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Saturday, March 4, 2006News

Illegal Immigration, State of Emergency or State of Confusion

By John W. Slagle
March 3, 2006
Many elected governors, along the border and interior, were complaining about the flood of illegal immigrants pouring into their states in a recent governors meeting in Washington, D.C. February 27, 2006.

"This is a national issue," said Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona, where 500,000 attempts to illegally cross the border were turned back last year and an untold number got through.

"We're absorbing through taxpayer dollars the incarceration costs, health-care costs, education costs," Napolitano stated.

In 2005, the illegal immigration crisis compelled Napolitano and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico to declare states of emergency in border counties in each state. An increase in violent criminal activity due to Border crossers was the purpose of Arizona's emergency declaration in August, 2005. The declaration was to assist local authorities in enforcing state laws regarding smugglers.

Curiously, Governor Napolitano has vetoed every state bill regarding illegal immigration issues. Prop 200 was passed overwhelmingly and she is still trying to stop its implementation... The governor stated she believed undocumented aliens should have driver licenses in Arizona.

Arizona Legislature Immigration Bills the Governor Vetoed include:

SB1306 (sponsor: Pearce) -- Authorizes peace officers to investigate, apprehend, detain or remove aliens in the enforcement of United States immigration laws. Already authorized under federal law and April 1st a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court raised any concerns on this issue and made it clear that law enforcement can enforce immigration laws. Any decision by local law enforcement not to enforce these laws is simply political on the part of local politicians, police chiefs and sheriffs' offices.

SB1118 (Pearce) -- Voter registration; provisional ballot; address, implements the voting-related provisions of Prop 200.

SB1167 (Pearce) -- Establishes English as the official language of Arizona and requires that official actions be conducted in English and requires the State to do all it can to enhance and promote English as the official language. The proposal would also bar in

State Tuition for Illegal Aliens.

SB1402 (Pearce) -- Part of the initially vetoed budget bills that appropriates $721,700 from the HURG fund to establish procedures to determine whether or not the information and documents provided by a person applying for a driver's license are fraudulent. As the result of a federal sting, we found that hundreds of documents submitted to MVD were accepted and licenses were issued and Homeland Security issued a warning of severe concern to national security on this issue and yet our governor still vetoed the bill.

HB2030 (Pearce/Boone) -- Requires that recipients of certain state -- funded services are present legally in the Unites States. Also requires the agencies that provide these services to report on the number of people who applied to participate in the programs and the number who were not eligible for those programs due to their illegal status.

HB2709 (Jones/Weiers) -- Requires DOA to contract for a private prison facility to be located in Mexico to house Mexican national prisoners.

SB1186 (Martin) -- Incorporates into statue Prop 200 requirement for proof of United States citizenship when registering to vote and stipulates the information submitted as evidence of citizenship does not become public record.

SB1511 (Martin) -- Prohibits law enforcement of other government agencies, commissions, boards or districts from accepting identification document such as a Matricular Consular card unless they are issued by a political subdivision, Indian tribe, state or federal authority. Against warnings by the FBI, Homeland Security as unreliable and a serious risk to national security, the governor vetoed it anyway. Its only purpose is to allow illegal aliens to get public services.

The Arizona Legislature in 2006 has a record number of bills again dealing with illegal immigration. Enforcing the law along the 382-mile southern border officially is the responsibility of the federal government but why expect the taxpayers to pay reimbursement costs for what often appears to be an "illegal alien friendly" Sanctuary State?

Governor Janet Napolitano, in a current legislative session last month wanted to "strengthen the border with the people and equipment we need to fight crime and increase border security for lawful commerce, tourism and legal immigration."

Arizona State lawmakers on February 15, 2006 voted against Senate Bill 1215, Identity Check. This bill would force employers to use an online system to check if job applicants are in the country legally. The Federal on-line system would prevent prospective employees or illegal aliens from using fraudulent documents to obtain jobs.

Committee Members approved Senate Bill 1513, an alternative which is widely supported by business interests. No penalty can be levied against companies that complete I-9 forms, and keep job applicant document copies,etc.


Voters will decide in November if the governor and all 90 members of the Legislature keep their jobs. Polls show that illegal immigration is a top concern in Arizona as well as much of the nation.


Some immigration-related bills now in the Arizona Legislature:

l HB 2069 prevents anyone who has not been granted refugee status or who is without lawful immigration status from qualifying for in-state tuition.

l HB 2596 requires the Department of Education, school districts and other institutions and agencies to provide adult education services only to those who are citizens or lawfully present in the United States.

l HB 2599 requires that public money for job training or work-force development must only be distributed to persons who are citizens or legally in the United States.

l HB 2003 gives $6 million to four border counties for the construction of a road to facilitate law-enforcement patrols.

l HB 2577 requires employers to discharge employees if it is discovered they provided an invalid Social Security number.


l HB 2579 calls for the state to pay for the deployment of the National Guard in Southern Arizona for security functions.

l HB 2595 requires that a child-care home provider registering with the Department of Economic Security who wishes to be listed with the child-care resource and referral system be a citizen or legal resident of the United States.


l SB 1273 calls for spending $20 million to lease a radar system for border protection.


l HCR 2037 calls for the construction of a wall along Arizona's southern border.

Arizona is a portal for illegal aliens, Special Interest aliens, criminal cadres from human and narcotics Traffickers to wanted felons. It is always a source of humor to see politicians react to the problems close to an election year.

$20 million taxpayer dollars to lease a radar system 1 SB 1273 is an interesting bill but a little costly.

In 1975, The U.S. Border Patrol had special units operating PPS 5 and PPS 15 portable radar units which were provided by the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, at no taxpayer expense.

After Army Training, we spent six months evaluating the equipment on heavily traveled smuggler's trails on the Tohono Indian Nation. We could detect movement to a range of 10,000 meters, cars to pack animals and people.

In an election year there will always be pork barrel remedies for a basic solution.

Secure the Borders, and enforce all existing U.S. Immigration Laws including labor sanctions for a start, a task the U.S. Government has failed to do for 20 years.

Arizona's uncompensated costs for illegal immigration, incarceration, education and health care is 1.3 billion dollars per state Senator Dean Martin.

A former President of the United States also expressed his view on Immigration long ago which is correct today.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...

There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Sources

Arizona Legislature, Vetoes, Bills, Theodore Roosevelt Speech 1907

Open Source News, CNN, Star

Radar Operator Experience USBP 1975, Arizona taxpayer