Last week Arizona passed Senate Bill 1070 that mandates Arizona law enforcement officials to ask anyone they deem are in the U.S. illegally for proof of U.S. citizenship.
The bill hopes to reduce the numbers of undocumented workers in the state and discourage others from coming in.
Increasing law enforcement harassment and encouraging racism is not the answer. Anti-immigrant sentiment and ignorance, hostility and prejudice only make the issue worse. Virulent racism hurts everyone and solves nothing.
Misguided finger pointing to explain something as generalized unfortunate personal circumstance only fuels animosity and hinders any constructive actions towards a remedy. Blind rage obscures facts from penetrating the perceptions that assuage irrational opinion: opinion that serve a political ideology and thereby securing party loyalty.
Misperceptions abound that illegal's come here to kick back and live off of our social welfare system. The facts do not support this accusation. A report from the Congressional Budget Office says that illegal immigrants use only a fraction of the total social services budget for unauthorized immigrants that accounted for less than 5 percent of total state and local spending for those services.
The same is true for health care and emergency rooms. A 2006 study by Rand Corp. said a small fraction of health care spending is used by undocumented immigrants. The report went on to say a relatively small amount of tax money is spent on health services provided to undocumented immigrants.
If we are going to address the illegal immigration problem, we need to address real cause of why immigrants risk their lives to cross our borders: it's jobs.
The fact is we need to patrol our own back yard. Blaming the victim (illegal immigrants) is nothing more than being unwilling to see who really is at fault: its US business hiring low cost labor and every day citizens who hire domestic help. We are the reason illegals come here.
Instead of focusing anger at the immigrant, focus on the cause, the employer. The hiring manager had a choice and chose to pay less.
Below is a short list of US businesses cited for recruiting illegal labor from Mexico:
Wal-Mart hired all illegals for their janitorial service.
Tyson Foods and its sub industries under Tyson hired illegals to staff its meat packing plant.
Styx Restaurant owners and their two corporations located in Jackson, Miss.
MS, a Houston bus company, MS, hired by US businesses to bring illegal labor from Mexico
Agriprocessors in DesMoines, Iowa, for repeated violations of hiring Mexican illegal's
Artistic Land Management in California hired only illegal's to work on county projects
Swift Meat Packing in Greeley, CO as well as plants in Grand Island, Neb., and Cactus, Texas
Alcala law Firm in Salt Lake City charged with conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and visa fraud.
Nebraska Beef in Omaha and in Texas
The U.S. Department of State says most are lured from their homes with false promises of well-paying jobs; instead, they are forced or coerced into prostitution, domestic servitude, and farm or factory labor.
Government is trying to help and policing hundreds of thousands of businesses in the U.S. makes enforcement difficult.
Assistance may come from The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in their attempt to mandate employers receiving "No-Match" letters from the Social Security Administration (SSA) to audit their I-9 records to confirm Social Security Number mismatches.
Controlling illegal employment, cracking down on smuggling, not harassing individuals is the way to control illegal immigration.