“U.S. immigration officials laid out plans last year that would ratchet up expulsions of immigrants convicted of minor crimes as part of an urgent push to make sure the government would not fall short of its criminal deportation targets, new records obtained by USA TODAY show,” USA Today<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n “Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors tougher enforcement, said ICE ‘wouldn’t have to do a hail Mary to juice the numbers’ if it hadn’t ordered its agents to halt efforts to deport some illegal immigrants.”<\/p>\n “Even though federal law largely bars illegal immigrants from obtaining Medicaid coverage, the program annually pays out more than $2 billion in free emergency coverage that mostly goes to illegal immigrants, according to Kaiser Health News. The vast majority of the total emergency care reimbursements cover delivering babies, Kaiser reports,” says the Daily Caller<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Kaiser reports that hospitals generally realize when patients are illegal immigrants, even though they do not explicitly ask them their status, because they do not possess a Social Security Number, birth certificate or other documents.”<\/p>\n “Entitlement spending and immigration are two issues that threaten America\u2019s financial future. The two controversies meet in the case of the newly arrived elderly, many of whom have discovered they can cash in on an overly generous welfare system,” notes the Washington Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Medicaid for recent, elderly immigrants is practically a given. They frequently take advantage of Section 8 housing benefits, which can provide an extra place to stay on weekends after keeping an eye on the grandkids during the weekdays. Elderly immigrants crowd waiting lists for Section 8 housing to the extent that the lists get closed to new applicants, resulting in a particularly perverse outcome: Many of those shut out are genuinely poor.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ICE Scrambles to Meet Deportation Targets “U.S. immigration officials laid out plans last year that would ratchet up expulsions of immigrants convicted of minor crimes as part of an urgent push to make sure the government would not fall short of its criminal deportation targets, new records obtained by USA TODAY show,” USA Today reports.<\/p>\n$2 Billion Medicaid Program Pays for Illegal Immigrants<\/h3>\n
Many Immigrants Moving to the U.S. to Retire and Get Benefits<\/h3>\n