Originally posted at American Thinker.
Jorge Mariscal of Chicago, Illinois is a graphic design student who has lived in America illegally for 23 years. When Jorge was a year old, his mother, Sonia Lopez, smuggled him over the border from Mexico into the United States. From the age of 16, he required dialysis, and at 24 years old, he found himself in need of a kidney transplant. Despite his illegal status and without fear of prosecution or deportation, Jorge brazenly stepped forward and demanded that a Chicago hospital provide him with a benefit he has no legal right to — a free kidney.
Originally, for lack of legal status, Mariscal thought a kidney transplant was out of the question here in the U.S. and contemplated returning to Mexico, perhaps in hopes of filching a fresh kidney from a headless corpse.
After hearing Jorge’s story, Reverend José Landaverde from Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Mission, located in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, felt duty-bound to help the man. José said, “Jorge is [sic] a lot of hope for the community. I believe that the Gospel moves us to be in solidarity with one another.”
Before condoning illegal immigrants participating in unlawful behavior, Fr. Landaverde should really brush up on Romans:13:1-7, which says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.”
Nonetheless, thanks to the reverend’s activism, Jorge stayed in America and continued to defy the law. Then, after eight years of waiting for a kidney, Loyola University Medical Center succumbed to the continued pressure from José Landaverde’s group and agreed to cover the cost of transferring a kidney from his illegal border-crossing mother, Sonia, into Jorge.
In addition to Mariscal’s free treatment at Loyola, after Our Lady of Guadalupe sponsored a hunger strike in June, the hospital also agreed to assess another illegal immigrant, Lorenzo Arroyo, for a liver transplant. Arroyo’s brother Elfego was also placed on the transplant waiting list at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center.
After his successful surgery, and since his fellow South-Sider Barack Obama promised to make immigration reform a top priority, Mariscal is “excited about his future and grateful for the help he received.” As a get-well present, Obama should propose that the remainder of Jorge’s graphic design education costs be DREAM-Acted into oblivion via the American taxpayer.
Mariscal said, “It feels great to have a second opportunity at life. It’s an overwhelming feeling. I don’t think I would have been happy in Mexico.” Jorge clearly doesn’t realize that this is actually his third “opportunity at life” — the second one being when Mom stuffed him into her backpack and made her way north from Tijuana into San Diego. As for Jorge being “unhappy in Mexico,” prison escapees are happier too once they’re on the outside — but if they’re apprehended, happiness isn’t an acceptable reason for letting them remain free.
Yet, despite Jorge’s euphoria, there is a hitch. Until ObamaCare officially “launches the exchanges” in 2014, although currently outfitted with a free kidney, Jorge “[r]emains frustrated with a health care system that he worries might leave out an untold number of illegal immigrants in need of lifesaving treatments.”
Jorge the man who just received hundreds of thousands of dollars in free health care, shamelessly parroted the Democrats’ “health care is a right” mantra when he asked, “Why can’t we be treated the same?” After all, where’s the fairness in American citizens getting first dibs on all the livers?
Notwithstanding being an undignified lawbreaker, Jorge is resolute in his belief that all illegals should be given equal consideration when it comes to organ transplant surgery, or what he describes as a “[c]hance to fight for our lives with dignity.”
On second thought, the president really should consider adopting Jorge’s philosophy on free organ transplants for illegals. If Obama reassigned to the top of the list all the undocumented aliens who’ve been denied a kidney, heart, or liver merely because of their illegal status, it would reinforce the illusion of his staunch commitment to fairness.
Either way, Fr. José must have forgotten to tell Jorge that illegal aliens fraudulently get free prescription drug coverage through Medicaid all the time. Alas, it seems that after the transplant, that pesky immigration issue has cropped up and complicated matters for Jorge again. Because he’s illegal, the undocumented alien with the free kidney transplant may actually have to pay $10K a year, for the rest of his life, for medicine that ensures that Mom’s renal endowment remains in good working order.
Whatever the outcome, Jorge Mariscal and his new kidney have little to worry about. With ObamaCare on the horizon, that looming $10,000 tab is sure to be picked up yearly, courtesy of individuals with legal driver’s licenses who bequeath their organs to be donated after they die, as well as those who, for lack of an organ similar to the one Mr. Mariscal just received for free, die while still on a waiting list.
So, from all those on the verge of selling a kidney to pay taxes, to every illegal alien in need of a free organ transplant: thank you for providing America yet another opportunity to accommodate your every need.
