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Published: Aug 20, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Aug 20, 2006 02:30 AM

Finding number of illegals overwhelming, he advocates for more enforcement


Note: It's hard to smile with the sun shining right in your eyes.

Martha Quillin, Staff Writer
William Gheen spent years working to get candidates elected. Now, he says, he's trying to get them to do their jobs.

Born and raised in Western North Carolina, Gheen went to East Carolina University, where he studied political science. Since 1992, he says, he has worked on more than 40 political campaigns. That's what he was doing in 2003 when a candidate asked him to get an estimate on the number of illegal immigrants living in North Carolina.

"I had to dig deep. The estimate range at that time came up at 300,000 to 600,000, or somewhere near a half a million. The candidate was shocked, and I was shocked," says Gheen, who believes that the media had not adequately reported on the story. "It was a hidden -- or concealed -- issue."

Since then, Gheen has immersed himself in finding out about illegal immigration and disseminating everything he finds through Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, or ALIPAC. The organization's Web site, Gheen says, now has one of the largest archives for news and information about illegal immigration in existence, and visitors read 50,000 pages there each day.

Gheen, who lives in Raleigh, is the paid president of the organization, which advocates for the enforcement of immigration laws, including reducing the number of people entering the United States illegally and restricting illegal residents' access to tax-funded assistance.

State and federal laws are adequate to deal with illegal immigration, Gheen says; the failure is on the part of state and federal governments, which willfully neglect to enforce the laws in deference to corporate interests that benefit from low-cost immigrant labor. In failing to enforce the law, he says, elected officials abdicate their responsibility to the people who voted for them. In a democracy, Gheen says, elected officials are supposed to do the will of the people.

"The system failure that is allowing rampant illegal immigration is the death of what America stands for," Gheen says. "It is the end of our republic."

ALIPAC's news archive paints a picture different from the image of the immigrant family man working 10 hours a day at a grinding job, sending money home to his wife and children. Illegal immigrants also include violent gangs and members of the drug cartels that wield immense influence in some parts of Mexico, Gheen says. If something doesn't change, he says, he foresees a future in which these groups take power in this country as well.

"It doesn't take a crystal ball," Gheen says. "All you need is a computer and a search engine."

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