The following is a contribution by outside blogger Gregory Sokoloff. Opinions expressed are solely those of Mr. Sokoloff.
It was a dramatic presentation at the top of the Wednesday night broadcast by Univision, the largest of our Spanish-speaking TV networks and a staunch defender of illegal immigrants. “Outraged by His Death,” read a banner headline splashed across the screen. Then, they dished out the victim’s legal guardian, a pudgy man probably in his 50s, who talked, teary-eyed, about “abuse” suffered by the young man. “He was sent to his death,” Reynaldo Cruz told Univision. “That’s inhuman.”
To listen to the broadcast, one would think that Quelino Ojeda Jimenez, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, was sent at the very least to Pol Pot’s torture chambers and we, American society, had just perpetrated another atrocity. But no, he was sent back to his hometown in Mexico, “lindo y querido” (beautiful and loved), as they like to remind us in Univision on other occasions.
So where was the “abuse?” According to published report, Mr. Ojeda came to the U.S. illegally about five years ago, leaving behind his girlfriend and their common child. Our family reunification crowd obviously did not protest this separation.
He found work at a construction site in Chicago, but in August 2010 fell about 20 feet and became paralyzed. Even though he had no health insurance, he was treated at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, for four months, until Dec. 22 of that year, and then sent by air ambulance to his native state of Oaxaca. The total bill, including the transportation costs, incurred by the Illinois hospital in this case topped $700,000, officials said.
But last Sunday, after staying at an Oaxaca hospital for over a year, Mr. Ojeda succumbed to a heart attack. That’s when the amnesty crowd cried bloody murder.
The main charge is that the hospital in Oaxaca was poorly equipped to treatment of patients like Mr. Ojeda and, therefore, even though he had no legal standing in the country of any kind, the United States was obligated to take care of him.
The Univision story featured a spokesman from then Mexican Consulate in Chicago, Augustin Rodriguez de la Gala, who said the consulate was “consulting with lawyers,” who were in the process of “analyzing elements” of the case. Although the diplomat shied away from the word “lawsuit,” we all know what it means, don’t we?
It has happened before. But this time, in my view, it merits attention because of the underlying philosophy behind the hubbub.
Those driving the “outrage” obviously believe that American society, because of its success and prosperity, owes a living, and apparently unlimited health care, to anyone whose native society cannot or will not provide for the basic needs of its citizens.
This philosophy is hardly new. Decades ago it was called Marxism-Leninism, later Communism. Now, in our age of political correctness, we call it “redistribution of wealth.” It was thrust to the fore quite recently by the Occupy Movement and cheered by lots of people – from the White House to the Democratic Party to the Hispanic community.
But make no mistake. We are looking into the eyes of the very same beast that made Pol Pot and Fidel Castro.