Dec 11 2008
Why I’m sick of welfare and illegal immigrants..a true story of my very own.
By the way, there will be no use of the terms “undocumented migrant” or just “immigrant” or “undocumented worker” to excuse law breakers here. Calling an illegal immigrant an “undocumented migrant” is like calling a bank robber an “undocumented customer” or a drug dealer an “undocumented pharmacist.”
Now for my personal tale. I swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The truth is so disgusting and irritating that embellishment is totally unnecessary.
In 1992 I returned from a 43 month tour overseas in the Army. I brought with me my two very young children, and I was living with my (at the time) mother-in-law. I was a single father, for reasons that are not necessary to the tale. I was on unemployment (standard when you leave the military) and having a very difficult time finding work. I had two children ages 3 and 2 years who needed both food and health care. So I swallowed my pride and went to public assistance.
I was given a huge packet of papers to fill out. I was told to bring every possible financial record I had: bank statements, tax returns, my last Army paystubs, etc. So I filled it all out and went to my appointment.
I arrived at the office and stood in a very long line. While I was there I noticed a few things. First, there were many, many signs in at least three languages other than English. Second, there seemed to be a line for Spanish speakers separately, and it ran like the express lane at the supermarket. The line I was in was very slow and consisted mainly of white people and Asians.
I finally made it to the front and got a number and was told to sit. Sit I did, for over an hour, and I watched people come through the “express” line, sit down, and get called in while I continued to sit. Finally I was called in to an interview room. The case worker examined all my papers and within five minutes told me I was denied benefits. I asked why, and was told that I might have money in a bank account. The bank accout was closed, and I had a statement from the bank to the that effect. I didn’t matter, because I couldn’t prove a “zero balance” even though I had a statement to that effect also. Since the bank was in Berlin, Germany it was a little hard to just run over and get an affadavit! Too bad, I was told. Without that, no benefits could be awarded. Eventually she agreed I could “temporarily” have food stamps, but only for the children (not me) and limited medical coverage for the children (but again, not me). I was livid.
I asked why I saw so many Mexicans walking in, sitting down, waiting a very short time, and walking out with checks. She said that because of their “situation” they needed help more urgently, so they got expedited consideration. I asked how that could be if they had to provide all the forms and records that I did. She said that they didn’t. I asked why that was, and she said that it was “unfair” to ask them for all the proof and records that I had to provide because “a lot of them lose their documents when they come over the border.“ I said that it was my understanding that it was illegal for illegal aliens to receive Federal benefits and she confirmed that. So I asked how it was they were getting checks and she said “we’re not allowed to ask them that.”
I almost exploded. I said, and I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember it precisely:
“So you’re telling me that I, who was born and raised in America, am a citizen, just returned from four years of serving my country in the Army, cannot get the welfare benefits I have paid for and should be entitled to because I cannot prove a zero balance in CLOSED bank account overseas. You are also telling me that an illegal alien, who walked over the border yesterday with no paperwork can walk in here and get a check and have it all done in Spanish because even though that’s illegal you just don’t ASK them? I have to provide 50 kinds of proof of every little penny I have or have had in the last year, and if I can’t I get nothing but you don’t even ask them if they’re legally allowed to take money MY TAXES PAID FOR?”
She just smiled and said “yes.”
I appealed, I even got the bank to send me a statement specifically saying that I had zero money in the bank, and I was STILL denied benefits.
That’s the day I realized that the welfare system and the immigration system were totally corrupt and designed to benefit illegal aliens at the expense of citizens.
Every time I hear some sob story about an “poor migrant worker” being arrested in a sweep and his/her family being traumatized, etc. I want to throw a brick at the television.
If you’re wondering, the answer is yes. Yes, I did criticize Bush on this issue, Clinton before him, and Bush’s father before him. Going back even farther, Reagan made a HUGE mistake with the amnesty he signed. Don’t get me started on McCain either.
And you can bet the Obama administration is only going to make things worse. Just watch. They already want to give them your Social Security. Don’t believe me? Google it.
any patriotic american wouldn’t sign up for welfare. If the Army didn’t give you good enough job training, it’s your fault.
–csc5502 says: Well rex, if you feel that way you won’t mind if we get rid of all welfare immediately, right? Incidentally, I paid the taxes and I sacrificed for my country. If anyone deserves welfare, it’s the veteran…..past, present or future. As for job training, you do know what the military’s job is, don’t you? The military’s job is to kill the enemy and destroy their stuff. It’s not to provide job training for civilian life. That’s why it’s not called college or vocational school. I was an Infantryman/Motorized Scout. Conducting scouting missions and picking off the enemy is not the sort of thing that translates well to legitimate business.
Interesting article. I can only imagine the frustration you must have gone through with welfare. I think your (rightful) anger is directed at the wrong people though.
Don’t forget that unless you (me, or anyone else) are an American Indian/Aboriginal/Native, *you too are an immigrant*. Doesn’t matter if 5 generations of your family are from “America”, or if you and all your fathers and grandfathers killed on behalf of America via the army (as you would say, a “documented murderer” since military is backed by the army, while street killers are not)….so back to my main point, any non-native/Aboriginal person is and always will be an immigrant on the America’s soil, so we have no right to show any hate to anyone labelled an “immigrant”.
