The "D" Word in the Illegal Immigrant Debate

Any plans for ''comprehensive immigration reform'' must include a plan for deportation. That is the "D" word that we are waiting to hear.

If there are 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States, the fact is that some of them will have to be deported. The questions are: when, how many, and in what manner?

Arizona alone has an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico. To give an example of the extent of this problem, if the state started tomorrow, it would have to deport 1,250 illegals a day to remove them all of them in a year's time.

To let illegals remain, even with a closed border, will not solve the state's pressing economic problems. Consider the cost of 460,000 illegal immigrants to Arizona: The state pays for education, medical care, and prisons for them.

Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen says, “We have been overrun and once they are here we have the burden of funding state services that they use. Education costs have been over a billion dollars. The healthcare cost billions of dollars. Our state is broke; $3.5 billion deficit and we have many serious decisions to make. One is that we do not have the money to care for any who are not here legally."

Amnesty for illegals is not going to save Arizona money, either. It may even end up costing the state more money. Those given amnesty may qualify for greater welfare and social service payments.

Offering a path to citizenship while letting thousands remain is not going to solve these problems. Deportation is the only way to reach a solution. The "D" word is the key to Arizona's solvency.

But there is more than solvency at stake in Arizona. The 2009 population of Arizona is estimated to be 6,500,000. Illegals make up about 10 percent of the state's population.

If a path to citizenship is granted, illegal immigrants can change the course of Arizona's elections, and then change the culture of the state.

Many in Arizona do not want that. "A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state shows that 56% now approve of the way Brewer is performing her role as governor. Two weeks ago, just 40% offered their approval."

Assuming that there are 15 million illegals in the United States, the federal government must deport about 41,000 a day to remove the illegals from the nation.

To simply say we must secure our national borders and offer a path to citizenship will not solve the problem of illegal immigration to Arizona or the United States. The punishment must be deportation with no chance of being let in again.

Once illegal immigrants know that federal and state governments are serious about deportation, many of them will self-deport. Furthermore, a worsening economy will find that many who came here only for jobs and not because they wanted to be U.S. citizens, will also self-deport.

Although deportation may seem at first to be a harsh punishment for entering the United States illegally, we must remember that the problem in Arizona is not its problem, alone. Because most illegals in Arizona are from Mexico, illegal immigration to Arizona is also a Mexican problem.

Why are so many people fleeing Mexico? The answer to that is complex, but it is certain that Mexicans cannot solve their problems by running away from them.

One way or another, Mexicans must return to their own country and work for solutions there. Deportation from the United States is the best way to accomplish that. Only then will the two countries live as good neighbors.

http://bit.ly/aCmi0n