9. Every so often, sound your horn to check that it is still working.


10. Wait until the traffic light turns from red to green before applying lipstick/changing the radio. Ignore the angry honking behind you.


11. When an approaching light turns amber, hit the gas, irrespective of your chances of making the light before it turns red.


12. At a red light, you are authorised to turn right if there is no oncoming traffic or the oncoming traffic is smaller than you are.


13. At a red light marked: "No Turn On Red" you MUST NOT TURN RIGHT until you have clearly checked that there are no police cars behind you.


14. All vehicles in New Jersey must have a valid roadworthiness inspection sticker. These can be obtained for $100 irrespective of the car's actual roadworthiness.


15. If you can still see out of your back window, you don't have enough bumper stickers yet.


16. All campaign bumper stickers must be at least three years out of date, i.e. Bush/Cheney 2000 or Member of the Fraternity of Police 2001.

Identifying other road users:

• New Jersey State Licence Plates, on new or fairly new car: Legitimate, insured, registered New Jersey road user.


• New Jersey State Licence Plates, on old, beaten up or shoddy car: Legitimate, uninsured, registered New Jersey road user.


• New Jersey State Licence Plates, on Ford Crown Victoria: Unmarked police car.


• Out of state plates, such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland: Illegal immigrant driving uninsured car.


• Out of state plates, Florida: Car registered to Mommy and Daddy at their Florida holiday home.

Let the Dumb Stay - Kick the Smart Out!

Oh, American Immigration.

With a potential 12 million illegal immigrants - almost all unqualified manual workers and their families - about to get their chance at legitimate citizenship, the good people at the BCIS (Bureau for Cackhanded Immigration Silliness) have decided that this imbalance needs to be addressed. That's why they're cracking down on the 1 million highly qualified, highly capable 'brainiacs' trying to get their crack at the American dream.

It's all outlined here, in this yahoo article.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The huge backlog in US immigration visas is leading to a "reverse brain-drain" that will force skilled workers to return to their home country, a report released Wednesday concludes.

That's right. Somebody at the BCIS (Bastion of Completely Incompetent Staff) has noticed that 31 percent of all new tech start ups in America (the ones that raise money, pay taxes and push the American economy forward) are started up at least in part by legitimate immigrants - and dammit, they're going to put a stop to it.

Why have successful businesses boost the economy and generate income for working Americans when we can instead lose tax revenue and put blue collar workers out of business by farming our work out to illegal immigrants?

It makes PERFECT SENSE!

At least it does to the BCIS (Bundled of Criminally Insane pSychopaths) who seem unable to understand that legitimate immigrants (the ones who fill in forms and shovel thousands of dollars into the BCIS) are the ones who pay their taxes and abide by the US laws.

It's madness, plain and simple. Ever since George Bush bundled together his 'Homeland Security' package to replace the relatively efficient INS (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) the immigration situation in America has gone steadily downhill.

I'll reiterate my experiences for the millionth time. I paid my fees. I filled in my paperwork. I did everything by the book - and we got screwed out of three years of our lives.

Crossing the Rio Grande seems like a smarter option.

Until something is done to reverse this crazy situation, money will be channeled OUT of America by illegal immigrants instead of channeled INTO America by the legitimate, hard working ones.

Hitting the Road...

If one preconception about America is true, it's that you need a car to survive here. Outside of New York City, or any of the other major metropolitan areas, the public transport is scarce and it's quicker, smarter and cheaper to get behind the wheel.

I thought this would pose problems for me when Tina and I arrived, but ironically the push to legitimise America's millions of illegal immigrants has actually worked in my favour here. More and more insurance companies are offering full insurance coverage on foreign driver's licences - and thanks to demand and increasing competition, it's cheaper than ever.

Which means I am now fully legitimate to drive on my British licence, without having to go through the rigmarole of applying for a State driver's licence. I will, of course. It will be a smarter and cheaper option in the end. But at least it means Tina and I aren't going to be entirely reliant on her father's taxi service any more (and he returns, exhausted, to Florida next week.)

The other obstacle preventing us from driving was, of course, getting a car. Fortunately Tina's brother has lent us his Pontiac Grand Prix, which is big and powerful and shiny and American, so it ticks all the boxes in my 'must have' vehicle requirements.

I'm a bit nervous about driving. When I visited in 2001/2003, I drove quite happily. It's been a while, though, and the combination of America's niggly road system and abundant police officers twiddling their thumbs means I will be a prudent and careful driver.

So at least there's one of us!

Normal Service will Resume Shortly... (Fingers crossed!)

Today is my final day in the office. Two more footloose days in blighty and Tina and I will be zooming up to Gatwick to catch our plane.

Firstly - and most importantly - it means we're going to be out of internet contact for at least the next few days. In modern society, that's the equivilent of having your arm hacked off. On the other hand, perhaps it'll be refreshing not to have to delete sixty emails each morning from Nigerian 'businessmen' offering you millions of laundered dollars if you'd only give them your bank details.

Secondly, it means the impossible is about to happen. We're going back. We're REALLY going back. And America awaits like an enormous blank canvas. Assuming, of course, the immigrations men in rubber gloves actually let me through.

They should do. My paperwork's all kosher.

We're flying out on the 3rd of June. Ironically, that's the same date last year that I started this blog.

I originally started blogging to chronicle my experiences getting back to America. Tina and I have been waiting since we got married in 2003 and I would hardly have believed that my goal would have been accomplished in just twelve months. I thought our immigration journey would carry on forever.

But it didn't. It's happened and it's here.

This means the nature of my blog will change. Anybody who's been reading it so far (Hi, Dad!) will have seen a mish mash of reviews and articles and podgy editorial pieces. and some reviews. Those where awesome!

The inconsistent content came about because I didn't have anything specific to write about. Now I do. Arriving in America is just going to be the first step in a whole new journey as I find myself a home, a job and a whole new life.

So stay tuned. There should be some good stuff coming up.

But not for a while. It'll probably be at least a week before I blog again.

Next time I write, it'll be in America!

Expatriate Games: Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights?

500 Brits back their bags and head to pastures new every single day here in Britain.

Australia, Spain and France are the post popular destinations. I'm sure the large amounts of affordable wine these countries produce has NOTHING to do with that! But if you're sticking around in England, don't feel lonely.

Even more immigrants - a whopping national average of 565,000 - arrived last year in Britain. 70% of those were Polish. The Poles, in fact, currently make up 10% of Southampton's residents!

So despite the hundreds of Brits calling it quits, the shores of our little island are getting more and more cramped.

It raises a very interesting question. Why is Britain so attractive to immigrants, yet so unappealing to natives?