Letters page
In the coming election, Montana voters can demonstrate their concern about illegal immigration by voting for Legislative Referendum 121 to deny some state-taxpayer-funded benefits and services to illegal aliens. As a refugee from 10 years living in the illegal-immigration-driven dysfunction of southern California, I’ll explain why you should help enact LR-121 with your “FOR” vote.
How bad is Montana’s illegal immigration problem? Clearly, there are illegal aliens among us: Routine news reports from around the state of illegal aliens’ apprehension by law enforcement are sufficient evidence. For example, an article in the April 2, 2010, Billings Gazette reported arrests in the preceding few weeks, by Border Patrol officers based in Havre, of 20 illegal aliens hailing, variously, from El Salvador, Honduras, Iraq, Mexico and Poland.
Indeed, the U.S. Attorney for Montana’s office prosecutes a steady stream of immigration violators, primarily people who have re-entered the U.S. illegally after being deported, a felony. In 2009, about 6.5 percent of the sentences for criminal offenses that they reported were for such illegal re-entries. (That same year, fully one-third of the U.S. Attorney for Wyoming’s cases involved illegal aliens.)
Overall, illegal immigration isn’t yet a glaring problem for Montana, but we should learn from the costly mistakes of other states, such as Georgia. In 1990, Georgia had approximately 35,000 illegal aliens, “merely” half of one percent of its then 6.5-million population. By 2010 Georgia had about 425,000 illegal aliens (4.4 percent out of 9.7 million). For the same years, the percentages in Texas were 2.6 and 6.6; in California they were 5.0 and 6.8. (These numbers come from a February, 2011 Pew Hispanic Center report and include illegal aliens of all nationalities.)
If they thought about it at all, those 1990 Georgians probably told themselves, “Illegal immigration is only a problem for southwest border states, like Texas and California.” So they ignored it until, percentage-wise, their illegal-alien population became Texas- or California-sized. Now Georgia spends more than $2 billion annually on public benefits for families headed by illegal aliens (above and beyond the modest state and local taxes those families pay), according to calculations by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Other states that are far from our southern border, such as Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York, similarly endure multibillion-dollar burdens on their annual budgets due to burgeoning illegal immigration.
What are the numbers for Montana? Using the Pew Center’s estimate of 5,000 illegal aliens residing here (“merely” half of one percent of our population), FAIR calculated illegal immigration’s impact on Montana’s annual budget at $30 million. And this doesn’t include the costs of public benefits for U.S. citizens and legally-resident aliens who are unemployed because of job competition from illegal aliens.
So when our 2011 legislature passed bill HB 638, which placed LR-121 on the ballot, they had good reason. If we citizens enact it, LR-121 will prevent illegal aliens from getting jobs with state agencies, receiving state-issued professional and trade licenses, collecting unemployment benefits, and more.
Opponents of LR-121 fuss about the cost of implementing it. Their complaints are a smokescreen: The online federal database specified in LR-121 as its enforcement mechanism has been in routine use for years by Montana public-benefits agencies; they access it to check for legal presence when non-citizens apply for federally funded benefits such as Medicaid, welfare, and food stamps. Notably, no state agencies testified against HB 638 during its legislative hearings.
Further, the opponents ignore the cost of doing nothing. In short, the costs of complying with LR-121 and, thereby, discouraging illegal aliens’ presence here are minor compared to the millions of dollars illegal aliens cost Montana annually, both directly, through the cost of benefits to their households, and indirectly through the burden of helping citizens displaced from their jobs by illegal workers.
So, Montana voters, let’s use common sense and learn from the careless experiences of other states: For the sake of Montana’s current and future generations, please vote “FOR” LR-121.
Paul Nachman, who lives in Bozeman, is a retired physicist and a founding member of Montanans for Immigration Law Enforcement. MILE’s website is www.MontanaMILE.orgwww.MontanaMILE.org.
Come Jan. 2, 2013, 3,400 Border Patrol agents, 932 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents, and 802 ICE deportation and removal officers are going to lose their jobs. Unless President Obama forces Congress to break the gridlock on budget decisions, the layoffs are certain. The United States can not afford this reduction. Illegal alien crossings more than doubled in September over August in the Arizona border area where agent Brian Terry was killed with a gun from the botched “Fast and Furious” gun-walking operation almost two years ago.
