Thread: Real 'reform' must end illegal immigration

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs. ... 80312/1166


February 18, 2006

Real 'reform' must end illegal immigration
# Citizens must get involved to ensure the proper legislation

By Rodney Hunt
Special to The Clarion-Ledger

Why do 75 percent of Americans want illegal immigration stopped? Because they realize that their physical and economic security and our American way of life are threatened.

We have a shrinking middle class and a widening gap between rich and poor Americans due to loss of our manufacturing base and the influx of cheap illegal foreign labor. Democracy cannot survive without a strong middle class.

Estimates of the illegal population are now between 11 million and 20 million. In 2004, Time magazine said it's fair to estimate that the number of illegal aliens flooding into the U.S. that year would total 3 million.

Illegal workers are depressing wages and taking jobs that Americans always did before the illegal alien invasion of our country. Citizens and legal immigrants earn 11 percent less when in competition with illegal aliens.

Additionally, for each 10 percent increase in the immigrant work force, American wages decrease by 3.5 percent. This directly correlates with the dependence of some Americans upon welfare.

Illegal immigration places a great burden on our working citizens. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that $400 billion in uncollected taxes are lost each year, representing a figure equal to our total federal deficit in 2005.

Meantime, $70 billion is spent each year for education, health care, welfare and incarceration of illegal aliens. Adding to this cost are the 363,000 children born to illegal aliens this past year, as estimated by the Center for Immigration Studies. This represents 10 percent of all births and 40 percent of all indigent births in the U.S.

These "anchor babies" are granted citizenship at birth and immediately become eligible for publicly funded education, health care and other social programs. At age 21, they are entitled to sponsor other family members to migrate to the United States.

Last December, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Sensenbrenner/King Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. The bill represents a good start in real immigration reform. This bill is now awaiting Senate action.

President Bush's idea of immigration reform includes a thinly disguised guest worker amnesty which will be introduced in the Senate in February. The president's tough talk on border security is a public relations ploy intended to pacify unhappy Americans, but his guest worker amnesty would guarantee an unlimited supply of cheap labor for big business.

Amnesty in any form encourages more illegal immigration and will make our current situation even worse.

American taxpayers will continue to pay the costs of illegal immigration while big business reaps profits. The median family income has decreased each year for the past five years when adjusted for inflation, with illegal immigration being a major factor. This decrease is seen more in African-American families than in any other ethnic group.

All across our country, grassroots efforts and pressure from citizens have resulted in numerous state legislatures tackling the illegal alien problem in their states. Some 16 pieces of legislation with bipartisan support have been introduced in Mississippi this session.

I ask citizens to get involved! Call or email your congressman and state legislators and demand that they protect American citizens and not bow to the illegal alien activists and big business.
Rodney Hunt is president of the Mississippi Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement. To contact: (MFIRE).info@mfire.org

Adding to this cost are the 363,000 children born to illegal aliens this past year,

Staggering! simply staggering!