Thread: Immigration bills would crack down on illegals in Oklahoma

http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local ... 01317.html

Published: March 13, 2006 12:13 am

Immigration bills would crack down on illegals in Oklahoma

Staff and wire reports

OKLAHOMA CITY — Members of Oklahoma’s Latino population say their growing numbers and economic clout are fueling a spate of election-year immigration bills that would crack down on illegal immigrants by forcing ordinary public employees to report them.

The bills are a response to a wave of immigration in the state that lawmakers complain have taken jobs from Oklahoma citizens and is sapping scarce tax dollars for education, health care and a variety of social services they say frequently are used by immigrants.

“We can’t afford to be the welfare state for the whole world,” said Rep. Kevin Calvey, R-Del City, a candidate for the 5th Congressional Dis-trict seat who is shepherding an immigration bill through the Legislature to require state and local government workers to report suspected illegal aliens to federal authorities.

“Federal law says we’re supposed to be doing this anyway,” Calvey said. “The message I have for illegal immigrants is, please come back when you’ve complied with the rules.”

State Rep. Curt Roggow said he would rather not have any state support going to illegal immigrants.

“I would rather they go to U.S. citizens. If immigrants become citizens, I welcome immigration to the U.S. This country was founded on immigration. Everyone came from somewhere,” Rog-gow, R-Hillsdale said.

Enid Republican Mike Jackson said the name illegal aliens describes the status of the people in question.

“They are here illegally. They are not supposed to be here,” he said.

Jackson said illegal aliens are probably not paying income taxes and not contributing to the treasury they are benefitting from. However, Jackson said the process to become a legal alien is lengthy and said Immigration and Naturalization Service should speed up the process.

State Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid said the Senate passed a bill this week that would assist the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation to find and prosecute people who provide false identification to illegal aliens.

“It creates a drain on the economy because we are required by law to provide medical care, education, any public service to all people, no matter what their legal status,” he said. “I’m not opposed to legal immigration. But when people come in illegally, we need to enact additional laws that will help protect not only the financial end, but national security. We don’t have much control or knowledge about who comes into the state or country.”

Jackson added he loves the diversity of the United States. However, when illegal people get into the health care and welfare systems of the state it drains the systems and makes it difficult to serve those who need it.

Latino support groups say the legislation is malicious, will discourage immigrants from seeking health care and other services and is an attempt by politicians to promote themselves by exploiting voters’ fears.

“Deep wounds have already surfaced from these intolerant and hateful tones,” said Ed Romo, vice president for civil rights and political affairs for the League of United Latin American Citizens in Oklahoma City.

“In no way are we going to accept the rationale that immigrants have created such a problem for Oklahoma or for the nation to justify this kind of legislation,” Romo said.

Romo called Calvey’s bill an attack on diversity and election-year pandering “of the worst kind.” Latino advocates said Calvey was one of their biggest supporters when he championed legislation that would offer in-state tuition to resident aliens at state colleges and universities, but that was three years before he decided to run for Congress.

“He is selling his principles to run for office,” said Pat Fennell of the Latino Community Development Agency in Oklahoma City.

The effect of Calvey’s tuition bill would be reversed in legislation filed by Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, that would make undocumented aliens ineligible for in-state tuition.

The same bill would make resident aliens ineligible for taxpayer-backed student scholarships and require state agencies that administer public assistance programs like food stamps and Medicaid to deliver them only to qualified citizens.

Fennell said immigrants want to improve their lives, not live on public assistance, when they leave their homelands.

“People don’t come to this country to get on welfare. People come to this country to work,” she said. “People don’t understand what would happen to the economy of the state if all of the undocumented workers disappeared. You would see a tremendous impact.”

Many hotels, motels and restaurants would struggle to open and construction projects would come to a standstill, Fennell said.

“Latinos are a force in the economy, whether they are undocumented or not,” she said.

The state immigration bills have plenty of support from members of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation who want border security beefed up to slow the flow of illegal immigration into the country.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook, who is leaving his 5th District seat to run for governor, said there are an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the country — more than half from Mexico — and that all levels of government are needed to address the problem.

“We need public employees to help us fix the problem,” Istook said. “I want people to come to America from other countries. But I want them to do it legally.”

