SECURING THE HOME FRONT

It is becoming clear to many Americans that the cost of our federal government’s reluctance to enforce immigration laws, to secure our borders, and to ensure our national security and the safety of American citizens, affects every facet of American life.

The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the net public cost for providing illegal immigrants with services like Medicaid, food assistance programs, our federal prison system, our court systems, and public education exceeds $10 billion annually.

Some states are recognizing the enormous costs and threats this problem poses to our American way of life. Many states recognize that employment is the most common incentive for illegal immigration to the United States, and some are beginning to hold scofflaw employers accountable for aiding and abetting criminal behavior. There is also growing awareness that those that hire illegal aliens are discriminating against U.S. citizens and legal resident immigrants. In response, some states are taking greater responsibility for addressing the crisis.

Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, and West Virginia have enacted tough new laws requiring or encouraging employers to verify every job applicant’s legal status using a federal data bank. These states have also imposed tough new sanctions on employers, including a progressive penalty system for those found guilty of hiring illegal workers. Arizona will permanently revoke an operator’s business license for a second offense. As a result, states that have been aggressively implementing new laws have dramatically reduced costs and problems, as illegal aliens have moved back home or to other states.

There are an estimated 76,000 illegal aliens in South Carolina, costing our taxpayers $87.4 million annually for education alone. Between 2000 and 2006, South Carolina’s K-12 student enrollment increased by over 34,000 students, and is projected to increase by a similar number by 2015. This increase will, of course, result in the need to build many new schools. But that’s just one small part of the toll this crisis presents our state.

Consider our transportation systems. Increased traffic congestion results in slower commute times, greater fuel costs, and more need to repair and build roads and highways. The SC Department of Transportation already has a $5 billion maintenance backlog. The illegal wave that’s flooding our state and nation also increases problems with air quality and solid waste disposal, requires additional low-income housing, dramatically increases costs for many of our hospitals and clogs their emergency rooms, and stretches capacity while increasing costs for law enforcement.

Despite these added costs to taxpayers, threats to national security, discrimination against hardworking citizens and legal immigrants, and threats to our personal safety, when our state Senate recently had the opportunity to address the problem, it yielded to special interests that seem driven by a desire for low-cost labor. In response to overwhelming support from the citizens of our state for tough, meaningful reform, the Senate passed a bill so loaded with loopholes it would accomplish little.

Fortunately, our state House of Representatives passed stronger legislation that would hold employers accountable for aiding and abetting the criminal act of invading our country and claiming a job rightfully belonging to a legal citizen. The House and Senate bills have gone to a “conference committee” to hammer out differences, and there is hope that the provisions in the stronger House bill will prevail.

It is disappointing that many elected officials would not only put the interests of special interests above the welfare of the citizens of South Carolina, but that they would do so on matters that concern the very security and survival of our state and nation. If they would do so on matters like this of such enormous cost and importance to the safety and security of us all, think of how ready they must be to put our interests below those of special interests on so many lesser matters.

This issue emphasizes again the need for every patriotic South Carolinian to know what is happening in our state, to speak out on the issues of our times, to hold our elected officials accountable, and to ensure on Election Day that those we elect truly do represent “we the people."