Hot Button: The Illegal Immigration Issue

We've been on a little hiatus, so it was surprising to log on and find so many comments on the issue of illegal immigrants and their impact on our community locally, as well as nationally. The issue of illegal immigration is also rising up in the usually over-tolerant Europe, with legislation pending in both England and France. Many believe that immigration concerns are the driving force that is keeping Turkey out of the EU, which would lead to open borders between western nations and a Muslim nation.

Senate Bill 2611 http://usgovinfo.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi%2Dbin/query/z%3Fc109:S.%2B2611:is pending before the Senate and it is expected to pass. It contains the following provisions:

-Allows illegal immigrants who have been in the country five years or more to remain, continue working and eventually become legal permanent residents and citizens after paying fines, back taxes and learning English.

-Requires illegal immigrants in the U.S. between two and five years to go to a point of entry at the border and file an application to return.

-Requires those in the country less than two years to leave.

-Illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors would be deported no matter how long they have been in the U.S.

-Creates a special guest worker program for an estimated 1.5 million immigrant farm workers, who could also earn legal permanent residency.

-Provides 200,000 new temporary ``guest worker'' visas a year.

-Authorizes 370 miles of new triple-layered fencing plus 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.

-Authorizes hiring an additional 1,000 Border Patrol agents this year, for a total additional 3,000 agents this year.

-Adds another 14,000 Border Patrol agents by 2011 to the current force of 11,300 agents.

-Authorizes additional detention facilities for apprehended illegal immigrants.

-Requires employers and subcontractors to use an electronic system within 18 months to verify new hires are legal. Increases maximum fines to employers for hiring illegal workers to $20,000 for each worker and imposes jail time for repeat offenders:

-No provisions providing path to legal residency or citizenship for illegal immigrants. No new temporary guest worker program.

-Makes illegal presence in the country a felony and increases penalties for first-time illegal entry to the U.S.

-Makes it a felony to assist, encourage, direct or induce a person to enter or attempt to enter or remain in the United States illegally.

-Beginning in six years, all employers would have to use a database to verify Social Security numbers of all employees.

-Increases maximum fines for employers of illegal workers from current $10,000 to $40,000 per violation and establishes prison sentences of up to 30 years for repeat offenders.

-Requires mandatory detention for all non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested at ports of entry or at land and sea borders.

-Establishes mandatory sentences for smuggling illegal immigrants and for re-entering the U.S. illegally after deportation.

-Makes a drunken driving conviction a deportable offense.

-Requires building two-layer fences along 700 miles of the 2,000-mile border between Mexico and the United States.

Do you really think this bill will solve the problem of illegal immigration? I doubt that Councilor Keane or Mayor Hanlon will be happy with it, because it fails to address the financial impact that cities and towns are left with due to illegal immigration.

These are the facts. Illegal immigration creates a permanent underclass that big business is happy to exploit and the federal government is willing to look the other way. The cost of illegal immigration is not born by the federal government - it is your local goverments that pay the added costs of educating the children of illegal immigrants and your local hospitals and state agencies that bear the costs of their healthcare - because their low-paying jobs don't provide healthcare benefits. The guest worker program will only make things worse; it will allow businesses to continue to exploit these workers for cheap wages, while at the same time inflating rents, which can be paid by people who are willing to overcrowd apartments in an effort to share costs. A recent study concluded that wages dropped by nearly 50% in the meatcutting and packing industry between 1980 and 2000 due to the influx of illegal immigrants into the field. Perhaps the real reason that "Americans won't take those jobs" is because they can't live on subsistence wages that illegal immigration has helped create?

During the debate over S2611, Senator Kennedy spoke out about a provision which was stricken that would have prevented illegal immigrants from claiming past social security withholdings. Perhaps Councilor Keane and Mayor Hanlon should give him a call and ask him when the City of Everett can expect him to fork over the millions of dollars in past education expenses that the children of illegal immigrants have cost the taxpayers of Everett.