This week’s immigration blog roundup will cover health care reform and more.
About a quarter of American tech companies are founded by immigrants. Immigrant entrepreneurs who have contributed to the tech industry include Intel’s former CEO, Yahoo’s co-founder, and Google’s co-founder. Immigrant-founded firms produced over $50 billion in sales and employ nearly half a million people in 2005.
In more fallout from Rep. Wilson’s outburst during President Obama’s health care speech, President Obama is proposing to bar undocumented immigrants from accessing his proposed health insurance market, even if they pay with their own funds. It is unclear how barring immigrants from accessing health care reflects the "fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country," as the President stated in his speech to Congress last Wednesday. Frank Sharry of America’s Voice argues that this move by President Obama "rewards bullying in a way that begets more bullying." Rep. Gutierrez adds, "You cannot say you want to bring people out of the shadows and then deny them non government access to health care that they can use their own dollars to purchase.”
Andrew Romano argues that "from a purely economic standpoint, insuring illegal immigrants makes a lot of sense" as immigrants tend to be younger and healthier, which results in a 55 percent lower cost of health care for them than for a native born American.
A Des Moines Register investigation has found that 67 percent of people detained by ICE in Iowa had no previous criminal offenses. ICE removed more than 369,000 illegal immigrants from the U.S. in 2008, a 27 percent increase from the previous year.
As a result of the increase cost of applying for citizenship, the number of immigrants applying decreased by 62 percent last year – to 525,786 applicants. The cost is now $595 for the application and an additional $80 for fingerprinting. The increase in applications in 2007 in anticipation of the fee hike has led to a triplefold backlog in processing time.
A new poll shows that 69 percent of Californians believe that undocumented immigrants should be given a chance to become citizens. The Public Policy Institute poll also found that only 28 percent of Californians think that undocumented immigrants should be deported.
Lastly, new Census Bureau data indicate that the number of uninsured Americans rose to 46.3 million and nearly 40 million Americans lived below the official poverty threshold in 2008.
Read more at The Opportunity Agenda website.
