Because the worst of all worlds is when you pretend like you have an immigration policy, you make coming into the United States without our permission illegal, and then you actually don't enforce it. ~Tom Tancredo
I rarely write about political issues on my posts here, but I am quite interested in politics, a strong believer in the U.S. Constitution, and a conservative. I live in a state that is 7th in the number of illegal aliens. Understand that I do not fault these people for desperately wanting a better life for themselves and their children, but there are many complications and expenses on the U.S. citizen because of these people circumvented our laws. First of all, in most situations they do not pay any income taxes, yet are recipients of income tax dollars through a variety of programs meant for citizens. It is common they use stolen IDs, often children's Social Security numbers, to get credit, which happened with two children of a friend, because it is less common for children to check their credit.
They can easily skirt around our laws because they are not really here on paper and easily escape retribution because of the lack of legal documentation. For instance, a pick-up truck load of Hispanics ran into a family's car. All of the family died save one boy who is now crippled for life. The men involved...? Who knows as they ran out of the truck and scattered. The owner of the vehicle? Who knows because the tags were stolen. A trace of the VIN number was also a dead end as to finding the owner or driver.
Georgia recently passed a law that so that private employers in Georgia with eleven or more employees must use E-Verify for new hires to be sure that they are citizens of the United States. This has caused a few problems.
One is that many illegal aliens are leaving the state, some going back to their home countries, but others are probably just moving to other states. Now Georgia farmers are saying they do not have enough workers, so the governor suggested they hire people paroled and on probation who must have jobs, but have difficulty in getting hired because of their records. Some farmers are receptive and some are not so much.
Another problem is that there is lawsuit to challenge the constitutional validity of the law. I am completely receptive to laws being challenged for their compliance with our Constitution. Although it is a costly and time consuming process, I believe it is a necessary one to protect our rights. However, adding to this challenge, several countries have filed a brief in support of this new law's opponents. Yes, countries. They are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and more countries may join as well.
Here is one premise: Creating a patchwork of state laws damages U.S.-Mexico relations and makes it "nearly impossible for Mexican nationals to understands their rights," Mexico stated in its court brief in Georgia.
Hmmm. Well, having studied a bit of law, I have to first say that each state is sovereign, having rights to make its own laws, and state laws do not have any power outside of their own boundaries. As most homeschooling families well know, every state has very differing laws about homeschooling. Does that mean I, being in Georgia, can make a legal argument protesting Ohio and Florida and Texas homeschooling laws because I have family living there? I don't think so.... So why should the argument from these countries have any weight whatsoever with a state law?
This country is called the United States because each state has its own right to self-govern, but we collectively are to be protected by our federal government. It is the federal government who should be protecting the country's borders so that we do not have an illegal immigration problem that is bankrupting our states as well as the federal government. You see, we have laws in place that are well defined at the federal level, but not well enforced, which is why states are now devising their own laws on illegal immigration. However, if the federal government would enforce the laws already in place, the problem with each state making its own laws against illegal immigrants would not even be a factor.
Is it the responsibility for any state or even the federal government to conform its laws so that the citizens of another country can understand their rights when they have illegally entered our country? My husband has traveled to a few countries and in each one the responsibility not to break any of the laws in whose countries is his responsibility. No country is required to educate him on his rights when he legally enters it, and I would imagine that if someone would enter a country illegally, the person could not feign ignorance of the laws there either.
Now I believe we are all born with certain unalienable rights, but when a law is broken in our country, the person has chosen a path that is outside of the protect of the law. Citizens and those who are here legally have that protection. Those who are here illegally have willfully and knowingly broken our laws so they also are outside of that protection.
Ironically, the immigration laws of some of these countries are more penalizing than our own. Did you know that Mexico annually deports more illegal aliens than the United States does? It is a felony to be an illegal alien in Mexico and immigrants who attempt to re-enter after previously being deported can be imprisoned up to ten years. In comparison, illegal immigration into the U.S. is a misdemeanor punishable by criminal fines and imprisonment for up to six months and, if repeated, becomes punishable as a felony up to two years in prison with additional civil fines imposed at the discretion of immigration judges.
Now, think about this: some of the legal immigrants in the U.S. passed through Mexico illegally as well. According to information at Wikipedia:
In September 2007, Mexican President Calderón harshly criticized the United States government for the crackdown on illegal immigrants, saying it has led to the persecution of immigrant workers without visas. "I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico", he said.
In October 2008, Mexico tightened its immigration rules and agreed to deport Cubans using the country as an entry point to the US. It also criticized U.S. policy that generally allows Cubans who reach U.S. territory to stay. Cuban Foreign Minister said the Cuban-Mexican agreement would lead to "the immense majority of Cubans being repatriated."
It seems the United States has been too enabling and it cannot please other countries no matter what it does about illegal immigration so why not just enforce our federal laws and tighten up guarding our borders to help foreigners come into our country legally so there is far less concern about our policies on an illegal immigration.
~ My Lord, it is difficult to know for what I should pray. My heart is torn for so many of the people affected, but they made a choice to purposely be here illegally and often break more laws, hurting innocent people by stealing their identities, to stay. Please help them make better choices for their families so they can be protected by the laws and help my government to enforce immigration laws so we no longer encourage the breaking of those laws. ~
