Metcalfe touts proposals to 'halt Pa.'s illegal alien invasion'

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
By Tom Barnes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARRISBURG -- A battle over proposed laws targeting illegal immigration was waged at the state Capitol today.

There was conservative Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Cranberry, who has vowed to rid Pennsylvania of "illegal aliens," vs. Sister Janice Vanderneck of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden, who said the Bible "compels us to welcome the strangers among us."

There was Tea Party member John Stahl, a former state legislator from Reading, claiming immigrants who are in the state illegally are driving up public education costs, taking Social Security and Medicaid benefits they don't deserve -- often through stolen Social Security numbers -- and causing an increase in crime.

He was opposed by Andrew Hoover of the American Civil Liberties Union, who called one proposed bill -- to take away the automatic citizenship rights of the children of undocumented workers born in Pennsylvania -- unconstitutional. He said those rights are guaranteed by the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Mr. Hoover also criticized legislation that would give state and local police power to round up and deport "undocumented aliens," people without papers showing they had entered the country legally. He said enforcement of immigration laws is solely a federal government responsibility.

But that contention was disputed by Robert Najmulski of the Federation of American Immigration Reform, who said the idea that only the feds can deal with immigration "is unrealistic, restrictive and a hindrance of state and local law enforcement."

He said he has 28 years experience in enforcement, in southern California and Lima, Ohio, where he helped "arrest and remove over 300 criminal aliens."

Mr. Metcalfe has a package of 14 bills called "National Security Begins at Home," which he hopes the House will act on this fall. He is chairman of the House State Government Committee, which heard testimony for and against the bills today.

Democratic Reps. Greg Vitali of Delaware County and Flo Fabrizio of Erie questioned how serious the problem of illegal immigration is in the state. Mr. Najmulski said it's hard to get an accurate count on illegals because "people are living under the radar. They are working with stolen identities," such as using other people's Social Security cards.

Mr. Stahl said one Welfare Department worker in Reading "was almost fired because he had the temerity to ask his supervisor what to do with a 'customer' who had 27 Social Security cards."

Mr. Najmulski estimated that $1.3 billion a year is spent in Pennsylvania on for education, medical and welfare benefits for persons who have entered the U.S. illegally, Mr. Stahl said estimates of illegals in the U.S. vary widely, from a "ridiculously low'' 12 million to as high as 30 million.

Before the hearing began, a crowd of 100 people, many of them from the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network, rallied in the Capitol rotunda against the legislative crackdown.

"This legislation is motivated by fear and will spawn fear," said Sister Janice. "It has the spirit of meanness."

Some critics said the bills are aimed at getting rid of Hispanics, just as 150 years ago there were efforts to try to stop immigrants from Ireland, Italy and eastern Europe.

Mr. Hoover of the ACLU criticized a bill that would force businesses to use the federal E-Verify system to check on the Social Security numbers of their workers, saying the system had many errors.

Some fruit-growing firms fear that the bills could put them out of business by deporting immigrants who pick the fruit, jobs which many Americans don't want to do.

But proponents of the bill said that some companies intentionally take jobs away from American workers by hiring illegals, who don't ask for health or pension benefits and accept low wages.

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