The administration’s focus is on what the president can do for illegal aliens, not on securing the border. The president’s “deferred action” amnesty has logged over 179,794 applications for processing and 4,591 approved as of Oct. 10. Not even the Oct. 2 fatal shooting of agent Nicholas Ivie five miles north of the Arizona border in Naco, whether by “friendly fire,” “faulty sensors” or cartel activity shifted the administration’s focus on amnesty. The president’s open border policies ignore the need for technology, infrastructure and enforcement policies to help secure America and better assure officer safety.
The deaths of brave men like officers Terry and Ivie raise important questions about immigration enforcement under the Obama administration. Is illegal activity on the border increasing or decreasing? Numbers of apprehensions mean little if attending statistics are not provided. If a volunteer organization like secureborderintel.org can track border crossings, the federal government can, too. But the government prefers to tell us the border is secure and apprehensions are down, without providing corresponding numbers.
Volunteer organizations have found that on Arizona’s borderland from Nogales to just west of the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, illegal crossings by drug or human smuggling groups has risen from 540 incidents in August to 1,194 in September, a 221 percent increase in just the past two months. September numbers reflect over half the year’s activity. In the past two months, only one day was drug-free. This makes sense, especially in light of a Oct. 23 report by Mexico’s Colegio de la Frontera Norte and the University of Southern California’s Tomas Rivera Policy Institute concluding that Mexicans in the United States are at about 11.7 million and likely rising.
The surge in illegal border crossings is the natural result of the Obama administration adopting the deferred action policy. Announced on June 15 and implemented in August, it is a fraud magnet for illegals who can claim any identity and any entry date. The program cannot determine whether a person is who they say they are, nor associated derogatory information. It is exactly the type of program that the 9/11 Commission warned against because of its inherent national security risks.
Outside of pursuing a direct amnesty policy, ancillary policies have purposefully weakened enforcement mechanisms throughout the entire immigration system. On the border itself, fence-building has all but come to a screeching halt, and even meager appropriations monies for operational technologies are not spent. While Border Patrol personnel numbers currently meet the federal mandate, quiet orders are either to not apprehend, or to scare back across the border. No longer is the Border Patrol permitted to conduct stops at transportation hubs where illegal aliens traditionally gain access to the interior of the country and apprehensions are generally high. The administration supported new wilderness laws that would curtail further the Border Patrol access to the millions of acres of wilderness and parks in Arizona and New Mexico. Meanwhile, the administration has not taken sufficient action to squelch Mexican cartel bounties for Border Patrol murders.
While border agent deaths receive publicity, other types of incidents go unreported. On Sept. 27, just east of Nogales near the Santa Cruz River, Border Patrol interdicted a “Border Patrol look-alike” sensor vehicle with an extendable “ramp over” mounted on the back of the truck. Once north of the Mexican border, the drug-laden vehicle attempted a Border Patrol hit and run, sending two agents to the hospital. On Oct. 20, an ultralight plane dropped 10 bales of marijuana to three drug smugglers at least 60 miles north of the border. Government policy is not to interfere with these frequent U.S. airspace incursions.
Elsewhere in the immigration spectrum, enforcement has been shut down piece by piece. For example, Justice Department immigration attorneys were ordered to clear out their dockets of deportation cases while immigration adjudicators were ordered not to refer fraud cases directly to DOJ attorneys, but to ICE. ICE, in turn, is not to pursue immigration fraud, but only deport convicted criminals and terrorists pursuant to “prosecutorial discretion.” The list goes on.
Why is there no leadership on breaking the gridlock and saving immigration enforcement jobs? Immigration enforcement is the anti-agenda of this administration. Quite conveniently for the president, no cuts would occur to the fee-based immigration adjudicators tasked with processing deferred action applicants. In fact, adjudicator numbers are slated to increase. It’s clear where this administration’s priorities are.
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Janice Kephart is the director of national security policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, former counsel to the 9/11 Commission, and host of “The Homeland Security Show.”
