Department of Justice steps in to block South Carolina's anti-immigrant law
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against South Carolina to block the implementation of SB 20, a divisive and dangerous anti-immigrant law signed by Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) earlier this year. If SB 20 does take effect on Jan. 1, 2012, the law will create a new $1.3 million immigration enforcement unit for South Carolina and provide local law enforcement with overly broad authority to investigate residents' immigration statuses. As NCLR (National Council of La Raza) has repeatedly pointed out in the past, when other states attempted to pass similar bills, these anti-immigrant laws not only promote racial profiling and discrimination, but also violate the Constitution.
Thankfully the DOJ has stepped in once again, filing a lawsuit which argues that the law could lead to harassment and discrimination, would place unnecessary burdens on federal agencies, and would interfere with the federal government's authority to set and enforce immigration policy. The DOJ's involvement in this case should be yet another indication that the administration will not sit idly by while state legislators overstep their boundaries and attempt to enact laws that wreak havoc on their own states' economies and violate the civil rights of their citizens.
SB 20 is quite simply not a legitimate solution to fix the immigration problem and will ultimately do South Carolina more harm than help; just look at its predecessors. When Arizona passed SB 1070, it inspired a boycott that cost the state $750 million. The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association recently estimated $140 million in losses attributed to labor shortage and estimates on agricultural losses in the state could top $1 billion from their law, HB 87. Likewise, Alabama's HB 56 has certainly succeeded in driving out immigrants, who many are now realizing are crucial to its economy, particularly in the farming and construction industries. In fact, South Carolina's farmers have already expressed their mounting concern over potential labor shortages that they could face as a result of an immigrant exodus.
The courts have repeatedly blocked enforcement provisions in many anti-immigrant laws proposed in other states. It is illogical and unnecessarily costly for the South Carolina legislature to push a bill that exploits legitimate frustration with the broken immigration system, but fails to deliver rational policy solutions. We hope that the courts will grant this injunction and reaffirm what we know to be true--that the power to fix our immigration system lies in the hands of Congress.
NCLR is equally frustrated with the lack of movement at the federal level on this issue. But that frustration should not give state legislators permission to overstep their legal boundaries and pass irresponsible laws that jeopardize the security of their citizens and violate Americans' civil rights. We have to put pressure on our leaders in Congress to focus on the real issues and create viable solutions to fix our nation's broken immigration system at the federal level.
This was first posted to the NCLR Blog.
http://www.examiner.com/immigration-reform-in-national/dhs-confirms-cheaper-to-deport-every-illegal-alien-than-allowing-them-to-stay#ixzz1YbZArCb6
$135 billion "one-time" cost to detect, detain & deport 11.2 million illegals to create existing jobs through vacancy ~ is CHEAPER for the U.S. Taxpayer, than the BHO's proposed $447 billion American Jobs Plan of 2011
A savings to the U.S. Taxpayer of $312 billion USD AND guaranteed 5 to 7 million jobs will be available to re-employ "some" of the 14 million U.S. Citizens out of work ~ instead of, creating an "iffy" 1.9 million jobs per BHO's proposal
14 million U.S. Citizens out of work in the USA, trying to feed, clothe, house & educate THEIR Children with NO JOBS
While 11.2 million illegals, in the USA illegally ~ are SCABBING U.S. jobs for half-price wages DEPRESSING the Wage Market for ALL U.S. Workers
Gaining their life's blood funding from the same federal gov't that is deporting record-breaking numbers of illegals?
La Raza's CEO was paid $378,446 in salary last year. More than what the President earns & more than a U.S. Senator earns.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42237
Can't you just feel the train beginning to stop?! For way too long illegal immigrants could march and demonstrate for their rights without fear of any consequences. Now, the illegal immigrants and their lobbyists/enablers are afraid. Their side is losing. Finally, finally, we are taking steps to regain control of this mess.
To circumvent our immigration laws is a dangerous precedence that leads to the breeding grounds of a lawless society/country. It's only in our best interest to, not only remove illegal aliens but make life extremely difficult for them to set down roots and be in defiance of our country's laws.
Where in the Constitution does it state illegal aliens have a right to be in the country? The Constitution was written for "We the people of the United States" and we the people does not include illegal aliens. Illegals aliens like visitors are entitled to protection of the law but they do not have the rights of Us citizens.