“It’s a tough thing. Most Americans don’t like to play the role of snitch,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. “Americans are not hostile to immigrants. Most Americans are immigrants. You scratch an American, you find an immigrant.”

But the flood of immigrants poses a national security issue and threatens public security and health in many communities.

U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., said an increase in immigrants in his eastern Oklahoma district coincided with an increase in illegal methamphetamine trafficking.

“You have a lot of this meth coming in from Mexico from these super labs. It’s actually much more potent. It’s much more lethal,” Boren said. “If you knowingly harbor someone who is illegal, you need to be punished.”

Opponents of harsher rules say the state should not be required to help solve what is primarily a federal problem.

“Our position is that the federal immigration system is broken. The state shouldn’t be forced into using their facilities to try to fix it,” said Shirley Cox of Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City, an ad hoc professor of immigration law at Oklahoma City University.

Cox said federal immigration reform should include fair rules that allow people to more easily become legal residents and meet the basic needs of their families, including higher visa quotas, more types of visas and amnesty for people who have been working in the country for years.

The proposed state rules are creating fear and confusion in many Latino communities, where undocumented aliens who have no legal rights, work menial, low-paying jobs and have no path to legalization already comprise some of society’s most vulnerable people, Cox said.

“From a faith-based point of view, undocumented persons are our brothers and our sisters,” she said. “From a faith perspective, we are called to respond to the needs of the least of our brothers and sisters.”

Story Comments



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I work for a multi million dollar construction company, and the majority of our field hand are hispanic, illegal...When we are instructed to have all of the illegals provide us with proof, they can't. We then have to terminate, but here is the big kicker...99.5% of these illegals will leave and with in just a few days return back to the jobsite, with new ID's, new names, new social security numbers. When they fill out there number of dependents, it is most generally 7 or more. Which usually means no Federal withholdings, no State withholdings, no Medicare, and no Social Security. How do I know? I'm the one that handles all of the paperwork on the jobsite and sends it to our main office. I only do with I am instructed to do. I don't mind if immigrants are here, but do it legally. My husband works for another construction company, and the illegals that is on their crew, can not speak or understand english, and is a danger to not only themselves but to all of the co-workers. These guys make twice the money my husband makes, and does 1/4 the work. Every bit of work that is preformed by the illegals has to be redone because it is either installed wrong, or the wall is very wavy. I will be very happy to see a new law passed that will severly fine all employers that hire illegals. I support such a law 100%.
Kimberly


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It's about time something is done about this situation. Illegal's in this country are using our system to recieve government programs, ie food stamps, welfare, health care, all which are very expensive to our country and the American citizens that actually need it. ( elderly and TRULY disabled) I sincerely hope this bill cuts way down on these people and their abuse of our country and STOP THE DRUGS!!!!!
No more Illegal 's!


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I lived in Az for 13 years, S. of Tucson. The illegals use the hospitals, until they have to close, they live with family in AZ and give birth to their children, which makes the children citizens, therefore eligible for state assistance. In Mexico, it is a lucrative business to be a Coyote and stack the people in a pickup like wood, run from the pursuit of the Border Patrol until you wreck, then the illegals are taken to the hospital, sometimes by LifeFlight and treated by our medical system, for which there is never any payment. The Coyote's run off from the wreck and are never prosecuted. In AZ, many feel, patch them up or take them by ambulance to the hospital over the border and let them fix them! One illegal in CA wound up having a heart transplant...at the taxpayers expense...the signs on I-19 S. to the border is ONLY in metric, they removed milage. There are several tunnels that you can walk through UPRIGHT to get on the US side. Many surface info a house. A home was raided in CA and several MILLION illegal green cards were found. I have heard, they issue packegs to tell the illegals how to get on state assistance, how to tell the person you work for that you have 9 dependents so you don't have to pay Income Tax because the employer doesn't have to report dependants to IRS until U reach 10+. They absorb the children into the school system, probably because the schools are paid by the head. They found they had to hire extra people who were bilingual to assist the teachers. Finally, the school system I worked for, required English Immersion classes that High School age was required to stay in until they could pass certain tests on English. Just think about the extra expense of everything having to be printed in English and Spanish for businesses, government, etc. Those languages aren't that different! We didn't print things in Vietnamese and it is a much harder language to go from to English. Don't tell me that our unemployment rate wouldn't go down if illegals weren't here.Except for approximately 10% that are classified as hardcord unemployed, we have people who want those jobs. We have drug our feet so long that they are gaining power politically and we will be in worse shape than we are now. With all of the manufacturing jobs going to third world countries, we are left with not much more than service jobs, CEO's and stockholders. Remember when the Highway Patrolman, I believe outside of Chandler, had the illegals detained and called INS and asked them to pick them up and they said they didn't have the resources to do that, so he had to let them go on in their car, probably laughing all the way. If the INS wouldn't do it, who would? We don't have Border Patrol this far north. I could write on and on. If you are interested in more, email me. Thanks!
M. Bachelier


