http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/ ... caudle.txt

Local Governments Taking Action On Immigration Issue
This article was published on Saturday, November 4, 2006 2:43 PM CST in Columns
By Bob Caudle
The Morning News

Rogers Mayor Steve Womack deserves a pat on the back for his recent stand on how to handle illegal immigrants.

Womack said recently he wants to enact laws modeled after those passed by Hazelton, Pa., to battle the growing influx of people illegally in Rogers.

Hazelton, you may recall, passed an ordinance that will fine landlords $1,000 for renting to illegal migrants, deny business permits to companies that give them jobs and make English the city's official language.

Womack made the move after a Rogers Police officer was struck by a bullet fired from a Benton County Sheriff's Deputy's gun during a scuffle while serving a warrant at a home in Rogers. A woman, who was not the target of the warrant, allegedly grabbed the deputy's arm, causing his gun to discharge.

The woman was not charged, but agreed to be deported after authorities found she was in the country illegally.

The incident, because it involved an illegal immigrant, enraged Womack.

Hazleton, the town Womack wants to emulate, is a city of about 31,000 according to The Associated Press, located 80 miles from Philadelphia.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund filed has filed a lawsuit against the Hazelton ordinance, saying the measure violates the law and asking a federal judge to prevent its enforcement, according to the AP.

And the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan agency that writes reports for lawmakers, said in a recent analysis that federal law probably precludes municipalities from enforcing such measures.

That ought to quickly shoot down any such common sense procedures. Federal courts have a nasty habit of doing that.

Here's what our federal courts have done for us so far in, oh say, the area of religion.

If a convict says his religious beliefs dictate that he eat a bologna sandwich and howl at the moon every night at midnight, the prison must make arrangements to allow the prisoner to worship his religion in his own way, if he can show he's a member of an established church which includes such behavior in its doctrine.

But if a teacher wants to lead a school class in prayer, that's illegal.

To state the obvious, something's wrong with American government -- especially in the court system.

Leave the problem of illegal aliens to the feds, and we'll wind up with a plan to stamp "Return to Sender" on an illegal immigrant's forehead and stand them beside the mailbox for the Post Office to pick up.

(That might not be that bad of an idea. The way the Post Office operates, there's no telling where they'd send them or when they'd get there.)

Remember, the key word is "illegal." Immigrants are welcome.

Womack's proposal, no matter how well-intentioned for Rogers, inadvertently creates a problem for the rest of Northwest Arkansas in general and Springdale in particular.

Because if Rogers suddenly becomes illegal-unfriendly, illegal immigrants will simply move to Springdale. When Springdale enacts the same laws, they'll just move someplace else.

The problem of illegal immigrants is going to require a unified response from all the cities in Northwest Arkansas to work -- no matter how high the price of chickens rise in the short-term.

Allowing illegal immigration to prosper in the country is not fair to American citizens -- including those who came here from another country and went through the proper channels to become Americans.

It's going to be up to individual communities to come up with some kind of immigrant program locally, because we're getting no help from the U.S. government.

The best plan professional politicians and the president have come up with so far is building a fence along the border with Mexico. A 10-foot-tall fence at the border will work only for as long as it takes illegal immigrants to find a 12-foot ladder.

The real answer is to make it so tough on businesses that hire illegal immigrants that those businesses don't want to sell any more 12-foot ladders.