There is going to come a time when we will have national ID cards for US citizens and that will take away the guess work of who's suppose to here and who gets deported.
As for the snarky comment about education and washing dishes, any jobs in the US rightfully belong to legal workers only.
On Monday, Gov. Haley signed S 20, a law which requires law enforcement in South Carolina to call federal authorities if they reasonably suspected a person they’ve stopped, detained or arrested is in the country without documentation. The law, which also requires employers to use E-Verify to check the citizenship status of new hires and existing employees, creates a special unit of immigration law enforcement officers—a unit estimated to cost the state $1.3 million.
And South Carolina can expect to spend even more defending the law against costly legal battles. The ACLU and National Immigration Law Center said they will sue South Carolina, .... To date, Arizona has spent upwards of $1.9 million in legal fees defending their law.
South Carolina, which faced a $1.3 billion budget gap in FY2011, should also expect to lose the tax revenue generated by undocumented immigrants in the state. According to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, households headed by unauthorized immigrants in South Carolina paid $43.6 million in state and local taxes in 2010. According to another study, if all unauthorized immigrants were removed from South Carolina, the state would lose $1.8 billion in economic activity, $782.9 million in gross state product, and approximately 12,059 jobs if all unauthorized immigrants were removed from South Carolina.
http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/06/29/south-carolina-governor-signs-1-3-million-immigration-enforcement-law/
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=889f0b89284a3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=889f0b89284a3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD
Like Pinocchio's nose the number keeps on growing. Initially forecast by Phoenix based economists at around $240 over several years, estimates were significantly downgraded to around $141 million as the actual effects of the boycott became better known. http://newamericamedia.org/2010/11/sb1070-cost-arizona-141-million.php.
Tourist destinations like the Grand Canyon were unaffected and despite what the pro-illegals woudl have you believe, Phoenix hotel occupancies were amongst the strongest in the country and rose to recent highs.
Dean Martin the AZ state treasurer estimated that each illegal had a net cot to AZ of between $600-8000. After SB1070 25% of illegals left the state (100,000) saving AZ between $600-800 million.
Plus the unemployment rate has dropped by around 1% since then too (10.1% to 9.1%).
And no Ms Lacayo it is not hate - just a strong desire to bring some semblance of sanity back into the equation. We have laws to regulate immigration and nobody is arguing that we might need or benefit from migrant labor. But if we do, then it should regulated and on our terms not theirs.
But the bottom line is that without regulation ALL other arguments are moot.
SB 1070 also saved lives, how can you put a pricetag on that? It drove illegal alien unlicensed drivers out of the state to somewhere else and illegal criminal aliens who murder Americans.
Every state has to pass anti illegal alien laws until all states have one and the federal government must act or in 2016 republicans have the house, senate and the WH and then things will get moving and i'am a democrat.
The federal government uses these population counts to distribute federal dollars to the states. According to Andrew Reamer at the Brookings Institution, in 2008 the federal government distributed $866.5 billion in funds to the states based on the census population counts. Your state gets its share of the federal pie based on the number of people that are counted by the census. If there were $866.5 billion in funds to disperse in 2010, each person would be worth $2,807 in federal money to your state.
Note that I say "people" not "citizens." This is where Arizona may have lost as much as three-quarters of a billion dollars annually in federal funding.
Census Bureau demographers projected Arizona's population to be 6,668,079 but the actual number was 6,392,017 or 276,062 fewer people than what the Census Bureau expected to find.
This was the largest shortfall of any state in absolute numbers.
.....at $2,708 a person, Arizona lost out on $775 million in federal grants per year.
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2010/12/30/the-cost-of-sb-1070-750-million-a-year
Different State, Same Hate.
Same rotten story.. same old NO links. Folks.. you can see all the left wing newspapers out there and their are NO stories cited on this hate business. When they do have a story, they cannot document them to be correct. (It happened three months ago while no one was around.) And in fact, if you go where all these Hispanic Demonstrations happen, you find the illegal aliens and their thugs attacking the by-standers. So suddenly the kids are telling us stories about the play ground insults, and Obama takes action on that saying they might be discriminated against. Might be this.. might be that.. more of this.
We need polygraphs on these stories. Simple to do and it will remove the thought that these stories are INVENTED!!!