The only real “citizens” of the Americas are the indigenous people, and always will be, no matter how hard the government tries to skirt around and avoid this uncomfortable truth. Until this is honored, and control of the land and economy is fully given back to them, the western government will keep enforcing and making more imaginary little lines across land to divide people, trying to create the divide of “us” vs. “them”, when the real “them” are the non-native people (colonists) that stole and keep stealing land from the natives.
“Illegal immigrants” (or legal ones) aren’t in foreign countries for (rule violation) and giggles - they have been more or less forced to hop the border and look for whatever (often) low paying miserable job they can find in a country where they dont’ know the language, in order to send money back home to feed their families. It’s not a choice - western/capitalist interests that do business in Mexico and all other countries outside of Canada and the US bully their way in and economically drive people out with their one-sided money making schemes.
This reminds me of the title of a great article I read about the issue of immigration/”illegal immigrants” called “We’re Here Because You’re There” - basically saying the immigrants are ‘here’ (in the west), because the west bulldozes in to their lands and does whatever it wants, dictating how they should do business, which is only good for western interests while crippling the non-western country’s economy, forcing its people to go abroad to make money, and ripping families apart because of this. Nobody chooses such a difficult path.
That said, the welfare and immigration system are indeed frauds, but the blame lies on those that control them, not the needy people that use this system, such as yourself and millions of other people who for whatever horrible and unforseen circumstance, find themselves in need. Welfare exists to help people out during hard times, and it’s not up to anyone to judge what makes a hard time, whether its being a single parent, an immigrant, a disabled person, etc. Here in Canada there is so much discrimination and judgment around welfare that the government once spent $2 million on a welfare snitch hotline, which ended up being abandoned because the government realized what a waste of money and energy that was. $536 per month (a typical monthly welfare check for a single person in Ontario Canada) is fraud on the government’s part and they should be jailed or be made to try and live on that kind of money! But I digress!
Whether its Clinton, or Bush or Obama or Reagan, they’re two sides of the same colonist coin - Republicans are wolves and Democrats are wolves in sheep clothing, and are a waste of time to listen to and watch bumble around as if they have a clue what they’re doing.
The people who should be in charge are the rightful owners of the land - the American Indians and First Nations people. You can bet that if they ran things, we wouldn’t have the problems we have today. In fact, it would be a radically different, happier, more peaceful and healthier world.
Peace
–csc5502 says: You couldn’t be more full of it. Let me start with the “everybody’s an immigrant” nonsense. I was born here. That makes me a citizen under the Constitution of the United States. There is no such thing as a “native” American. The “native” Americans came over here via the land bridge from Asia. They may have gotten here first, but they lost that battle. Oops. Since they were largely unfamiliar with the term “land ownership” there is literally no way anyone could steal “their” land. According to them, even they didn’t own it. Incidentally, they were very warlike and regularly raided each other and took slaves, so if they still ran things here that’s what you’d have. Turn the control of the “land and economy” back to them? Okay. We can return their tents, horses and wooden tools and take away everything WE built since then, right? Should make for quite a bustling stock market here in “Indianland” huh? “[H]appier, more peaceful and healthier world” my butt.
As far as why illegals come here, I don’t care. Let me say that again. I don’t care. They’re not driven to the border at gunpoint (figuratively or literally), as you would have us believe. Hard times? So what? People here have hard times, but they don’t all run over the border to Mexico. You know why? Because all the awful treatment of the poor workers you describe is exactly how immigrants are treated in Mexico, legal or not. And because Mexico is a hole.
And if all killing by the military is “undocumented murder” as you put it, then every military in the history of any civilization in the universe is a criminal organization.
And that’s just ignorant crap.
I have a solution for you, though. You can freely move to China or Cuba, where they treat everyone so well, especially immigrants. Just ask them.
Lastly, you used profanity in your post. Future posts with profanity may be deleted. Read the rules.
That’s lame that they said that to you!
As far as illegals go, to me it depends on if the intent of the person is to become legal. Some are probably a-holes and they deserve to go. But honest people deserve honest work in my view.
–csc5502 says: I have no trouble with people who want honest work; I just don’t want them coming over the border whenever they feel like it. I live in a heavily Hispanic area and I’m sure most of them are very hard-working, decent people, but if they broke the rules to get here, they need to go. It’s not fair to all the legal immigrants who stood in line, sometimes for years, to come here the right way. By the way, even though we’re usually talking about Hispanics, I feel exactly the same way about ANY illegal alien. I don’t care if you’re Canadian, Mexican, Chinese, or Latvian; follow the rules to get here or stay out.
News flash to all the bleeding hearts out there - the legal immigrants (especially the naturalized citizens) are just as angry as natural born Americans about illegals. We have quite a few immigrants and naturalized Americans where I work. They get very angry when they hear about amnesty and see the huge marches and demonstrations in the streets. Most of these people had to work very hard over the course of several years just to get here. That does not count the actual citizenship process which for some reason gets more expensive every year. We need to stop grilling the honest people and start grilling everyone. You want something from America? Prove you are allowed to be here.