“What a revolting development this is,” was a common utterance of the main character in “The Life of Riley,” a radio and TV show of the past. No matter where he or she lives, a non-citizen is subject to deportation at the whim of government officials.
In the U.S. and most other countries, only citizenship and the relationship with the country with which the person has citizenship rights determines the final rights of visiting persons. Law enforcement problems create much uncertainty. We may drop any person off at the border, but entry is determined by the agreement with and policies of the country to which we are seeking to deport the person.
The U.S. State Department views a visa as an invitation to visit the U.S. It may or may not be honored at the entry point, and may be withdrawn at any time if the person is admitted. A person entering a country without an invitation is usually considered an “undesirable” by many citizens of the country, and many feel expulsion is the only cure for their trespass.
All aliens have few rights in times of national emergencies. Our presidential candidates appear to view the problem as a perplexing situation. I wonder if Congress has a better solution.
Newport, OR
President Barack Obama’s deferred deportation order on some 1.7 million undocumented foreign nationals — illegal aliens — between the ages of 16 and 30, in conjunction with issuing them Social Security numbers and work permits, shows a clear view of a president in complete willful disregard for America’s 13.4 million unemployed citizens — 8.3 percent of the civilian labor force.
The consequences of Obama’s actions — the addition of 1.7 million illegal aliens into the nation’s civilian labor force — could push unemployment up in the country by 12.7 percent.
An evaluation of the seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, news release from Aug. 16, titled “Regional and State Employment and Unemployment — July" revealed only 12 states had a higher unemployment rate than Oregon’s 8.7 percent: California, 10.7 percent; Florida, 8.8 percent; Georgia, 9.3 percent; Illinois, 8.9 percent; Michigan, 9 percent; Mississippi, 9.1 percent; Nevada, 12 percent; New Jersey, 9.8 percent; New York, 9.1 percent; North Carolina, 9.6 percent; Rhode Island, 10.8 percent; and South Carolina, 9.6 percent.
In Oregon, there were 177,801 citizens unemployed in July.
Deschutes County’s 8,566 unemployed in July equated to 11.3 percent of the county’s workforce; 4.8 percent of the state’s unemployed.
Including Deschutes, 28 of 36 Oregon counties — 77.8 percent of the state’s counties — in July had a higher unemployment rate than the national average of 8.3 percent: Baker, 10 percent; Columbia, 9.5 percent; Coos, 10.9 percent; Crook, 14.1 percent; Curry, 11.7 percent; Douglas, 12.3 percent; Grant, 13.4 percent; Harney, 13.1 percent; Jackson, 10.7 percent; Jefferson, 12.2 percent; Josephine, 12 percent; Klamath, 11.6 percent; Lake, 13.2 percent; Lane, 8.7 percent; Lincoln, 9.4 percent; Linn, 11.1 percent; Malheur, 10.1 percent; Marion, 9.4 percent; Morrow, 8.4 percent; Polk, 8.6 percent; Sherman, 8.5 percent; Tillamook, 8.7 percent; Umatilla, 8.7 percent; Union, 9.3 percent; Wallowa, 10.6 percent; Wasco, 8.6 percent; and Yamhill, 8.4 percent.
An analysis done by the Employment Policy Institute, a nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based research organization that focuses on job growth, indicated that Oregon in July ranked third in the nation with teen unemployment for ages 16 to 24 at 30.3 percent.
What Obama’s deferred deportation order means to Oregon’s unemployed is that up to 16,600 illegal aliens will be permitted to enter the state’s workforce during the worst recession since the Great Depression.
According to a Pew Hispanic Center report dated Feb. 1, 2011, titled “Unauthorized Immigrant Population: National and State Trends, 2010" in Oregon, there were an estimated 110,000 unauthorized workers.
The addition of 16,600 illegal aliens into the state’s civilian labor force could increase unemployment in Oregon by 9.3 percent.
The state’s elected officials like Gov. John Kitzhaber should not cooperate with the Obama administration by allowing thousands of illegal aliens to enter the state’s workforce. Kitzhaber can put a stop to many of these illegal aliens working in the state by not changing state law that currently requires legal presence in the country to obtain an Oregon driver’s license. Kitzhaber should know that Obama’s deferred deportation order doesn’t constitute legal presence for those persons illegally in the country.
