10 June 2008
From slow to no action on illegal immigrants the federal government isn’t doing it’s job. As a result more and more states are taking the task to hand. Police have found a way around rules allowing only the federal government to enforce immigration laws. In many states the local police are tracking down immigrants who are using stolen Social Security numbers and taking action against them. They are making arrests for violations of state identity theft laws. Many Hispanic immigrants came to Florida in 2004 to help rebuild after Hurricane Ivan and many of the ones that stayed after the work was done did so illegally. Since the police crackdown, many fled or are hiding. As a result businesses are struggling to find workers. In the small town of Milton, FL churches with services in Spanish are half-empty and two local Mexican restaurants have lost 10 employees. At least 27 illegal workers have been arrested in that part of the state.
Iowa too has joined the crackdown and last month 260 illegal immigrants were sentenced to five months in prison for violations of federal identity theft laws. These arrests of illegal immigrants are filling up our prisons and costing taxpayers money to house and feed them. There must be a better way of doing this without taxpayers footing to bill. With more and more states taking the matter into local hands and the worsening of the economy things will soon be getting out of hand. Often for minor crimes, local police departments from coast to coast are arresting illegals and deporting them. Deportation seems to be a better way of dealing with the problem than temporally housing them in prison.
The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under a program that lets officers investigate and detain people they suspect to be illegal immigrants, are training police. At this point in time 47 departments around the country are being trained with 95 more waiting to join the program. Due to Congressional inaction on immigration law, police officers or entire departments are choosing to tackle the issue on their own. State lawmakers are introducing bills related to illegal immigration and are giving local authorities a wider berth but it seems to me that there will be more racial profiling to get the job done, often sweeping up legal Hispanics, so these new laws have a good and a bad side. There is also the problem of small scale business competition as businesses that used illegal labor often did not pay into workers’ compensation funds and paid workers less. Such businesses can survive a lot longer than the ones that are trying to do things right.
We have to face the fact that the system is broken and a way needs to be found that will treat people fairly without downright racial profiling, but yet be able to deport those who have broken laws.
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