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Georgians need to be wary of open borders with Mexico


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LETTER

On March 30-31, President Bush went to Cancun, Mexico, to visit with President Vicente Fox of Mexico to discuss the misnamed Security and Prosperity Partnership. Promoters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas have created SPP as a stepping stone to achieving their overall goal of completely canceling sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere just as the European Union has done in Europe.

The SPP actually calls for elimination of the borders separating the three nations already entangled in the North American Free Trade Agreement: the United States, Mexico and Cananda. This would, of course, bring a new flood of foreigners across our borders.

Fox also wants the spendable incomes of Mexico's illegal immigrants in the United States. An article in the Nov. 8, 2004, issue of a major Atlanta paper states: "Because of the $14 billion that Mexicans in the U.S. sent back home last year, making remittances the country's second-most important source of income after oil, those immigrants are a powerful constituency for Mexican President Vicente Fox."

Econ Smith, a publication of The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, in an article in its third quarter, 2004 issue, further stated: "In recent years, payments sent by immigrant workers back to their home countries have soared." It further states: "The majority of Hispanics in the U.S come from Mexico, the world's largest remittance receiving country; a 2003 Pew Hispanic Center report says 18 percent of all adults there receive remittances originating in the U.S."

This shines a new light on the claim by supporters of illegal immigration that incomes of these workers are critical to local communities. Income that is sent to Mexico does not enter the economy of smalltown Georgia. It isn't spent for housing, transportation, clothing or other merchandise, benefiting the local economy. It doesn't pay the state and local taxes that are required to support the crushing burden placed by these workers on our state and local health care systems, our schools and other taxpayer-supported services like roads, water, sewer, etc.

On April 19, 2006, an Atlanta paper headline read: "Mexico blasts Georgia illiegals law." A spokesman for Fox attacked the Georgia law, which requires verification of the legal status of those seeking certain taxpayer-funded services.

To those who say that illegal immigration should be left to the federal government, we should point out that Bush and his friend Fox are doing everything in their power to open our borders to illegals. Bush and some leaders in Congress, like Sens. Edward Kennedy, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, want amnesty for illegals, encouraging more to come.

Fox loves it; he says, keep the greenbacks coming. And he doesn't want any Georgians messing with his honey pot.

Let's keep the heat on Sens. Chambliss and Isakson and our Georgia House members to stop this madness. Pressure on Congress to strengthen and enforce immigration laws is the key, not amnesty.

Joe Inglis

Clarkesville

Originally published Thursday, June 1, 2006