Oregon’s 177,801 unemployed legal U.S. citizens should contact Obama in the White House and communicate to the president that unemployed Americans should never have to compete for scarce jobs with illegal aliens no matter what age demographic they represent.
— David Olen Cross lives in Salem.
Lucky us, the citizens of Oregon, otherwise soon-to-retire pseudo-rep Morse of Albany would have to watch out for his job.
How can you sponsor a law that allows illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition?
If my neighbor has been growing pot for the past seven years on his property, how many years more does he have to grow pot before his operation becomes legal?
How to solve the problem of schools with no funds? Cafeterias that can’t break even? Over-crowded classrooms. ESL classrooms. Simple. Just require a birth certificate for each enrolling student and see how that budget problem goes away.
My property taxes should not be used to educate illegal immigrants.
Happy retirement. Some are not sorry to see you go. One question? How long does it take to qualify for a pension as a legislator?
President Obama’s deferred deportation order affecting some 1.7 million undocumented foreign nationals (illegal aliens) between the ages of 16 and 30, in conjunction with issuing them Social Security numbers and work permits, clearly shows that the president holds complete willful disregard for America’s 13.4 million unemployed citizens — 8.3 percent of the civilian labor force.
One consequence of President Obama’s actions — the addition of 1.7 million illegal aliens into the nation’s civilian labor force — could push unemployment up in the country by 12.7 percent.
Yet The Register-Guard’s June 6 editorial supporting the deferral made no mention of this consequence.
In July, 177,801 Oregonians were officially unemployed, for a seasonally adjusted rate of 8.7 percent. Lane County’s 16,010 unemployed in July equated to 8.7 percent of the county’s work force.
Including Lane, 28 of Oregon’s 36 counties had higher unemployment rates in July than the national average of 8.3 percent: Baker, 10.0 percent; Columbia, 9.5 percent; Coos, 10.9 percent; Crook, 14.1 percent; Curry, 11.7 percent; Deschutes, 11.3 percent; Douglas, 12.3 percent; Grant, 13.4 percent; Harney, 13.1 percent; Jackson, 10.7 percent; Jefferson, 12.2 percent; Josephine, 12.0 percent; Klamath, 11.6 percent; Lake, 13.2 percent; Lincoln, 9.4 percent; Linn, 11.1 percent; Malheur, 10.1 percent; Marion, 9.4 percent; Morrow, 8.4 percent; Polk, 8.6 percent; Sherman, 8.5 percent; Tillamook, 8.7 percent; Umatilla, 8.7 percent; Union 9.3, percent; Wallowa, 10.6 percent; Wasco, 8.6 percent, and Yamhill, 8.4 percent.
Note that in 16 of these counties, the July unemployment rate was in double digits. Adding foreign nationals to the labor pool will make the problem worse.
An analysis done by the Employment Policy Institute indicated that Oregon ranked third in the nation in unemployment among teenagers and young people, with a 30 percent jobless rate for people aged 16 to 24.
The reality of what President Obama’s deferred deportation order means to Oregon’s unemployed is that up to 16,600 illegal aliens will be permitted to enter the state’s work force during the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Adding 16,600 illegal aliens to the civilian labor force could amount to a 9.3 percent increase in the number of unemployed people.
The state’s elected officials, such as Gov. John Kitzhaber, should not cooperate with the Obama administration by allowing thousands of illegal aliens to enter the state’s work force. Kitzhaber can put a stop to many of these illegal aliens working in the state by not changing state law that currently requires legal presence in the country to obtain an Oregon driver’s license. Kitzhaber should know that Obama’s deferred deportation order doesn’t constitute legal presence for those persons illegally in the country.
Oregon’s 177,801 unemployed legal U.S. citizens should contact President Obama in the White House and communicate to the president that unemployed Americans should never have to compete for scarce jobs with illegal aliens — no matter what age they are or what demographic group they represent.
David Olen Cross of Salem (docfnc@yahoo.com) is a writer and activist on immigration issues.
