[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 13, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H3758-H3759]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TANCREDO. Madam Speaker, earlier a gentleman who addressed the 
House talked about the issue of voter fraud, and he was concerned about 
the fact that there were States that were actually trying to do 
something about it using voter IDs in order to make sure that the 
person who is at the polls is, in fact, who they say they are.
  Now, we may think that there is no such thing as voter fraud. The 
fact is that unfortunately there's an enormous amount of voter fraud. I 
recalled as I was listening to the gentleman speak on this issue, and I 
cannot remember now the county, but I remember hearing about a county 
that sent out a notice to all of its citizens with regard to being 
empaneled as jurors. And of course, one of the questions they asked on 
this is whether or not you were a citizen, and if you checked that, 
then you were not eligible to sit on a jury.
  Well, they then went and took the information apparently and looked 
at the voter information rolls, and there were hundreds of people that 
had identified themselves as not citizens for the purpose of serving on 
a jury because they didn't want to do that, because they were not 
citizens and they were willing to say so, and on the other hand, they 
had registered to vote because they also wanted to do that. That was 
okay with them.
  Of course, this is in just one particular county, and as I say, I 
can't recall it now, but I just was thinking about that as I heard him 
because there are all kinds of things that are happening throughout 
this country and have been happening for a long time that attack the 
whole concept of citizenship.
  We keep taking things away from that idea of what it means to be a 
citizen, bestowing these same privileges on anyone who happens to be 
here. Simply a resident, that's all it takes anymore.
  There are cities, of course, that call themselves sanctuary cities 
and allow people who are not even legally present in this country the 
ability to have all kinds of services, to stay essentially hidden from 
the authorities because

[[Page H3759]]

they have broken the law by entering this country without our 
permission, but they are given this special sanctuary status, and they 
were given not only that but a lot of other kinds of benefits.
  Recently, just as sort of the, I don't know, one of these I can't 
believe it's true stories that I hear almost every single day, 
something happened in Los Angeles that really points out again the fact 
that we are moving ever more closely to making the term ``citizenship'' 
meaningless.
  Madam Speaker, the L.A. Times ran a story about the illegal 
immigration epidemic in this country and how much it was putting 
pressure on our most vulnerable citizens, in this case, those awaiting 
organ transplants. And they picked out one particular individual, a 
lady by the name of Ana Puente who was here illegally.

                              {time}  2015

  She had already undergone three liver transplants, two in 1989, and a 
third in 1998, each paid for by taxpayers, in this case, by the 
taxpayers of California under a program that allows for any individual 
in California to be eligible for this kind of medical service up until 
the time that they are 21 years old. And if they are unable to pay for 
it, the State pays for it.
  Well, when Ms. Puente turned 21 last June, she aged out of her 
taxpayer-funded health insurance in California. So what did she do? She 
found out something very interesting. She found out that if she was 
here illegally, which she was, and notified U.S. Immigration and 
Customs of that fact, then at that point in time she would be eligible 
for the service, a free service. She would be eligible for the medical 
service that she wanted. Why? Because illegal aliens in this country 
are entitled to benefits under the Medi-Cal system. So when she 
admitted her illegal status in the country, her benefits were restored, 
and she is now awaiting her fourth transplant at taxpayer expense.
  Madam Speaker, what this means is that in California, if you're an 
illegal alien, you're entitled to taxpayer-funded health care for 
complex procedures like organ transplants. If you're an American, you 
may be out of luck. How much money are we talking about? Well, the 
average cost of a liver transplant and the first year of follow up runs 
about $500,000; anti-rejection medications alone can run about $30,000 
annually. As we all know well, liver donors are also in scarce supply. 
In California alone, 4,000 people are awaiting livers.
  It is amazing. We all know that the health care system is a triage 
system. Some things are allowed, some things are available. One of the 
things that should be considered is legal status in this country.

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