It is this reporter's opinion that we are winning a few battles on the immigration front. The public outrage at the prospect of amnesty for illegals led to the defeat of the Senate immigration bill last June and it might be the end of Bush’s dream for comprehensive immigration reform.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, is optimistic. He is also a realist and supports tighter controls on immigration. But Krikorian points out that among our victories are the Real ID Act, the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and growing efforts at state and local levels.
More illegals are actually going home leading to improved conditions for American workers and our communities. Krikorian says stepped-up enforcement leads to attrition and that’s the real alternative to amnesty.
It is beginning to work. Arizona reports illegals are actually leaving the state in anticipation of Arizona’s tough new immigration rules.
Something is happening in Massachusetts where Brazilian illegals are quietly packing up and leaving. Then there’s that Pennsylvania town, Hazleton. They are in the forefront of the resistance to illegal immigration. When Hazleton created the nation’s first ordinance aimed at driving away illegals, thousands apparently packed up and left too.
These developments are improving the economic bargaining power of our less skilled American workers. At Greeley, Colo., a whole line of applicants came forth to fill jobs vacated by illegal workers, after raids by federal agents on illegals at the Swift & Company meat processing plant.
In Bedford, Mass., it was “out the door” for illegals after a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on a plant making leather goods. But as one newly employed worker says, “It is giving us a break after being out of work so many years.”
When illegals were removed from a poultry plant in Georgia, The Wall Street Journal documented the benefits to local workers. The plant raised wages, also providing free rooms in the company-owned dormitory. And it gave a new break to African-Americans who had been displaced by the illegals.
All of this good news is coming our way. Attrition is the real alternative to amnesty. Why didn’t we think of it sooner? It works.
But it is only a beginning as we continue to spend $22 billion on welfare to illegals, $2.2 billion on food assistance programs, $2.5 billion on Medicaid for illegals, and $12 billion on primary and secondary education for children here illegally.
Thirty percent of all federal prison inmates are illegal aliens. The illegal alien crime rate is 2 1/2 times that of non illegal aliens.
The total cost is a whopping $338.3 billion per year and rising!
Couple that figure with the cost of yet another war — this time against Iran — and we could send the greatest nation in the world into financial ruin.
Bankrupt our nation? No, a thousand times no.
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