Thread: NC legislators to consider crackdown on illegal immigrants

NC legislators to consider crackdown on illegal immigrants

wral.com

RALEIGH, N.C. — The House Select Committee on the State's Role in Immigration will hold a public hearing Wednesday to examine what North Carolina can do to clamp down on illegal immigration.

The hearing, which is scheduled to start at 1 p.m., will begin with committee presentations and end with comments from the public.

Prior to Wednesday's hearing, a coalition of pro-legal immigration groups is planning a morning media conference at 10 a.m. outside the General Assembly in advance of the legislative committee meeting.

Organizers for a group called We Are NC said speakers will highlight the positive contributions immigrants make to North Carolina's economy and culture.

Possibilities under consideration in the Republican-controlled state House include measures similar to laws enacted in Alabama and Arizona that restrict access to public services by undocumented workers and empower local law enforcement officers to identify those in the country illegally.

Federal authorities who enforce immigration laws have generally discouraged such state-based initiatives.

In January, more than 100 people packed a similar meeting – half in support of illegal immigrants and half who want the state to take action against them. Lawmakers learned in that hearing that trying to calculate the cost to taxpayers for services to illegal immigrants is not as easy as they thought.

The only solid number presented in the two-hour hearing was the $1.3 million spent on emergency medical care.

The last committee meeting on this subject was disrupted near the end by a handful of young Hispanics wearing T-shirts saying "Undocumented and Unafraid." Uriel Alberto, Estephania Mijangos-Lopez and Cynthia Martinez, who are members of the pro-immigrant group N.C. Dream and say they are undocumented, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates North Carolina ranks ninth in population among the states with what it calls 325,000 unauthorized immigrants, defined as foreign-born citizens of other countries who aren't legal immigrants.

source: http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/10914677/