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I wrote you earlier and forgot one comment. We keep forgetting that Mexico is a THIRD WORLD country and they DO NOT take care of their people like we do. Ask anyone who has worked with someone from a TWC and they will tell you how cut throat it gets. We are nieve to this way of life. They survive anyway they can. 'The Bite' is rules there. We call it bribery...the advertisements romanticize it but watching the movie Traffic shows more truths than you could ever imagine as an American. Thanks again, M. Bachelier
M. Bachelier


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The immigrants that work for my construction company have provided us with proper documentation. They work harder than any crew that I have and send most of their money home. If Enid and other communities would embrace the hispanic population and encourage them to go through the proper channels to get work visa's. (it's not that hard) Then we would have an extremely skilled workforce. The children are getting into schools and currently on the east side of town are scoring better than the "white" kids in both math and reading. What does this mean? It means that we aren't far away from a bilengual, skilled workforce. Everyday I have to ask people to perform a task that they don't want to do. The only guys that don't complain are our immigrant workers. Kimberly, if a wall is wavy because of the masons laying the brick, I can only assume that the foreman isn't paying attention. Quality in construction starts at the top. If people are held to a higher standard they're forced to perform.
Dignon


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It is time to rewrite the law to keep them from coming here to have babies on U.S. soil so the baby will be a U.S. citizen. More than half the population in San Antonio is Hispanic, legal or not, now the educators MUST know Spanish. Hello, Americans SPEAK English! Taking U.S. citizens jobs, leeching our U.S. citizen benefits (welfare, Social Security, health care). Our government representatives nationwide and our PRESIDENT are in office to work FOR us and LISTEN to us not what is best for their own personal gain.
Time to put a STOP to Illegals


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What signs does a person look for to weed out the differents between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants outside of a job site. For instants there is a family living down the street from me and i was told that the father doesn't speek english very well to me that tells me he may be illegal ??.
Enid Resident


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I agree with Kimberly. My husband works for a small construction company based in Seminole. His boss is so paranoid about the mexicans on the crew crying racism that he pays them twice what my husband earns. While they're blowing their money on prostitutes and drugs, we're struggling to support our family. Their work is shoddy and my husband ends up redoing a lot of it, plus he's ended up in the emergency room twice because they don't know what they're doing. There's one man on his crew that he stays completely away from because the man is ignorant to the point of being dangerous. I'm all for diversity and people coming to America to make a life for themselves, but they should do it legally!
irritated


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what's funny is I see all these Enidites complaining about who can't speak english, well hmmm instead of complaining why don't you try and learn spanish? Maybe instead of complaining you will do something wise here for your town. Neither language is that difficult to learn, maybe it's just to hard for YOU to learn something... Work as a team maybe help each other, have you appllied for a work visa? Then you, of all people know just how hard or easy it is to receive... come on people life is so simple, why make it difficult? So quick to judge someone before you take a minute to judge yourself 1st and see exactly where you stand...At least we want to work and do what ever it takes to work, unlike a huge percent of people that have families entirely on welfare, but yet there they are buying cartons of cigaretts and alcohol.... Look at the mess Enid already had and try to fix that first....
Enid Illegal Mexican


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My boss was paranoid as well with his "illegal team" and he paid them more of course but I think they work 5 times as hard as I do so it kinda works out good and bad but I just found myself a better job instead of crying like a little kid about being under paid... get real people
construction crew worker