TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Economy Easing Illegal Immigrant Woes

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOHN HERBERT

From Where I Sit

Published: May 11, 2008

A few months ago, it looked as if illegal immigration was going to be one of the major issues of this year's presidential election campaign. No longer.
The foremost issue on many voters' minds, instead, is the state of the nation's economy, including unemployment and devastating foreclosures in the housing market. Time for the "R" word — recession?
The burden of illegal immigration seems to be taking care of itself with a big help from the ailing economy. Mexico's central bank says their countrymen in the U.S. are sending less money back home across the border than at this point last year.
The once-almighty dollar is shrinking in value; it takes more dollars this year to buy Mexican pesos. The dollars, and the menial jobs that go with them, are not as available as they once were.
Border fencing with remote cameras, still porous to be sure, is becoming more prevalent. Border patrol officers continue to be recruited to watch the fences by helicopters, ATVs, trucks and even horses in scenarios reminiscent of the old Wild West. The stepped-up vigilance is evidently working; people smugglers have doubled their fees, to well more than a thousand dollars, to sneak illegals into the U.S.
The Mexican government claims a four-fold increase in the number of U.S. immigrants seeking financial aid for a bus trip back home. While that only amounts to about 3,000 southbound riders so far this year, they far exceed the 700 for all of 2007.
Nevertheless, there might bean estimated 10 million to 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Most are here only to make an "honest" buck to send to family back home. Yet, about a half-million illegals, the so-called "gangster element," are locked up in federal, state and local prisons, thriving on billions of dollars in American taxpayer largesse.
One of the major remaining challenges is the "sanctuary city" concept, where local police have standing orders not to check on the immigration status of any suspect they might nab, for anything from speeding to murder.
Their reasoning goes like this: Immigration is a federal problem. We're hired to enforce local laws. Excuse me; I thought the job of our local police is to enforce any law that's on the books. Period. The difference between federal and local law escapes me. You break a law, any law, that's illegal.
Sanctuary" philosophy" apparently escapes our congresswoman in Washington, Ginny Brown-Waite, as well. Her approach to illegal immigrants would be to lock them all up as felons. Fine by me. That's unrealistic, of course, but her proposed handling of sanctuary cities sounds quite doable.
Rep. Brown-Waite is trying to push legislation that would withhold up to 25 percent of federal funding from any city that refuses to enforce federal immigration laws. My question: Why not withhold all federal money until the sanctuary cities shape up?
I must have tossed a "softball" question Brown-Waite's Washington office was prepared for. "Cities do need federal help for homeland security. We don't want to wind up jeopardizing the whole nation," a spokesman explained. Fair enough, I guess. We don't want more New York- or New Orleans-style disasters.
Still, some 70 U.S. cities, including Miami, are immigrant sanctuaries. There's no way to guarantee that the offending cities would, in fact, conform to immigration laws. Further, with immigrant-friendly Democrats controlling both houses of Congress, Brown-Waite's bill stands little chance of being adopted.
Meanwhile, Rep. Brown-Waite has focused her spotlight on another aspect of illegal immigration. The Tampa office of ICE, the federal agency responsible for immigration matters, seems to have a ho-hum attitude about seizing and deporting illegals. If she, or local police for that matter, fingers illegals, Tampa ICE inexplicably doesn't react.
From where I sit, it's just another example of a federal government too bloated for fast and efficient footwork. And, if the feds don't seem to care, then why should local police?
Maybe we've devoted too much attention to illegal immigration from south of the border. We're forgetting Canada is almost as big a security threat, with some 3,000 miles of more or less open borders.
The Canadians have trouble keeping track of their illegals, too. Just a few days ago, a Tampa Tribune banner headline proclaimed than Canada has "lost" 41,000 illegals designated for deportation. Scary thought. How many are potential terrorists?

A regular columnist for Hernando Today, John Herbert lives in Spring Hill.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT