Illinois’ Scandalous Budget Process

llinois’ program for free Medicaid for illegal immigrants is expected to cost an estimated $990,000,000 - 495 TIMES what the estimate was at the time of passage just three years ago.

In 2020, as reported in this article (PLEASE READ the article) during the pandemic, then State Representative, Dalia Ramirez, as an initiative of the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus, passed legislation that required the state to provide healthcare through our Medicaid system for non-citizens (illegal immigrants) aged 65 and older. Ramirez, with NO actual information, made a wild guess that the estimated cost of the program would be $2 million. The Pritzker administration, just blindly accepted that figure since the bill was a “law-maker driven” initiative. Now, after the fact, Republicans state that the bill was never fully vetted in Committee – SHOCKER!

Actually, no one should be shocked by this revelation – least of all the media that is now writing about the program. The media, NEVER asks for documentation on any figures thrown out by Democrats on costs or results.

The estimated $2 million cost was reached in the first month of the program’s existence. And, it is 94 times the cost of its first-year cost of $188 million.

Costs continue to grow, and the state doesn’t have the money.

Additional pressure on Medicaid from this program comes at a time when the state is expected to lose $760 million in special Medicaid federal funding for its own citizens that was provided to states during the pandemic.

OUTRAGEOUS.

But, there’s even more to the story. The Democrats are not only bemoaning the fact that this program (created by them) will cost nearly $1 BILLION for the coming fiscal year, but the Chicago Democrats are also upset that they have no idea what to do with the thousands of illegal immigrants that have arrived in Chicago over the last year due to Democrat OPEN BORDER policies.

Here's the headline from a Chicago Tribune article this week about the situation:

"Influx of migrants living at Chicago police stations as city, charity groups scramble to find them shelter."

The article goes on to state that the city is running out of places for illegal immigrants to stay so many are sleeping on the tile floor at police stations.

FOP President John Catanzara had this to say.

“This city said, ‘We’re a welcoming city, we’ll take you,’ but has no plans to do that,” Chicago FOP President John Catanzara Jr. said. “This is not a knock on them, but these people are now living in the lobbies of police stations, which is ridiculous.”

Illegal immigration is costing all of us. Lightfoot asked for $54 million from the state. She has received or will receive a guaranteed $20 million so far.

Here’s another SOUND the ALARM story from the Chicago Tribune just yesterday. Two in a row, there might be a crisis. That they completely ignored and supported all along.

Tenfold surge in migrants arriving in Chicago fuels crisis, aldermen told, as families sleep in police stations: ‘This is unacceptable’

Meanwhile, the city is hoping to tap into federal funds, and in this Sun-Times article, Budget Director Susie Parks admits they are short $53 million to deal with the crisis and are looking to close down park programs in order to house illegal immigrant families. Over 7,000 have come to Chicago.

“Chicago is out of money, space, and time to handle the “humanitarian crisis” caused by asylum-seekers descending on Chicago, with 40,000 people waiting at the border and a surge that has yet to peak, top mayoral aides warned Friday.

For three hours, a joint City Council committee was told about a calamity so dire — with young families sleeping on police station floors — that decisions that might otherwise have been politically unthinkable need to be made.

“Knowing that we’re receiving over 100 people a day requesting shelter, we’re gonna need to make hard decisions as a team about are there spaces that we want to take offline — park district, schools,” said Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze.”

There’s still more to the story. Back to Delia Ramirez and others like her. In passing her free healthcare for illegal immigrants was her intent to personally benefit from it? Ramirez is now the US Congresswoman representing Illinois’ 3rd District. She openly campaigned on being an “anchor baby” and noted that her mother crossed the border illegally to come to the U.S. She also openly discusses her husband being a DACA recipient, meaning that he was brought to the U.S. by his parents who also crossed illegally.

So, the question remains, did Ramirez use her elected position for personal gain? Do her mother and in-laws have legal status in America and are they receiving this free healthcare now?

With Title 42 expiring in May when the federal pandemic orders expire, an illegal immigrant surge is expected with no way to turn them back based on health concerns. In Biden’s first two years of office, an estimated 5 million people were encountered at the border with 2.4 million released into the country. This is intentional and all of us will pay for this malfeasance far into the future.