Throwing Legal Immigrants from the Train

According to this morning's CQ Today (subscription required), the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, dropped its support for the state Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill on Friday. Apparently, a last minute addition to the bill forbade enrolling the children of legal immigrants in the program. “We’re going to urge all lawmakers to vote against the bill,” a spokesman for the group told the publication.

The Democrats are scrambling to come up with a veto-proof majority to pass the Senate version of SCHIP, which would expand the number of children covered to 10 million from 6 million, and make cigarette smokers pay for it. Some moderate Republicans want to support the bill, and are even willing to go against the president, but they are also under pressure from the anti-immigration forces that are playing an ever larger role inside the GOP.

This is Washington politics at its despicable worst, not to mention gross discrimination against foreigners who are here legally. The Democrats who okayed this provision to win a few more votes should be ashamed of themselves.

I will never forget while I was living in Japan when I needed to use their health care system on an emergency basis. No questions were asked and no fees were collected. I'll never forget what it was like to live in a civilized country.