Orange County Immigration & Naturalization Law Blog

Despite claims that immigrants would be a strain upon the nation's financial resources, immigrants may be receiving far less than what is commonly believed.  A study appears to demonstrate that immigrants are overall paying more into Medicare than what they are receiving in medical care.  

Harvard Medical School researchers that studied the question noted that immigrant workers are already paying taxes to help pay for Medicare, but that undocumented workers are not eligible for either Medicare or Social Security.  Also, compromises were required in the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and one such compromise prohibited undocumented immigrants from receiving these health benefits.

As if their legal circumstances were not already complicated enough, it recently has been revealed that California immigrants confined to detention facilities may not be able to afford to contract anyone on the outside world.  The connection fee for a telephone call alone is $3.25 for each call.  The inmates are then charged a per minute rate for their phone calls, and a 20 minute conversation with their children under the best of circumstances may end up costing them around $14.00.

It appears that it does not matter what sort of call is being made.  Even if the detained immigrant facing deportation is making a call to his or her attorney concerning their legal defense, they will still be charged at the very same rates.  These circumstances come about in part because detention centers are allowed to contract out their phone services.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials do sometimes make mistakes. One United States citizen was deported to Mexico because he was misidentified. It appears that he could not participate in his own defense because he suffered from a number of psychiatric and cognitive disabilities.

This individual was deported though he had never been to Mexico, was not of Mexican heritage, and did not speak Spanish. Prior to the deportation, he was detained for 51 days and placed in a position of defending himself without having an immigration attorney available to represent him. Only after an attorney became involved after being retained by the man's family was he then allowed to return to the United States.

Approximately 1.5 million individuals in California and across the United States that came here as immigrant children and reportedly do not have the paperwork to be considered legal residents. One such individual is now studying for a journalism degree in Los Angeles, and he has lived in the United States without the proper paperwork since he was 7-years old.

The new U.S. Senate version of the immigration bill would clear obstacles for individuals such as this to become citizens of the United States. Under ideal circumstances, the bill would allow for students to fill out applications for green cards after a five year waiting period, and citizenship would then hopefully be granted shortly after the green card was approved.