Aging, Undocumented and Uninsured Immigrants Challenge Cities and States

Stateline: WASHINGTON, D.C. — Early on a recent morning, men huddle in the Home Depot parking lot, ground zero for day laborers on the hunt for work. Cars pull into the lot, and the men swarm.

Among them is Marcos, at 65, wiry and bronzed with a silvery smile. He’s been in the country illegally for 20 years, working construction and landscaping, doing whatever he can get, whenever he can get it. When he’s sick, he just rests, because — like most undocumented workers — he doesn’t have insurance.

“I don’t know if I have high blood pressure,” he said, laughing ruefully, “Because I don’t check. Doctors, you know, are expensive.”

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