Federal Officials Must Enforce Immigration Laws

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/p ... 60311/1046

Federal officials must enforce immigration laws

Saturday, August 26, 2006


We agree with the sentiment expressed by most readers: People who immigrate to this country should do so legally.

The federal government clearly has failed to enforce immigration rules. Yet, it would be a mistake for municipalities to usurp that authority and impose a jumble of laws across this nation that could inflame prejudices and result in discrimination against legal and illegal immigrants.

This is what has already happened in Riverside and Hazleton, Pa. The municipalities recently adopted ordinances that would make it illegal for a business to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant or for a landlord to rent to such a person.

A prayer vigil Sunday by Latinos who opposed the Riverside ordinance drew a much larger crowd that backed the law, including Confederate flag-waving supporters and those who cheered them.

This ugly scene is not something that would please most Riverside residents. This is a township long settled by immigrants and their descendants, as its diversity reflects. Like most people, they want to live in a peaceful community. Still, it is difficult to justify Riverside's attempt to target illegal immigration within its borders.

Township officials claim they are acting to cut the burden on the local schools and decrease crime. But a check with the education and police departments showed no appreciable increase in crime or overflowing classrooms.

Lately, township officials and residents have complained about overcrowded housing, poor sanitation in some areas and people straining social services that taxpayers, including those in Riverside, must pay for.

A lot of Riverside residents proudly claim their parents or grandparents legally immigrated to this country.

What isn't often discussed is how similar the disparaging remarks being made about immigrants in Riverside are to comments made about Italians, Germans and other immigrants two or three generations ago.

Haven't we heard enough of this?

If Riverside is concerned about people living in overcrowded conditions, the township ought to enforce its housing codes and petition local and federal officials to help provide more affordable housing. Overcrowding is not rooted in ethnicity or legal status, but in the scarcity of affordable housing in New Jersey.

And although some Riverside residents complain that illegal immigrants receive services, but don't pay taxes -- that isn't quite true. Most legal immigrants and nearly all illegal immigrants work as hard as other Riverside residents and pay taxes. The federal government has even set up a special account to capture and use taxes paid by illegal immigrants. This money runs into the millions of dollars each year and is used to help pay for services, such as Social Security, that illegal immigrants cannot and should not receive.

Our congressional representatives have failed to agree on an immigration policy that stops the blatant overrunning of our inadequate immigration laws or deals in a reasonable way with immigrant labor, upon which our economy depends.

If Riverside residents want to blame someone for that, they ought to look at their federal representatives. Go to www.courierpost online.com/opinion for contact information and demand that Congress pass immigration reform now

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What isn't often discussed is how similar the disparaging remarks being made about immigrants in Riverside are to comments made about Italians, Germans and other immigrants two or three generations ago.

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And what isn't often disussed is how the immigrants who came here before didn't claim parts of America was their land stolen from them by America, like the illegals of today do. If these critics of Hazelton had to live in Southern CA for just one week, I bet they would change their tune and support the city's efforts to keep out illegals, or else they will end up just like CA is now, a colony of Mexico.

It all boils down to the fact that the if the U.S. government just absolutely refuses to enforce immigration laws and has refused to do so since the first amnesty in 1986 and even years before that event to be more precise.

It's incomprehensible that the Fed. Gov.just absolutely refuses to do their duty here and therefore puts mayors and police chiefs in the role of Federal cops.Towns and cities are forced to try to deal with the problem but are in a no win position with a limited amount of resources.

We are in this position because of the governments failure of leadership and accountability of not acting.All we hear from them is:can't- Even the President has a defeatist attitude when he keeps repeating that we can't close the border,we can't deport these people,we can't keep people from bettering themselves,etc.

What happened to the old time attitude that Americans can do anything? Small cities and towns all over are beginning to be impacted in a negative way by illegal immigration and therefore have no recourse but to try to make their own laws and hope that they stand up in the court cases that are bound to happen.