Rep. Buyer told costs of immigration
By DAN SHAW
Lafayette Journal & Courier
July 31, 2007

FRANKFORT -- The federal government has neglected its duty to help local institutions solve the problems that arise from illegal immigration.
That's what a group of Frankfort and Clinton County leaders told U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer, R-4th District, on Monday. In a closed-door meeting, Buyer met with officials to learn about the pressures noncitizens put on schools, governments, jails and other institutions.

Frankfort Mayor Don Stock said many residents think the city should do more to prevent illegal immigrants from coming there. But he and other officials lack the authority to do much in that direction, he said, and the issue is best dealt with by the federal government.

Stock said he refuses to call for the adoption of a local law meant to crack down on illegal aliens, such as one Hazleton, Pa., passed in 2006. Hazleton's measure called for fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and penalties for employers who hire them. Last week, a federal judge struck down Hazleton's anti-illegal immigration law, ruling it unconstitutional.

"The challenge is that residents think there is an easy solution," Stock said.

Stock said many illegal immigrants came to Frankfort to find honest work. But others have joined gangs and have contributed to the drug traffic in town.

Frankfort has been forced to spend more money on law enforcement, he said. Meanwhile, the federal government hasn't recognized the city's troubles.

"The money seems to be going more to large communities than to small communities," he said.

Buyer agreed that the federal government should do more to help cities and towns deal with illegal immigrants. He called for strengthening the security at the border between the United States and Mexico and for stricter enforcement of current laws.

He also said he opposes giving amnesty to any of the nearly 12 million illegal immigrants believed to be in the United States. The government must instead find a "practical compromise" and give those who want to perform honest work some sort of legal right to be in the country short of citizenship, he said.

Frankfort Community School Corp. superintendent Kevin Caress said the system annually spends a large amount of money teaching the children of immigrants to speak English. The federal government has placed two local schools -- Kyger and Suncrest -- on probation because they failed to meet the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Caress noted that Latinos comprise 90 percent of the students at Kyger, and their numbers are large at Suncrest as well. He said No Child Left Behind expects Spanish speakers to become proficient in English quickly and punishes schools that fail to meet those strict standards.

The system would be better if the government simply rewarded those schools at which students had shown improvements in their mastery of the language, he said.

"It's just not fair to expect the level of progress that they do," he said.

After speaking in Frankfort, Buyer went to Crawfordsville where he discussed similar issues with leaders there.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... L/70731027

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**NOTE: Buyer's immigration grades from Numbers aren't bad, but he does have an "F" for "amnesties."

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/tes ... &VIPID=305