Crackdown on hiring illegal immigrants is having an effect

By PHIL VALENTINE

I just completed a two-day broadcast from the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" event in Washington, D.C.

This is an annual event of which I've been a part since its inception that brings attention back to the problem of illegal immigration. This year, more than 40 talk show hosts from across the country participated, including CNN's Lou Dobbs, who originated his radio and TV show from the event.

Why illegal immigration now, when we're in the middle of a presidential campaign? Because illegal immigration is still a component of every major issue afflicting our country. The rising cost of health care is exacerbated by illegal immigrants who don't have health insurance and show up at emergency rooms all over America.

Illegal immigrants only account for about 3 percent of the population but they make up over 17 percent of the federal prison population, according to an Urban Institute study. Other estimates now show that illegal immigrants make up half of the California prison population.

I devote an entire chapter to illegal immigration in my new book, The Conservative's Handbook (Cumberland House). In doing research for that chapter, I discovered that an ESR Research study released earlier this year estimates the cost of illegal immigration to the federal government alone at $115 billion!

The human cost of illegal immigration is staggering. The Violent Crimes Institute estimates there are more than 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States. That's 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sex offenders crossing into the U.S. every day. Each sex offender is averaging four victims. That's close to a million victims of sexual crimes at the hands of illegal immigrants. Of that number, 41 percent were sexual homicides.

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, conducted a study of government records and cross-referenced those records with arrest records and prison population estimates. His conclusion? On average, 12 Americans are murdered daily by illegal immigrants. That's 4,380 per year.

To put it another way, that's more people killed each year by illegal immigrants than the number of soldiers lost in the first four years of the Iraq war. King's study estimates another 13 people are killed by illegal immigrants in traffic accidents each day, primarily from drunken driving. That's 25 innocent Americans killed each day. That's 9,125 per year. That's like a 9/11 happening every four months or a 727 jetliner full of passengers going down every week.

And the proponents of illegal immigration tell us "no person is illegal." Oh, really?

We're spending $115 billion in federal dollars and losing nearly 10,000 American lives each year because we have too many people putting profit ahead of principle.

I've been doing these hold-their- feet-to-the-fire broadcasts for four years now. I've seen very little movement on the federal level, but I've seen a grass-roots movement grow to a deafening level. Americans are fed up with the inaction by Congress. They're sick and tired of activist judges thwarting the efforts of people like Lou Barletta in little Hazelton, Pa., who led his town council to crack down on those who hire illegal immigrants only to see his actions struck down by judges with an agenda.

But I've also seen states like Arizona and Oklahoma demagnetize their states by cracking down on employers as illegal immigrants packed up and moved out. Some headed home across the border while others fled to sanctuary cities like San Francisco where misguided city officials welcomed them with open arms. In turn, these sanctuary cities also saw their crime rates skyrocket.

We can no longer count on our federal government to solve the problem of illegal immigration, but the least we can expect is for them not to be part of the problem. The recent high-profile ICE raids are encouraging but they're only window dressing for an administration that has openly advocated open borders.

Build the fence, yes, but let the states and cities demagnetize America, and we'll see an end to illegal immigration once and for all.
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