This is a letter to the editor put in one of our local papers in Idaho. This writer is stirring up quite a conversation. Feel free to add a comment at the link. Comments start at the bottom and go up.


IMMIGRATION: Expect the worst for now
Posted: Saturday, May 30, 2009 - 11:44:55 pm PDT
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Excuse me, but how can anyone state that the behavior of Villanueva (a criminal who enters our country illegally) be unexpected? Believe and expect this; it will only get worse if Idaho does not pass the bill requiring employers to check the legal status of every worker.

It's quite unsettling to know that the Idaho attorney general's office currently has no laws penalizing illegal immigration because the status of the law is unclear. Unclear? What part of illegal is unclear? Sen. Mike Jorgenson doesn't buy it and neither do 85 percent of the people.

Monica Schurtman, supervisor of the Immigration Law Clinic, states illegal immigrants and those with murky legal status don't necessarily drain the economy. If $200 million a year is not draining our already unstable economy, what is? Then we have Alpha Services, who recruits from Mexico and Guatemala (under the conclusion there are no American citizens willing or able to perform the jobs) and every cent is sent home to their country of origin. How is this helping the American people?

"All of them have stories of pregnant wives and lots of little ones," says one self-pronounced illegal immigrant from Veracruz, Mexico. Is this supposed to make Americans feel sorry for them? Ignorance is bliss!

Now that we're on the subject of no American citizens willing or able to perform the jobs, Idaho criminal facilities need a major overhaul. No, we do not need to fund a new jail expansion.

Solution: Idaho adopts legislation for inmates of a minimum-security facility where they work to pay their debt to society.

A wonderful article printed on Nov. 2, 2008 entitled, "Energy hogs: Prisons now recycle, grow food" reports many states have work programs that offer recycling, organic vegetables, and composting 100 percent of food waste. The Oregon Department of Corrections says, "Being sustainable is something that everybody should be doing, regardless of where they're at." Most of the 400 inmates at Cedar Creek put in six to eight hours a day of work.

This system reduces cost, reduces our damaging impact on the environment, and engages inmates as students. Many states have adopted water and energy conservation techniques at the prisons. In Blythe, Calif., 6,200 solar panels send energy back to the grid, enough to power 4,100 homes a year.

I encourage everyone to express their concerns on Idaho immigration and correctional facility reform. Together we can make a difference. I encourage the Idaho Legislature to "wake up" to more innovative means of keeping Idaho citizens safe and promote rehabilitation.

JOANN LOKKEN

Coeur d'Alene


http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2009/0 ... tter09.txt