Saturday, February 11, 2012

Iowa Takes Steps Against Illegal Immigration

Iowa recently took a step forward by passing a bill that would anyone to report a business employing illegal immigration to the state attorney general's office. The bill requires the attorney general's office; the various county attorney's office; and the local police department to follow up and investigate the complaint. Verified complaints will be reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and employers face the prospect of losing their the business licenses. Included in the bill is participation in E-Verify, which is employers will be required to use to match applicants and their social security number in order to cut down on fraud. There are an estimated 65,000 illegal aliens currently living in Iowa, which is costing state taxpayers approximately $349,700.00.

The downside to the bill is the added burden in terms of tying up manpower and additional costs to investigate each and every allegation. Secondly, there is currently an unofficial policy being imposed by the DOJ on ICE, the Border Patrol, and other federal agencies to look the other way when it comes to enforcing illegal immigration laws. Nevertheless, the bill will benefit Iowans by effectively cutting down on the illegal population in the state, as well as reducing potential abuses illegal aliens may suffer by unscrupulous employers who are notoriously known to force workers to work long hours in often dangerous and unsanitary conditions while paying them substandard wage and no benefits (including health), and because they are breaking federal immigration laws, have no recourse.

On a related note, Congress members are finally moving to bar illegal workers from receiving tax credits (that's right---not only do taxpayers dollars go to paying for the healthcare, education, and other for other social safety net programs that illegal aliens take advantage of, they also get tax refund checks!).

As originally reported by Minuteman PAC on February 11, 2012, illegal immigrants are barred from earned income tax credits, while not prohibited from receiving child tax credits, which average about $1800 per recipient. The US Treasury Department reported that $4.2 billion of your tax dollars sent some 2.3 million individuals with no valid social security numbers, or in other words, illegal aliens who filed a federal tax return(see the importance of E-Verify now?).

Congress is attempting to pass legislation that would require proof that recipients are legal workers. The article concludes that taxpayers could save about $10 billion dollars over the next ten years. One obstacle to the bill is overcoming the issue of "anchor babies". US law states that children born in the United States are automatically citizens even though the parents may not be. The intent of the law, passed as the 14th Amendment to Constitution, was to insure the former slaves born in the US were automatically made US Citizens. The wording of the amendment was intended to apply to anyone either born or naturalized and to whose allegiance was solely to the laws of the United States. Some members of Congress are reviewing an possible amendment to that law to require a least one parent to be a US citizen in order for the child to also be consider an citizen. For a more information, you may want to check out an article entitled "Birthright Citizenship" at: http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=16535&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1007

Things are, well, just different in Texas. Take for example a recent change in reporting requirements by the Texas High Education Coordinating Board. Under the new law, colleges in Texas must now send "reminders" to all students who are illegal residents and receiving in-state tuition that they must seek to obtain legal status in exchange for continuing to receive the lower tuition rates.

Opponents give the new requirement a failing grade and claim that such reminders could result in jeopardizing the students current status if they contact federal authorities. I can see their point. How does a student comply by notifying ICE or some other federal agencies regarding the illegal status in order to continue receiving the reduced tuition rates without facing the possibility of being deported! Well, the good news is, I suppose, the Obama Administration is not doing much to actively enforce deportation. Recently, the DOJ dismissed several thousand deportation cases while Janet Napolitano, Director of the Department of Homeland Security, continues to push for passage of the ill-named pro-amnesty "Dream Act".

The bottom line is that we're all over the place with our immigration policy. It used to be that if you wanted to come to America, you got in line and applied, or you got a "green card" in sort of a "try before you buy" live and work permit. Exceptions were sometimes made by the State Department on a case by case basis. Nowadays, there is no coherent policy. The result is individuals, mostly otherwise lawabiding, coming illegally to America, in search of jobs. They have no intent on becoming US Citizens; learning the language, culture, or traditions of America. It's all about the money. What an ironic twist for a Capitalist nation. Our taxpayer funded safety net, already strained, becomes stretched even further thanks to legal(and not so legal)loopholes and misplaced compassion; a compassion which may lead to the further collapse of our infrastructure and perhaps, to the system itself.

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