Sheriff doing what she can
August 24, 2008

It has been two years since Congress failed in its latest serious attempt to find a compromise on a bill designed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into this country. There has been little debate since and scant discussion about it during the presidential campaign.

Consequently, it remains up to local and state officials to deal piecemeal with the economic and social problems associated with having to absorb large numbers of illegal aliens. Because enforcement of immigration laws is the responsibility of the federal government, options at the local level are limited.

Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno is among a handful of officials in New Jersey attempting to address at least part of the problem — illegal aliens with criminal pasts who are being set free because of restrictions on running checks to see whether they are in this country legally.

When Guadagno ran for sheriff last year, she pledged to join a federal program called 287(g) that deputizes local law enforcement officers as federal immigration agents. She now says budget considerations make it impossible to fully implement the program, but she intends to have officers at the county jail in Freehold Township check detainees' immigration status.

While we would like to see her do more, the job is far too big for one sheriff's department. Illegal immigration must be confronted at the national level. It's an outrage that years of debate over the best way to respond to it have produced few concrete initiatives.

There are no reliable statistics on the number of illegal immigrants in New Jersey. But foreign-born residents now constitute 20.7 percent of the state's population, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Since 2000, foreign-born residents have increased by 21.8 percent while the native-born population has declined 0.7 percent.

According to Census Bureau statistics, there were about 2.4 million people in New Jersey in 1997 who were "immigrant stock" — immigrants and children born to them here after their arrival. The immigrant stock share of the state's population is now about 28 percent — the sixth largest share in the country. Over the past three decades, immigrants and their children have accounted for all of the state's population increase.

Due to a slowing economy and somewhat tougher enforcement, the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. is down about 11 percent from a year ago, according to a recent FAIR report. But a comprehensive immigration reform bill is badly needed, one that provides for secure borders, imposes stiff penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, mandates the issuance of tamper-proof national identification cards and empowers local police to enforce immigration laws.

Guadagno's plan won't solve the problem. But at least she is giving it her best shot. If only the same could be said for Congress.
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