Posted on 12/07/2004 12:27:15 AM PST by Stoat
Illegal Immigration and Crime
by James R. Edwards, Jr.
Immigrant criminality represents perhaps the worst abuse of the liberty aliens enjoy in the United States. Increasingly, the government closest to the people either finds its hands tied or cravenly abrogates its responsibility to fellow Americans within its jurisdiction. Moreover, the illegal element exacerbates the economic and other burdens caused by legal immigration.
The current high rate of sustained, mass immigration—more than one million legal immigrants plus half a million illegal aliens every year—forces many states and localities into turmoil. The illegals certainly live outside the obligations that those who live under the “consent of the governed” owe to each other: While the principles of the Declaration of Independence guarantee all human beings certain natural and unalienable rights, only parties who have consented to our government deserve the full rights of citizenship. Illegal immigrants are not part of the social contract giving legitimacy to this government. American citizens have not given their consent to higher taxes, crowded schools, jammed emergency rooms, clogged roads, unlawful turning of single-family homes into hotels or apartments into tenements, forced multicultural amenities such as bilingual education and multilingual ballots, or welfare and other services subsidizing poverty-prone immigrants.
Above all, they never consented to higher crime rates.
While anyone who decries illegal immigration is required to distinguish it from legal
immigration, the effects of legal immigration should first be noted. Robert Samuelson recently wrote in his Washington Post column that “Hispanics account for most of the increase in poverty” since 1990. “Compared with 1990, there were actually 700,000 fewer non-Hispanic whites in poverty last year . . . . Meanwhile, the number of poor Hispanics is up by 3 million since 1990. The health insurance story is similar. Last year 13 million Hispanics lacked insurance. They’re 60 percent of the rise since 1990.” And of course a growing proportion of the Hispanic population is immigrants poorer than their predecessors.
Samuelson remarks that the black poverty rate in this period has actually dropped, from 32 to 24 percent.
To add to Samuelson’s observations, consider the reports from the Center for Immigration Studies by its Steven Camarota and Harvard’s George Borjas detailing the negative economic impact of recent immigrants on native-born wages and employment.
Illegal immigrants impose an even greater burden, because they pay few taxes and they drain public services such as health care, education, and other benefits of the
welfare state. While many federal programs deny assistance to illegals, many state and local programs and privileges are open to them. The National Academy of Sciences found in a 1997 landmark study that immigrant-headed households in 1994-1995 placed a net annual fiscal burden on California native-born residents of $1,178 per native household. That is, each American family in California subsidized that state’s immigrant population by nearly $1,200 a year.
Deputy David W. Marsh
Deputy David W. Marsh was
murdered on April 29, 2002.
The suspected killer is an illegal
immigrant who fled back to
Mexico, where anti-extradition
laws prohibit his return for trial.
Photo courtesy of the California
Peace Officer’s Memorial,
The California Peace Officers Memorial - Sacramento
The NAS report also said fiscal impacts tend to benefit the federal government and drain state and local government resources. “Much like anyone else in the population, immigrants use services that are costly to provide, or that others can use less freely—so-called congestion costs. Examples include services from roads, sewers, police and fire departments, libraries, airports, and foreign embassies.” Therefore, having a much larger immigrant population (29 percent of the U.S. foreign-born, a fourth of the State’s population) bloats California’s budget significantly. The national government has exclusive power over immigration, and it has mandated certain public benefits for immigrants, legal or illegal, such as public education (see the 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe). States and localities then bear the costs and consequences of all immigration.And they respond differently, with differing consequences for their people. The Florida legislature rejected a bill issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Kansas state legislators voted to give illegal aliens instate college tuition. Alabama and Florida state police work closely with federal immigration enforcers.New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have “sanctuary” policies that keep city employees, even police, from asking about immigration status. An Idaho county commissioner billed Mexico for the $2 million illegal aliens owe for county services.
The impact is seen particularly in crime:
Record-high auto thefts in Arizona, drug trafficking in Salt Lake City, human smuggling
rings in Los Angeles, D.C. sniper Lee Malvo, money laundering, prostitution, gang murders, and even slavery. Immigration authorities estimate that 84,000 state inmates are aliens, though state and local figures on foreign-born prisoners are hard to come by. At least three quarters of these immigrant state inmates are in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas—the top immigrant destinations.