During Hugo Nicolas’ plea to work illegally for the city council, he stated that he and his relatives “share a common fear.” Most of them could solve that by leaving, then visiting on visas the way the families of legal immigrants do. The real problem is that illegal aliens want to ignore the law but avoid the consequences. Mr. Nicolas should be angry at his parents for putting him in this predicament.
Meanwhile, I don’t understand why getting his amnesty papers before job-seeking is too much to ask from Mr. Nicolas. His demand to be hired while it’s still technically illegal highlights the difference between the Nicolas family and American citizens; we still respect the law.
President Barack Obama’s deferred deportation order on some 1.7 million undocumented foreign nationals (illegal aliens) between the ages of 16 and 30, in conjunction with issuing them Social Security numbers and work permits, shows a clear view of a president in complete willful disregard for America’s 13.4 million unemployed citizens; 8.3 percent of the civilian labor force.
Oregon’s unemployment numbers for July were 177,801; a seasonally adjusted 8.7 percent.
Marion County’s 15,216 unemployed in July equated to 9.4 percent of the county’s work force.
An analysis done by the Employment Policy Institute indicated that Oregon in July ranked third in the nation with teen unemployment for ages 16 to 24 at 30 percent.
What President Obama’s deferred deportation order means to Oregon’s unemployed is up to 16,600 illegal aliens will be permitted to enter the state’s work force during the worst recession since the “Great Depression.”
The addition of 16,600 illegal aliens into the state’s civilian labor force could increase unemployment in Oregon by 9.3 percent.
The state’s elected officials like Gov. John Kitzhaber should not cooperate with the Obama administration by allowing thousands of illegal aliens to enter the state’s work force. Gov. Kitzhaber can put a stop to many of these illegal aliens working in the state by not changing state law that currently requires legal presence in the country to obtain an Oregon drivers license. Kitzhaber should know that Obama’s deferred deportation order doesn’t constitute legal presence for those persons illegally in the country.
Oregon’s 177,801 unemployed legal U.S. citizens should contact President Obama in the White House and communicate to the president that unemployed Americans should never have to compete for scarce jobs with illegal aliens no matter what age demographic they represent.
David Olen Cross of Salem writes on illegal immigration and foreign national crime. He can be reached at docfnc@yahoo.com.
Reading the executive summary to the state’s 2013 Threat Assessment and Counter-Drug Strategy is like a waking nightmare, starting with the revelation that a recent survey ranked Oregon fourth in the nation in reported illegal drug use in the prior 30 days. The report goes on to detail some sobering statistics and comments:
Drug offenders make up the largest segment of Oregon’s prison population, 24 percent, twice the number who are in for assault.
Portland had the highest percentage among 10 cities of arrestees reporting they’d used marijuana, powdered cocaine and heroin in the previous 30 days, and ranked second to Sacramento in the number reporting they’d used methamphetamine.
Deaths related to illicit drugs rose about 20 percent from 2010 to 2011 in Oregon, with heroin deaths rising 59 percent.
Methamphetamine and marijuana use and trafficking and marijuana production “remain widespread in Oregon and constitute the state’s highest illicit drug threat.”
Heroin, primarily Mexican black tar, is readily available in Oregon because Mexican production has expanded. “Mexican-based drug trafficking organizations continue to dominate the illicit drug market in Oregon,” according to the report.
Sixty-one percent of Oregon law enforcement officers surveyed this year said methamphetamine is their area’s greatest drug threat and contributes most toward violent crime and property crime.
About the only “good” news in the report is that meth lab seizures are down — only 20 in Oregon in 2011 — largely because the Legislature approved strict pseudoephedrine controls. But, the report adds, producers have now switched from powdered meth to crystal meth and Mexican drug traffickers bring that drug in from Mexican labs.
And while the seizure of outdoor marijuana plants has decreased in the past five years, the report says the size of the grow sites has increased, again because of expanded operations in Mexico.
So what are the state and the federal government doing to combat the problem? They have a series of High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (Oregon’s covers nine counties, including Lane) that are addressing the issues. The two main goals in Oregon’s 2013 HIDTA report are to “disrupt the market for illegal drugs by dismantling or disrupting drug trafficking and/or money laundering organizations,” and to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HIDTA initiatives.”
