Stopping the Illegal Alien Invasion

America is a land of immigrants. From the beginning of our Nation, people have come to America "the land of opportunity" where they found freedom and prosperity. However, over the last few years the immigration story has changed from a tale of working hard, playing by the rules and achieving success to a nightmare of poorly secured borders, irresponsible employers, overwhelmed social services, and increased crime.

Immigration is the legal means by which one becomes a citizen of this Country. It has historically involved an application for citizenship, a test, an investigation and an oath. When people enter our Country who make no application to become a citizen, do not wish to learn our language or our customs, and only intend to reap the rewards of our economy while paying no taxes required of a citizen, they are illegal aliens and not immigrants.

It is estimated that nearly 20 million illegal aliens now reside in the United States, with thousands more crossing the border every day. Statistics on how many illegal aliens reside in Alabama are sketchy, but it is known that Alabama has seen an explosion in those numbers over the last ten years. In 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimated that 24,000 illegal aliens resided in Alabama. That represented a 500 percent increase from INS estimates in 1996. Today, experts place the number of illegal aliens at 75,000 to 100,000 and rising rapidly.

Such vast numbers of people are not harmlessly absorbed into the overall population. Last year, police in Birmingham and Decatur working with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs to locate criminals among the illegal alien population, arrested over 30 who were suspected of being involved in brutal gang activities. One of those individuals arrested had a prior felony charge and is suspected of kidnapping, extortion, and trafficking of other illegal aliens into the country.

The law requires hospitals to provide free emergency medical services to illegal aliens, which costs well over $250 million per year. Alabama received $572,326 from Congress in fiscal year 2004 to offset the cost of medical services for illegal aliens, but that amount represents only a fraction of what the state actually spends in this area. Along with this illegal alien invasion come dangerous diseases and other medical conditions which are cause for heightened concern.

Illegal aliens are generally not proficient in English and this lack of proficiency leads to the additional costs of providing translation expenses, and government services such as driver's license testing, education, and law enforcement. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that the children of illegal aliens, regardless of their place of birth, have a constitutional right to be educated in public schools.

This judicially mandated entitlement currently costs the state over $7,000 per child per year. Given such alarming numbers as well as the renewed emphasis on security in the Country, one would think that our state and national government would focus more attention on the illegal alien problem.

In fact, governments are doing less than they were even ten years ago. Since 1993, the federal spending on border enforcement has grown from more than $740 million to $3.8 billion. Despite the increase, the number of undocumented aliens flooding into our Nation has continued at a rate of about 500,000 per year. Clearly, current efforts to curtail these problems are not working.

Alabama is restricted by federal law with regard to interdiction and deportation of illegal aliens. Nevertheless, our law enforcement officers can never be prohibited from arrest and detention of illegal aliens for criminal activity or violation of our laws. Some officers have been led to believe otherwise. A simple training program could correct this deficiency.

Another course of action is to put more pressure on employers who hire those illegally present in this state. The federal government has left a gaping hole in this area of enforcement that the state can fill. In 1992, INS issued 1,063 orders nationwide levying fines against employers for hiring illegal aliens; in 2002, INS issued just 13 such orders. Only 3 notices of intent to seek fines against employers for knowingly hiring illegal aliens were issued in 2004 by the Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency (ICE - the successor to INS). We can do better than that!

Alabama needs to fill the void left by the federal government by enacting tougher laws that punish employers who hire illegal aliens for their own profit. When it becomes clear that jobs will only be available to those who become citizens by following the rules, illegal aliens will leave Alabama. Fewer illegal aliens will mean more jobs will be available to our own citizens.

It will also demonstrate respect for immigrants who have paid their dues and followed our laws in order to become naturalized citizens. The time for action is now!!! When I become governor, I will address this illegal alien invasion, which in my opinion is not only an economic problem, but a health and security issue as well.

Return Alabama and restore dignity to the immigration process!