Thread: U.S. Rep. Steve King - Illegal Immigration Threatens America

Illegal immigration threatens America's future
By United States Rep. Steve King



I support an immigration reform policy designed to enhance the economic, social and cultural well-being of the United States of America. As a member of both the Immigration Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee and the Immigration Reform Caucus, I take very seriously the responsibility for crafting the immigration and naturalization policy that was delegated to Congress by our Constitution.

Legal immigrants have made, and will continue to make, valuable contributions to our nation. Assimilation is valuable to immigrants who benefit from our shared American values of respect for the rule of law, personal responsibility, a sense of a shared history, freedom and patriotism. The values shared by our civilization, founded on a heritage of western civilization, Judeo-Christianity and free-enterprise capitalism, serve immigrants and native-born alike.

However, illegal immigration poses serious safety and economic burdens on our country.


Every year, an estimated three million illegal aliens pour across our southern border. Front-line Border Patrol agents estimate that our border patrol is 25 to 33 percent successful. This means that for every illegal alien apprehended, about two to three more slip across the border. What other profession allows a 33 percent success rate? Certainly not doctors, contractors or cashiers. Why do we allow our federal government to do its job only a third of the time? As a sovereign nation, we must control our borders. We must ensure that terrorists cannot and do not infiltrate the United States to plot and carry out attacks against citizens. Apologists for illegals refuse to acknowledge the connection between terrorism and our lax immigration policies. Intelligence tells us terrorists striving to recreate a massive tragedy like Sept. 11, 2001 know our border security weaknesses and are exploiting them to enter our own country - right now. When the federal government tells our agents to

seek out the few dangerous terrorists and criminals in the millions that sneak across annually, it is like searching for needles in a haystack while hay is continuously piled on. Constructing a border fence to help gain control of this situation is only one component of a multi-faceted approach to comprehensive immigration reform.

We cannot stop with our borders. The Sept. 11 hijackers used our own laws to enter the country, but remained in the country and violated their visas by staying when they expired. Only four years has passed since Sept. 11, 2001, but did we learn no lesson? We must be able to make sure our visitors abide by our rules and if they're participating in terror activity, we should deport them. It's common sense.

An overburdening illegal immigration problem is not just a threat to our national security, but the security of every one of us individually. Criminal aliens comprise 28 percent of the entire U.S. prison population. American taxpayers foot a $6 billion-per-year bill to provide board, meals and cable TV to those criminal aliens in our prisons, when we could have enforced our own laws in the first place. The victims of these criminals pay much more. It would only take what it costs us for six weeks of "Hotel America" to construct a fence from San Diego to Brownsville to help secure our border.

Americans are conditioned to think that illegal aliens support our workforce, because they take jobs Americans will not and wages we will refuse. The reality is, when employers are faced with an illegal worker who will work for dollars less than a legal worker, wages are driven down and it becomes impossible for legal workers to take that job.

We do have laws to reduce the financial and security problems that stem from illegal immigration. Those laws just aren't enforced. Although it's illegal in this country to hire illegal workers, the federal government did not sanction any employers for hiring illegal workers in all of last year. Legislation I introduced this summer, The New Illegal Deduction Elimination Act, or New IDEA, would eliminate the tax deduction employers can take on wages and benefits paid to illegal workers. This policy protects the wages of legal workers and helps government of all levels enforce our laws. It is also an element that should be included in an overall immigration reform policy.

To summarize, I propose we take the following steps:

--Secure the border.

--Enforce immigration Laws in the interior of our country that prohibit illegal aliens from working.

--Pass New IDEA (Illegal Deduction Elimination Act)to make wages and benefits paid to illegal aliens not tax deductible.

--Track visitors to the U.S. to ensure they leave when their visa expires.

--Set a manageable level of immigration so that we can accommodate the number of immigrants that we decide to admit.

--Track and deport criminal aliens immediately.

--Make sure all levels of government work together to solve the illegal immigration problem.

Securing America's future is our responsibility now. If we allow the current situation to persist, the future of our national, domestic and economic security is seriously at risk. As current policy and enforcement exist today, the American people have lost control of their right and duty to establish national immigration policy and to shape our nation for a successful future.

Republican Steve King represents Iowa's 5th District in the United States House of Representatives.

We need more representatives like Mr. King!

http://www.alipac.us/article-731--0-0.html

Peter King is a prick. Im ashamed to say hes my US represenative. He also supports the IRA and their campaign of terrorism .... and im a Catholic and saying their terrorist scum.