The details of how they’re going to accomplish those goals are in the full 68-page report, much of which reads a bit on the wonkish side. Hopefully, all those words will ultimately be translated into action and the strategy and tactics they come up with will allow them to begin to tackle the problem. There are some rankings nobody wants to be associated with, and ranking near the top in the use of illegal drugs is one of them.
Several weeks ago in my hometown of Portland, Ore., the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) held its quadrennial national convention. For 10 years, I belonged to the NPMHU, but in 2005, I resigned my membership.
The reason? The NPMHU affiliates with the AFL-CIO and the Laborers' International Union of North America, which aggressively promote — with NPMHU members’ dues — the cause of illegal aliens. These federations have supported, for instance, President Obama’s decision to suspend enforcement of immigration law against more than a million illegal-alien youths; his administration’s lawsuit to overturn Arizona’s S.B. 1070, which seeks to deter illegal immigration to that state; and a “path to citizenship” for millions of foreigners who intentionally have violated U.S. immigration laws.
This spring and summer, other large unions have held national conventions as well — among them the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The ILWU passed a resolution pledging to do all in its power to pass legislation benefiting “undocumented students who came to the country as children.” The SEIU promised to “make the enactment of comprehensive immigration reform a top priority” and to oppose “anti-immigrant measures that go against our nation’s highest values, including state and local enforcement of immigration laws.”
The irony is that by championing illegal aliens, unions harm the working-class Americans they purport to represent. To understand why, let’s first consider employment.
In July, 12.8 million Americans were officially unemployed. Simultaneously, about 8 million illegal aliens held U.S. jobs, the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates.
Vernon M. Briggs Jr., professor emeritus of Cornell University, recently estimated that 80-plus percent of those illegal aliens possess a high school education or less. Most, then, compete for the kinds of jobs traditionally held by lower-skilled, less educated and less experienced Americans — the very class of Americans unions were created to serve.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, illegal aliens concentrate in fields such as building maintenance and groundskeeping, where they recently have made up 19 percent of the workforce; construction, where they have made up 17 percent; and food services, where they have made up 12 percent. Their prevalence in jobs like these has contributed materially to the unemployment rates of, among other Americans, blacks (14.1 percent in July), U.S.-born Hispanics with no education beyond high school (23.3 percent in the second quarter of 2010) and 18-to-24-year-old male veterans (29.1 percent in 2011).
Teenagers, who, research indicates, benefit mightily from early work experience, have suffered from competition with illegal aliens as well. In the summer of 2009, for instance, just one-third of 16-to-19-year-olds held jobs. This is in great part, as the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven A. Camarota observes, because “immigrants and teenagers often do the same kind of work.” Indeed, Mr. Camarota writes, between 1994 and 2007, “a 10-percentage-point increase in the immigrant share of a state’s workforce reduced the labor-force participation rate of U.S.-born teenagers by 7.9 percentage points.”
Consider as well illegal aliens’ decades-long impact on low-skilled Americans’ wages. In a seminal 2004 study, Harvard professor George Borjas estimated that “between 1980 and 2000, immigration reduced the average annual earnings of natives without a high-school education by 7.4 percent” — and half or more of that reduction was because of competition with illegal aliens. More recently, wrote FAIR’s Eric A. Ruark and Matthew Graham, even the liberal Center for American Progress has admitted that “reducing the illegal-alien population in the United States by one-third would raise the income of unskilled workers by $400 a year.”
Compounding all this, illegal aliens and their children strain the government services American workers are taxed to fund — to the tune of $113 billion in 2009, FAIR estimates. That year, according to Mr. Camarota, 71 percent of illegal-alien households with children used at least one welfare program.
In championing illegal aliens, unions defy their rank and file. A 2010 Zogby poll found 37 percent of members of union households strongly opposed — while just 19 percent strongly supported — “allowing illegal immigrants to stay here legally and be put on a path to citizenship.” Sixty-two percent strongly supported “reducing the illegal immigrant population by enforcing existing immigration laws.”
By promoting the interests of illegal aliens, unions betray their responsibility to working-class Americans. Until they stop doing so, workers for whom union membership is not compulsory should stay out of them.
Richard F. LaMountain, former assistant editor of Conservative Digest magazine, is vice president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform (oregonir.org).
