ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, NO INSURANCE
22 01 08 - 11:20
By JASON ROBERSON and DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News
Twenty-six-year-old Jaime illegally crossed the border from Mexico two years ago. Now Jaime, who asked that his last name not be used, waits outside with the others, hoping for work as a day laborer in the Dallas area.
He has no health insurance. If he gets hurt, he knows he can "count on nothing," he said. Bosses who hire him for landscaping jobs don't want to pay for insurance.
"Of course, I would like some," Jaime said, pulling his thin jacket tighter against the chilly wind. "We are subjected to a lot of danger at the worksite. We would really like insurance.
"We could pay half, and the boss could pay the other half," he offered. "And that way we would be more committed" to our jobs.
A mandate requiring most employers to provide health insurance, like the ones proposed by Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, wouldn't help people like Jaime. So far, no candidate – Democrat or Republican – has proposed a plan that would cover illegal immigrants.
Expanding Medicaid, which all the leading Democratic candidates call for, would also bypass Jaime. As an illegal resident, he doesn't qualify for such government programs.
So he comes to volunteers like Julia Grenier. Every Wednesday for the past seven years, Ms. Grenier, 71, has run a makeshift clinic out of the Plano Day Labor Center off Central Expressway, where Jaime usually waits for work.
From a closet-size room, she treats illegal immigrant workers, tending to everything from sore throats to beer-bottle lacerations.
Ms. Grenier, a nurse for 49 years, walks with a cane. She uses over-the-counter medicines and bandages she buys with her own money, mostly from dollar stores.
"I don't worry about them being undocumented," she said, taking a break from giving away winter coats she had purchased. "I worry about them being well enough to stay on a job."
Meanwhile, just outside her office, Kenneth Walder, an uninsured 42-year-old day laborer who had boarded an hourlong commuter train at 4:30 a.m. from his home in Oak Cliff, was still waiting at 10 a.m.
Mr. Walder wasn't worried about illegal immigrants' health; he was more concerned they would take work he might otherwise get. Asked if he thought they should also get health coverage, Mr. Walder was empathetically opposed: "It's not fair."
"We only come to work," Jaime said. But, on this day, he was still out in the cold.
jroberson@dallasnews.com;
dsolis@dallasnews.com