Thread: AZGoddard: Sensible outline for immigration reform

Guest opinion
Goddard: Sensible outline for immigration reform
Posted Jul 3, 2010, 5:25 am

Terry Goddard
Arizona Attorney General


This week we heard two well-reasoned calls for reforming the nation's badly broken immigration system. Though the calls came from very different places, they propose similar reforms that I have long supported and deserve the immediate attention of Congress.

One call came from President Obama, the other from a coalition of 19 Arizona business groups. Both emphasized that the immigration problem cannot be solved without comprehensive federal reform.

The recommendations from the state business coalition, whose leaders include many Republicans, are pragmatic and achievable. They include four principal reform elements:

1. First and foremost, strengthen border security.

2. Create a secure system for all employers nationwide to verify the legal work eligibility for employees.

3. Require immigrants already in the U.S. illegally with no criminal record to register for a federally established form of legal status, learn English, and pay appropriate fines and any taxes owed.

4. Grow the economy by establishing a market-based immigration process that supports a range of workplace needs from seasonal to highly skilled workers and entrepreneurs.

Opponents of immigration reform complain that proposals of this kind amount to amnesty. That's simply not true. Illegal immigrants would need complete several steps, including a criminal background check and paying a fine, before they could get in line for citizenship.

Increasing border security must be the top priority in any reform plan. President Obama's statement that the border is more secure today than any time in the past 20 years doesn't address the increasing threat of the Mexico-based drug cartels. The federal government must commit more resources to combat the cartels.

Border security has to go well beyond building higher fences and putting more boots on the ground. Illegal immigration today is controlled and managed by the well-financed organized criminals based in Mexico. They use sophisticated communications, a network of scouts, rugged vehicles and heavily armed escorts to provide passage for the vast majority of illegal border crossers. The border cannot be effectively secured until law enforcement gains the upper hand against the cartels.

I have focused my efforts as Attorney General on going after them. My primary strategy has been to follow and reduce the flow of money that funds their violent operations. I have helped break up and prosecute several human-smuggling and drug-smuggling rings in Arizona. My Office has seized more than $20 million in cartel assets, and earlier this year, I won a $94 million settlement from Western Union that will provide new resources to law enforcement agencies in all four Southwest border states to go after the cartels and their leaders.

I have also worked to increase coordination and information-sharing with Mexican law enforcement. My Office has taken the lead in training some 400 Mexican prosecutors to help improve that country's low criminal trial conviction rate. Western Union settlement money will also enable us to share data on money transfers and further disrupt the cartels' cash pipeline.

Like most Americans, I believe the federal government has miserably failed to fulfill its responsibility to secure our border and control immigration. I understand the frustration of Arizonans over that failure and the passage of an immigration law meant to compensate for the federal government's inaction.

But that law does not do anything to secure the border or make Arizonans safer. It will not stop the criminal cartels from smuggling more illegal immigrants across the border, and it will impose a multi-million-dollar financial burden on our police departments.

We need comprehensive federal reform along the lines proposed by the state's bipartisan business coalition. We need to increase border security, we need to reform our nation's malfunctioning immigration system, and Congress must take up this challenge now.

Terry Goddard is the Attorney General of the State of Arizona. He is a candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/r ... mmigration

I saw this guy in the aiport a while ago flying out , at the time I thought it best to say nothing to him , if I ever see him again I'm going to give him a peace of my mind.

Terry Goddard is the Attorney General of the State of Arizona. He is a candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Welcome to Losers-Hall-Of-Shame, Mr. Goddard.

He can shove his amnesty up his a..

Brewer was smart to bypass this idiot and get outside consul to defend the
law

Marquis

I watched your overview and video and listen to your comments of Ca's state of the union.

Ca was the first State to boycott AZ.
CA with over 2 million illegals's sucking the fiscal life out of CA. Ya think has a problem?

Ca doesn't think so....Once again, CA is now tryig to boycott AZ utlizing the entire State's power brokers to further backlash AZ's Buss base.
CA is also issuing travel warnings .
How childish and pathetic.
Don't you think you should clear-up the garbage in your back yard?

Where in all of your wailing have you suggested that CA utlize E-Verify by all employers for the re-employment of the legal citizens of your State, also your the diminishing tax base.

Where in all of your observation suggesting that the Rep.party
also tryig to cut spending and save the diminishing tax base
would also have the gutts to stand up for another Border, AZ , who has the true grit to stop this insanity and the runaway train at the border.

Does any one in CA have a set of big ones to arrest and deport...?

Ca is not Abatar.That was a fantasy.

You either do what most of America is doing, which is addresssing this issue to end this crisis by Federal Laws enforcement.
Helping to re-employed 17 million out of work Americas who were also part of the tax base
Boycotting all Buss. that employ illegal workers.
OR turn into the cesspool that you have described.

Over 100,000 illegals have left AZ , more are leaving.
We have a huge sign in SP and English paid for by the citizens of AZ with directions to head West .
The money we will save here on anchor babies, and all other entitlement costs you listied, will certainly be instant revenue for AZ who continue to say NO to illegal immigration.

You also must understand the true meaning of the word BACKLASH. it works in both diirections. But no hard feeling here....

ALL MAJOR cities in CA , are now under the banner of SANCTUARY.
Have you ever researched how that erode all State Law which direcly affect you ?
That would an interesting video..
Your sanctuary cities have sections that look like third world countries, cesspools.
That is where your camera must film, but I'm certain you would not venture there with 600 different gangs in CA
and 95% of all outstanding warrants for violent offenders,who are also illegals living in CA ready to welcome you.

Rethink your nice little video on poor broke CA and you the next you hear AZ being bash by CA, and D.C ,
maybe,....., just maybe..... CA can learn something from AZ before it is too late to save our State of our Union.
NO help from D.C., no boots on the ground, for the protection and National Security,for all of us, with a full blown drug war in our back yard.
By the way the word is ....NARCO...... TERRORISM..and they alway know the State that will welcome them and the free incentives offered.

The Open Borders, Come And Get It crowd absolutely refuses to recognize that the first duty of any government is owed to its own citizens. Honest poeple can disagree about the proper scope of government, but it's safe to say that when the Founders wrote that one purpose of the constitution is to "promote the general welfare" they meant the welfare of Americans.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

thank you for taking the time to watch my video duda ...

as far as getting shots of slums , i've got some already ... an arizona illegal infested slum is much the same i imgine as a cali slum .. but i do plan to get out more and take as much footage as i can ..

Does this fool really think illegals will step forward, pay fines and swear allegiance to their new country? More likely, they will continue to work for cash under the table and hope they don't get deported - which looks more and more unlikely. Under the current administration, they're pretty much home free.