Flashback: Obamacare incentivizes hiring of illegal immigrants by imposing penalty on businesses that employ Americans

Wednesday, November 26, 2014 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Obamacare, illegal immigrants, unemployment

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(NaturalNews) As tens of millions of American citizens remain unemployed or underemployed or are seeing their wages stagnate, President Obama -- as well as Democratic and Republican leaders -- see no problem allowing millions more illegal aliens into the country to take jobs for less money.

In fact, public policy throughout the Obama Administration has encouraged this phenomenon, and none so much as the Affordable Care Act, which imposes massive new costs on American business and the entire private sector -- anyone who hires American citizens to work for them.

Indeed, under Obama's recently announced executive amnesty plan, "businesses will have a $3,000-per-employee incentive to hire illegal immigrants over native-born workers because of a quirk" in Obamacare, The Washington Times reported recently.

The temporary amnesty, which is slated to last three years, essentially legalizes some 5 million who are in the country unlawfully. It makes them eligible for work permits, though it still deems them to be ineligible for some taxpayer-supported benefits like Obamacare, for example (though the administration has said the 5 million could be eligible for Social Security and Medicaid eventually).

"$3,000 per-employee incentive to hire illegal immigrants"

The Times continued:

Under the Affordable Care Act, that means businesses who hire them won't have to pay a penalty for not providing them health coverage -- making them $3,000 more attractive than a similar native-born worker, whom the business by law would have to cover.

The loophole was confirmed by congressional aides and drew condemnation from those who said it put illegal immigrants ahead of Americans in the job market.

"If it is true that the president's actions give employers a $3,000 incentive to hire those who came here illegally, he has added insult to injury," Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, told the paper. "The president's actions would have just moved those who came here illegally to the front of the line, ahead of unemployed and underemployed Americans."

An official with the Department of Homeland Security, the mega-agency that oversees the nation's immigration services and border security, confirmed that newly legalized migrants will not be permitted to take out health insurance coverage under Obamacare -- and that, in turn, opens up the loophole for employers who are likely going to be looking for any way they can to avoid the employer mandate and resultant non-coverage penalty.

Health and Human Services officials referred any Times questions to the White House, which in turn did not return requests for comment. HHS is the lead agency managing and overseeing the massive health law.

In the days following his executive amnesty announcement, made Nov. 20, the president defended his actions. Traveling in Chicago recently, Obama said his policies would boost the economy and promised that they would not harm American workers.

We've been here before

"Immigrants are good for the economy. We keep on hearing that they're bad, but a report by my Council of Economic Advisers put out last week shows how the actions we're taking will grow our economy for everybody," he said.

In fact, studies have shown that immigrants -- most of whom are from poor countries -- are a drain on the U.S. economy; a 2010 study by the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for immigration moratoriums, among other related policies, found that even "immigrants who have been in the United States for 20 years are much more likely to live in poverty, lack health insurance, and access the welfare system than are native-born Americans."

Regarding the Obamcare-immigrant loophole, this is not the first time the issue has come up. An immigration overhaul measure that passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote in 2013 essentially created the very same scenario, giving illegal immigrants long periods where they could legally work in the country but have no access to Obamacare benefits.

Sources:

http://www.washingtontimes.com

http://cis.org

http://www.thenewamerican.com