<p>You’ve got the facts wrong. The student going to Harvard is Mexican and is from Southern California, about 3 hours driving time north of the Mexican border. Cambridge is 3,000 miles from where he grew up in CA, about a 43 hour drive across the country. </p>
<p>The medical student going to UCSF is from Thailand. Is Thailand a terrible place to live? I haven’t been there, but am planning to in the near future. I read that Bangkok is the No. 1 or no. 2 top tourist destination in the world, and Thailand has a 93% literacy rate and free elementary education.</p>
<p>Other countries ARE educating American doctors for free. Everyone who comes to the US with an expensive education and becomes an American doctor probably saves the US a million dollars.</p>
<p>Wow, a million dollars? That’s how much we are spending on the Thai student? Why are we doing that when we can admit American students and know they can work here? </p>
<p>Wait. Other countries are not educating American kids to become doctors. Other countries medical students are coming here to practice medicine for some reason, probably financial. It’s not the same thing.</p>
<p>Apparently I need to ask my doctors at the start of any visit/treatment whether they are here legally. Wouldn’t want to be treated by any “criminals” after all, regardless of their abilities in the medical field. </p>
<p>BTW, apparently marrying a citizen and getting citizenship yourself is not as easy as it might appear. </p>
<p>What do you mean? It takes a willing bride and an immigration attorney which is about two-thousand dollars and most take monthly payments. Then you get a hearing and a green card. Done. It happens every day.</p>
<p>The point is that the US educating other people, even if such people never work in the US, is not totally one-sided. The US gives education and the US takes education. Educating a Thai student, wherever the Thai student ends up working, is nothing compared to the thousands of foreign medical graduates the US takes from other countries (most of which can ill-afford to lose them) every year.</p>
<p>You are free to tell me to ‘give it up’, even though it sounds a little rude, but I am free to continue on any point I wish to make.</p>
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<p>I suspect a lot more American kids receive medical education (at MD level) in public medical schools overseas than foreign kids receive in US medical schools.</p>
<p>Given the coverage this is getting, the Ivies are going to be flooded with illegal immigrant applications. Not much to lose, possibly free application and if admitted, possible full ride.</p>
<p>I dont, actually. I said that kids who think they’re American and followed the rules as far as they knew it should be treated like legal immigrants, NOT their parents who made the choice to come here illegally. </p>
<p>I think it makes much more sense to stop this problem before it starts, if we actually think it’s a problem. They are not coming here and having babies by accident. Pregnant women are crossing the border for a reason so wondering what to do about it 20 years later is just a little late, imho.</p>
<p>The way I see it is that the US has an asylum procedure in place, for immigrants who need relief from life-threatening conditions in their countries, so illegal immigrants in the US can apply that way, or else go home and if they encounter such, then come back and apply for asylum then. I don’t see any logical reason why illegal immigrants from lovely or even decent countries, including Mexico and Thailand, (or Canada, France or Italy), should be allowed to stay, other than because it will make their lives easier. Their parents uprooted and left their countries voluntarily, as do plenty of Americans who decide to live overseas without knowing the language or having relatives. Its a challenge, but so what? People do it and survive and go on to have nice lives.</p>
<p>My kids are now in boarding school in the US. But because they are not “residents” of the US, some schools are tossing them in the int’l applicant pool. Unbelievable that illegal immigrants are being counted as domestic ahead of my kids who not only “think they’re American” but ARE American.</p>
<p>And how will an undocumented physician get the necessary work permits (I-9) in order to actually legally practice?</p>
<p>At least in the case of California, there’s a bill in progress that would allow illegal aliens to obtain professional licenses - but I’m not clear on how an illegal alien can be legally allowed to actually work even if technically licensed.</p>