Finding the will to address immigration
August 25, 2007
http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/ ... 5233.story

Whether it is in our backyard or hundreds of miles away, the news hits hard. The brutal execution-style schoolyard killings in Newark, N.J., in early August robbed that community of three college-bound teenagers who had already defied the odds and were on a path toward success. In Virginia Beach, two teenage girls were killed by a drunken driver in March, leaving our local community and their families without two bright stars.

On the surface, both of these crimes look like unrelated tragedies. But, the two crimes have an unsettling similarity — both were perpetrated by men who were in the United States illegally, with criminal records, and who were released back onto the streets. In Newark, one of the men charged in the killing was an illegal alien charged with 31 counts of aggravated sexual assault against a child. In Virginia Beach, the drunken driver was an illegal immigrant who had previous drunken driving convictions. For many, the obvious question is how could illegal immigrants with criminal records — particularly those with violent criminal records — be on the streets, and tacitly allowed to kill our children?

These cases come at a time when a growing number of cities, counties and towns, frustrated at the under-responsive federal government reaction to illegal immigration, are attempting to control the negative impacts of illegal immigration on their own. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, state lawmakers have introduced more than 1,400 measures related to immigration this year, ranging from denying benefits to illegal immigrants, to cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, to requiring mandatory reporting of illegal aliens to the federal government.

But while the solution to America's illegal immigration crisis will require state and local partnerships, this problem will never be solved in the current vacuum of federal executive and congressional leadership. Despite what many say, addressing America's crisis in illegal immigration does not stem from a lack of resources or a lack of legislation. It stems from the lack of will. Leaders in Washington have not only lacked the will to devote the necessary resources of the federal government to address the problem, they have also lacked the will to enforce current laws.

This year, as ranking member on the Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee and as a member of the Immigration Subcommittee, I was hopeful that I could help enact change. Yet, out of the 12 hearings Democratic leaders have held in the full Judiciary Committee, not a single one dealt with exploring solutions to crime, or crimes, performed by illegal immigrants. Instead, we spent the American public's time dealing with petty partisan politics while we should have been addressing one of the real issues Americans care about: keeping their families safe.

This needs to change.

That is why I have joined with fellow Virginia Reps. Eric Cantor, Jo Ann Davis and Thelma Drake to form a task force that will help explore ways we can make Virginia safer. The Alien Criminal Enforcement Task Force will bring state and local representatives together with federal officials to combat the systemic failures that are allowing illegal criminals back onto our streets.

Local law enforcement deserves to be given the tools to recognize criminal illegal aliens in their communities, and the resources to start deportation procedures on illegal immigrants that they arrest in conjunction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Local communities deserve to trust that their federal government not only can — but wants to — deal with and deport criminals in a timely fashion. And, local citizens deserve to feel that illegal aliens with violent records are not walking the streets to find their next victim.

American citizenship is a privilege, not a right, and those who broke our laws to enter this country illegally do not deserve to continue to enjoy the benefits of life in the United States, much less those that perpetrate crimes against Americans.

As we have tragically seen, the lives of our fellow citizens, our neighbors and our children depend on the federal will to address this problem. It is too late to save the lives of the children in Newark and Virginia Beach, but it is not too late to find the resolve to prevent this from happening again.

Forbes represents Virginia's 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, ranking member on the Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee, and a member of the Immigration Subcommittee.