Illegal Immigration- Death to a Nation
Perhaps there is no more controversial an issue of the 2008 election cycle than that of illegal immigration. It is a topic plagued with partisan and electoral politics unlike any other on our national agenda. Despite the concerns of the everyday citizen, illegal immigration continues to go unadvised, which is not only a risk to our national security, but a continuous drain on our country’s resources.
Illegal immigration refers to the unlawful crossing across national borders in such a manner that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. In the case of the United States: the U.S./ Mexican/Canadian borders (or boats off Florida's coastline). Illegal immigration is defined by a number of political issues including the economy, social welfare, education, health care, slavery, prostitution, crime, legal protections, voting rights, public services and human rights.
The dilemma is obvious, no individual should be allowed into our country illegally, and under no circumstances should an individual be able to qualify for government entitlement programs if they are not a citizen. However, in the interest of winning elections, political parties often actively promote illegal immigration by pledging illegals with government benefits. At the same time, the Mexican government encourages the illegal crossing of its own people, as it is of huge support to the Mexican economy.
It is this indirect “relationship” between the governments of the United States and Mexico that is generating a lot of the conflict. The fact is, the US government has criminalized practically any action that an American citizen can take to protect their families, property, and way of life in their own country from illegals. It has gotten to the point to where many Mexican citizens feel that it is their right to live in and benefit from the United States, and that that right overshadows the right of the American people to enforce its own residency laws.
Employers may profit from the work of illegal aliens, but at the expense of the American tax payer. Most illegal aliens have almost no higher education and few skills, which results in them working for extremely low wages, “often in an underground economy where they pay no taxes on their earnings.” (Federation for American Immigration Reform - FAIR)
It is estimated that as of 2006 there were 11 million illegal aliens residing in the United States. The fiscal expense of these growing numbers is estimated to be $33 billion dollars per year, that includes the cost to federal, state, and local governments.
This number is slightly offset by the taxes payed by companies employing the services of migrant workers in the amount of $12.6 billion, which in turn results in a net cost to the American taxpayer of about $20 billion every year.
These figures do not include lost tax collections and damage to economic growth caused by American workers that find themselves unemployed as a result of losing their job to an illegal alien that is willing to work for less. However, it is thought that the number could be as high as $10 billion. (FAIR)
More important than the negative economic impact of illegal immigration, there is the threat that is posed to our national security in this post 9/11 world. The United States must constantly be on guard to prevent terrorists from violating our borders and infiltrating our society.
The 9/11 hijackers were able to operate within our country and plan their attacks because of insufficient and careless immigration procedures. The US/ Mexico border is one the largest in the world, and while the US government has gone to extreme lengths to protect our air travel and cargo points of entry, all that is in vein if all a terrorist has to do is use Mexico as an entry point into our country.
The real threat of such a vast wide-open border like this, is not only the possibility of individual terrorists making their way in, but the threat of what they might try to smuggle across with them, like a dirty bomb. If the United States intends to be serious about preventing future terrorist attacks, then it must control its borders.
With illegal immigration comes a crime wave that plagues many southwestern cities across the United States. Some of the most violent criminals today are illegal aliens. Yet in most cities where crimes committed by illegal aliens are at their highest, the police cannot even use their immigration status as means to prosecute them.
The police in most major cities know who these people are, yet if an officer of the NYPD, for example, attempts to arrest an illegal immigrant, it is the officer in turn that will be considered a criminal for violating the NYPD’s policy of not enforcing immigration law.
These kinds of cities are called “sanctuary cities", where local authorities prohibit city employees from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities. These laws represent the sheer political power of the immigration lobbies, a power so strong that even police officers avoid mentioning the illegal alien crime waves taking over our cities.
According to “The City Journal", an investigative publication that spoke with numerous LAPD captains under conditions of anonymity, “We can’t even talk about it,” says a frustrated LAPD captain. “People are afraid of a backlash from Hispanics.”
Another LAPD commander in a predominantly Hispanic, gang-infested district sighs: “I would get a firestorm of criticism if I talked about [enforcing the immigration law against illegals].”
According to the same publication in Los Angeles, “95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens. Additionally, a confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California is illegal—police officers say the proportion is actually much greater.
The bloody gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on complex drug-distribution schemes, extortion, and drive-by assassinations, committing an assault or robbery every day in L.A. County. The gang has grown dramatically over the last two decades by recruiting recently arrived youngsters, most of them illegal, from Central America and Mexico. The list goes on in practically every major city of the United States, clearly the result of an immigration system that is out of control and ineffective.
Unfortunately, almost no politician in the country wants to touch the issue of immigration in any serious manner because of the aforementioned power of the immigration lobby, as well as the growing number of voting eligible illegal immigrants (in particular their families) that are growing exponentially every year.
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