Police officers at the local or state level are the law enforcement officials most likely to encounter illegal aliens. Local residents are the crime victims of these aliens. Local, county, or state jails house many of the foreign criminals. Local, county, or state criminal justice systems try these lawbreakers. And local, county, and state taxpayers pay the costs of law enforcement and criminal justice associated with the crimes that immigrants, legal and illegal, commit. Figures for 1999 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program compensation show claims of $1.5 billion in documented costs incurred by state corrections and local jails for covered aliens. County governments face a special burden, a 2001 report by 24 Southwestern border counties calculated. They spent, from general funds, $894 million on law enforcement and criminal justice in fiscal year 1999. Many of the costs that criminal aliens impose on all state, county, and municipal jurisdictions are not represented in such figures.To cite just one California example, San Diego now spends $50 million a year to handle illegal criminal aliens.
The underworld network built up by millions of alien lawbreakers, who by and large have no fear of capture or of being held accountable, enabled the September 11 terrorists to operate undetected. Latino illegal aliens in Northern Virginia helpfully showed several of the terrorists the ropes on how to secure Virginia driver’s licenses fraudulently. The advancement of “political correctness” and multiculturalism has caused politicians to be less willing to challenge limitations on their authority over resources. Local and state politicians in heavy immigrant-receiving areas have instead expanded immigrant eligibility for public benefits, welfare, assistance programs, health care programs for those without private insurance, and driver’s and other licenses. Some states and localities have begun to accept the Mexican matricula consular ID card, though it has been determined to pose a great risk to U.S. national security. Even before the recently reported crossing of 25 Chechens into Arizona, authorities knew that the illegal aliens pose a national security problem. Dealing with current levels and quality of legal immigration is an immense problem by itself. But it is clear that until alien criminality of every kind is punished, swiftly and surely, Americans who must live with the consequences will continue to suffer higher taxes, lower quality of life, higher threat and fear levels, and less actual safety.
James R. Edwards, Jr., a 1998 Lincoln Fellow with
the Claremont Institute, is an adjunct fellow with
the Hudson Institute and coauthor of The
Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform
(1999).
Racist anti-Bush bastard! /sarcasm
bump
Democrat and Republican politicians are going to have hell to pay on this one. The average American cannot take this crap much longer.....
Top ten reasons for enforcing America's immigration laws
Anchor Babies: born in the USA - Enormous taxpayer costs
The Poverty of the Rest of the World
Illegal Immigration and America's Loss of the Rule of Law
Immigration's Riveting Question to Americans
Chilling Costs Of Illegal Alien Migration
Chilling Costs of Illegal Alien Immigration
Study: Immigration Biggest Contributor to Sprawl (87% of Growth Attributed to Immigrants)
The final vote on the intelligence bill is today. Call your congresspeople and let them know what you think!
These provisions passed in the house...they can do it again!
1-877-762-8762
Looks like the intelligence bill is a done deal. Lieberman and Snow were on the tube, hugging and kissing, it's Susan's birthday after all...isn't that special?
You would think it might disturb the OBL crowd just a bit that Bush is in league on this with those considered the enemy. George Soros, who contributes to MALDEF and Lieberman, Kerry, most of the democrat pundits, Begala, etc. Conservative, my butt.
ping
Bump.
Here is another excellent link you might want to add to your list:
NOT ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS COME HERE TO WORK
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1292334/posts
Begin with a bump of course.
Family values don't stop at the Rio Grande. /s
If a terrorism attack occurs in the future because of open borders, they'll have lots of "splainin to do, but no one will be listening.
Have you ever been to frosty's website?
http://www.frostywooldridge.com/articles/articles.html
I think I am going to buy a case of condoms and start mailing them to our Congressmen. If these sorry bastards want to screw me then I want some protection.
They had better remember that my memory is longer than their screw tool. When their election time comes, I'll be there with my screw tools!
But it comes down to who's more important to some of our elites --- they hobnob with the filthy corrupt elites of Mexico and admire them for their opulent villas and would hate to see them get run out of office. If we'd just shut up and pay our increased taxes then it's a win-win as far as our elites are concerned. They get to keep their friends in Mexico in power --- otherwise they're going to be run out of there --- and then what happens to all that dirt cheap maquiladora labor?
I am always anxious to educate those who wish to learn more about the costs that our President and legislators have placed on our shoulders with the sorriest of explanations.
When you need more reading material about this federally sanctioned illegal alien invasion, just ask and I will gladly deliver.
http://www.usapac.us/
This political action committee was started to support candidates who are willing to address the problem of illegal immigration. The group was started in response to the following case, where an activist judge refused to convict criminals because of their status as an illegal immigrant:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138465,00.html
The USA Political Action Committee requests your help in addressing this issue. Visit the website, and please sign up for the newsletter.
http://www.usapac.us/
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