Thread: N.C. grappling with issue of illegals (William Gheen)

An article that mentions this web site and William Gheen.

http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-633965.html

N.C. grappling with issue of illegals

By Alison Lapp, Herald-Sun Washington bureau
August 5, 2005 11:15 pm

WASHINGTON -- Opposing sides in the debate over which direction U.S. immigration policy should take often seem to speak different languages.

They are unable to agree on whether immigrants, especially those in the country illegally, represent a threat to national security or a boon to the nation's economic and cultural well-being.

A person who is an "illegal alien" to some is an "undocumented worker" to others.

William Gheen, of the Raleigh-based Americans for Legal Immigration, contends local and state police officers should detain and deport illegal immigrants.

But Dani Martinez-Moore of the N.C. Justice Center in Raleigh insists it's the role of local police to protect everyone and that to involve them in immigration enforcement undermines community trust.

Still, both sides agree that the issue must be addressed soon, as governments at the local, state and federal level increasingly feel the effects of one of the largest and longest waves of immigration in U.S. history.

N.C. illegals

Of the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally as of March, about 300,000 live in North Carolina, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.

That makes the state home to the eighth-largest illegal immigrant population in the nation -- and fertile ground for widely varying opinions on how the state should manage these newcomers.

"In North Carolina we've traditionally had a biracial state," said Duke public policy professor Noah Pickus. "We've not yet figured out how to think about immigration in the South. We don't have the categories for understanding it."

Yet a poll released in July by the John William Pope Civitas Institute in Raleigh showed that North Carolinians listed "controlling immigration" fourth among issues deserving state government attention.

And state agencies and lawmakers are looking for ways to deal with the growing undocumented population, sometimes simply because federal regulations force them to do so.

REAL ID Act

In May, Congress passed the REAL ID Act of 2005, which prohibits illegal immigrants from getting drivers' licenses. It voids state policies, including a North Carolina law, that allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses.

Gheen applauded the change, saying North Carolina's prior system increased residents' risk of being victims of a terrorist attack and made the state a magnet for illegal immigrants.

"The REAL ID Act was necessary because of states like North Carolina forcing the federal government to do more to stop them from giving out licenses to illegal aliens and the terrorists among them," Gheen said.

But Martinez-Moore said denying drivers' licenses to certain people puts the public at a greater risk, because the immigrants still will have to drive to work without knowing the rules of the road and without access to car insurance.

Weighing the costs

Complying with all the act's regulations also will be costly for everybody, she said.

George Tatum of the state Division of Motor Vehicles said no cost estimate exists yet for adapting to the new regulations, but that some changes will be "very cumbersome and expensive."

The DMV doesn't have a process for verifying all identifying documents with the locality that issued them, for example.

A primary motivator for people to enter the country illegally is the economic opportunity available to them in the United States. And Pickus said low-income American workers sometimes resent foreign-born people finding employment in the United States.

"Illegal immigration comes to stand for a lot of the issues they lack control over in this increasingly globalized world," he said. "It's an easy way of trying to stem something that's enormously complex."

Gheen said he'd seen illegal immigrants "taking American jobs by the thousands."

But Tony Macias, of the Duke advocacy group Student Action with Farmworkers, said immigrants fill essential positions that Americans won't take.

To obtain visas for temporary agricultural workers, for example, employers must prove there are not enough American workers who are "willing, qualified and able to perform the work," according to Department of Labor regulations.

"If we want to eat food at the low prices we're paying for it, we're absolutely dependent on undocumented workers," Macias said.

American businesses benefit from the labor of these workers, Pickus said, even as the increased low-income population puts stress on local public institutions.

"It's the economy that's driven this trend, and politics is playing catch-up," he said. "If you have people coming in to the benefit of employers, but the public has to pay for things like schools, there's a problem there and that's a political problem."

Tuition tussle

State Sen. Neal Hunt, R-Wake, introduced an amendment to the proposed state budget that would bar illegal immigrants who have petitioned the federal government for legal status from receiving in-state tuition rates at community colleges.

Hunt called the current system that allows such immigrants to pay the less expensive in-state rates "inappropriate."

"If somebody's here illegally, we should not be giving them the benefit of living in North Carolina," he said. "It makes it more expensive for the rest of us who are here legally."

But to become more economically competitive, North Carolina should educate as much of its population as possible, said Andrea Bazan-Mason, of the Raleigh Hispanic community organization El Pueblo Inc.

She called the amendment "an ill-advised, short-sighted attempt to close some doors that are really not costing the state very much money anyhow."

Audrey Bailey, a spokeswoman for the state community college system, said the amendment would make little difference for the schools because very few illegal immigrants now attend them.

'Invest, expect'

Pickus said he hasn't seen a workable immigration policy instituted yet. But he said his ideal solution would be to balance immigrants' rights and responsibilities instead of focusing on their legal status.

"Right now our attitude toward immigrants is 'don't invest and don't expect,' " he said. "We need to invest more in them and expect more from them. Immigrants could have obligations about everything from being in good standing with the law, learning English, making progress toward citizenship and in return get benefits like drivers' licenses and health insurance."

Martinez-Moore recommended comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the demand for workers and the need for fair enforcement of immigration laws.

"People are coming at this from an extremely emotional place," she said. "It's important for people on both sides of the debate to learn how to have a constructive conversation about what kind of country we want to be."

GO WILLIAM GHEEN!!

All those other people are just egg-heads making money off the illegal business of supporting illegals in North Carolina.

Jerk their 501 C 3 Status!! American taxpayers are sick and tired of underwriting these people through tax exempt "public charities" which are fraudulent fronts for these traitor businesses.

IRS....Come In....Where Are You? You've got work to do which I think you'll really like alot. Just think about all those millions and millions of dollars you could be collecting in taxes that is now being diverted to these frauds and phonies trying to flood our labor market; disempower the American People; running up our national debt; supporting open borders; and...yes sir....dissolving the United States.

Shut them Down and Get Our Money Back!!





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W