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Getting to the Illegal Immigration Bottom Line

Based on what is going on in Arizona, it looks like making inroads in turning back the tide of illegal immigration is not as difficult as everyone would like us to believe (Hat tip: The Westerner):

Parents are pulling students out of school. Construction workers are abandoning their jobs. Families are hastily moving out of apartments.

Two months after Arizona enacted a law punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants, the law is already achieving one of its goals: Scores of immigrants are fleeing to other states or back to their Latin American homelands.

Gaby Espinoza, who has been unemployed since November, is among those affected. She gave up looking for a job because of the law and may have to return to Mexico.

Espinoza’s husband works here legally, but the law means that employers must ask her for papers, and she faces the daily fear of being deported.

“There’s no work over there in Mexico,” said Espinoza, who has three U.S.-born children. “People there live so poorly. Here, my kids have health insurance and Medicare. Over there, there’s nothing.”

If Ms. Espinoza has been unemployed since November, then apparently there is no work over here either. Interesting to note that the draw for Ms. Espinoza is not the promise of a better life if you work hard, but the ability to take advantage of government entitlement programs like Medicare.

Now, anyone want to talk about why we have a health care crisis?