Progressives combine open borders and government-funded universal health care demands.

The left-wing bastions of California and New York City are becoming more than just sanctuaries for illegal immigrants already residing there. They are being transformed into powerful magnets luring more illegal immigrants to enter the country. California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio intend to have their legal residents pay for the comprehensive health care of illegal immigrants.

Amongst New York City's roughly 600,000 uninsured who will be guaranteed government-funded health care under Mayor de Blasio’s plan are an estimated 300,000 so-called “undocumented New Yorkers" – i.e., illegal immigrants. The mayor’s proposed social experiment in universal health care, including for illegal immigrants, is estimated overall to cost $100 million per year. "We also have a way to provide direct health care to a lot of our neighbors who happen to be undocumented,” Mayor de Blasio said. “They're still part of our community. They need health care; their families need health care."

California Governor Newsom wants to extend health care benefits already offered to illegal immigrants under the age of 19 to young adults up to the age of 26. This would make California “the first state in the nation to cover young undocumented adults through a state Medicaid program,” the governor’s office boasted last Monday. The additional cost has been estimated at $250 million a year, which could rise to as much as $400 million by the 2020-2021 fiscal year. “It’s the moral thing to do … When we talk about universal health care, it means everybody,” Governor Newsom said.

The next step, if Governor Newsom and some other state Democrat politicians have their way, would be to extend state-funded health care to all uninsured illegal immigrant California residents, irrespective of age.

Out of the estimated 1.8 million people in California who are uninsured and reside in California illegally, approximately 1.2 million would qualify for Medi-Cal, which is the state’s part of the federal Medicaid program. The plan would be to fund this giveaway out of California’s own general fund to avoid the restrictions in Obamacare’s expanded Medicaid provisions that prohibit the use of federal funds for illegal aliens. The bill to California taxpayers would be an estimated $3 billion. Such a plan “means more and more illegal immigrants will come to California, which would put incredible additional pressure on California’s budget,” said Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute.

In short, such freebies for illegal immigrants will drain state and city budgets of taxpayer funds that should be spent to improve infrastructure and the delivery of basic public services for the benefit of legal residents. Too many illegal immigrants will overwhelm the health care system and drive up health care costs while lowering the quality of service for virtually everyone.

Not to worry, say the progressives who reject the very idea that someone can be in this country illegally. To call someone an illegal immigrant, they believe, is racist. We should be a welcoming country to all migrants who want to enter no matter how, they argue. The more the merrier for both the immigrants themselves and the progressives who see a treasure trove of potential votes down the road. No wonder Speaker Nancy Pelosi tries to shut down any rational discussion of funding for physical border barriers at the U.S. border with Mexico by claiming that such barriers are “immoral.” This exercise in self-righteousness and hypocrisy is itself immoral.

Border barriers are only “immoral” to those who think sanctuary cities and states are acting morally when they shield illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes separate and apart from their illegal entry itself. Pelosi’s twisted moral code led her to reiterate her support for San Francisco’s liberal sanctuary policies right after the death of Kathryn Steinle at the hands of an illegal immigrant, a felon who had been previously deported five times. San Francisco authorities released this monster rather than turn him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the federal agency had requested.

Border barriers are also only “immoral” to those who think that illegal immigrants should be rewarded for their illegal entry with plenty of freebies. Progressives combine their moral certitude that our borders must be open with their moral certitude that comprehensive health care is a basic “universal human right.” Thus, for progressives, anyone residing in this country, regardless of immigration status, must be granted this “universal right.” Their sanctuary cities and states would become honeypots attracting more and more illegal immigrants to partake.

It is “immoral,” progressives believe, to worry about the cost of health care for all, including those who should not be in this country in the first place. It is their hidden agenda that is truly immoral. Progressives would like nothing more than to overwhelm the health care system in keeping with the so-called Cloward-Piven Strategy, first proposed in 1966 by two members of the Democratic Socialists of America, Richard Andrew Cloward and his wife Frances Fox Piven. The idea is to increasingly overload the current capitalist economic system deliberately with impossible financial demands so that it collapses from within, leading to radical change.

As Brian Joondeph wrote in American Thinker: “Think of what the current migrant caravan means in terms of Cloward-Piven. Thousands of poor, unskilled migrants entering the US. They need health care, education, housing, food, clothing, and other basic needs which all cost money. Who pays for this?” The answer is you and I. Universal health care, including for illegal immigrants, is becoming mainstream within today’s Democrat Party.

The current battle over funding for President Trump’s border barrier is a battle not only over defense of the southern border from the surge of immigrants seeking to enter the country by any means possible. It is part of the larger battle to defend America as we know it from those who seek its radical transformation into their fantasy of a progressive utopia.