In this election year, immigration policy promises to be a political issue, nationally and here in Maine.
Nationally, disagreement will continue over such issues as how to stem the influx of illegal aliens, what to do about the 11 or 12 million illegal aliens now in the country, and the DREAM bill, which would give undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children a path toward legal status if they attend college or serve in the military. The bill was passed by the House, but it hasn’t been able to overcome Republican filibuster in the Senate. Federal law provides an annual worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants, plus up to 480,000 family-based entries.
In Maine, one of Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s first acts was to rescind an executive order by former Gov. John Baldacci and allow state officials to ask for immigration papers of those who approach their agencies for help or benefits.
An organization calling itself Mainers for a Sensible Immigration Policy run by Jonette Christian of Holden has called for tougher enforcement of federal immigration laws and hailed the passage by Alabama last year of “an immigration law even tougher than Arizona’s, which requires that employers use E-Verify to determine worker eligibility.” She wrote that 27 states were considering or had already adopted similar requirements. No such legislation has been introduced in Maine.
E-Verify is a voluntary federal program in which an employer may consult a national database of undocumented immigrants. Employers are invited to sign agreements pledging to do so.
In Maine, some business leaders including David Barber of Barber Foods and Adam Lee of Lee Auto Malls, worried about possible state legislation and the message sent by Gov. LePage’s order denying state services to undocumented immigrants. They launched a “Maine Compact,” urging immigration policies that would enhance Maine’s reputation as a welcoming and business-friendly state.
Mr. Barber said by email: “With roughly half of our associate population as immigrants, I obviously see [immigration] as a clear benefit to Maine. The diversity in education and experience is great for our work force.” He said that immigrants often bring a different perspective to a problem and added: “Quite a large number of our supervisory staff is foreign born and they do a wonderful job.”
He advocated “consistent” regulation, saying: “We need immigrants to help fuel our economy and fill jobs that go unfilled. We need immigrants to add to our diverse economy as they have done throughout our history. We also need guidance so that people don’t come here for a handout but a head start to get them settled.”
As for current regulation of illegal immigration, he said: “I get extremely frustrated with bills that call for random ID check. We need protection from people looking for a handout and to live off our generous system of a helping hand. We need to protect the ability for talent to be imported from another land and be helpful in further building our economy. As a country we sometimes go too far or not far enough. In this case, we have ended up with states going too far and the federal government not going far enough.”
As election year progresses, Mainers will do well to accept Mr. Barber’s balanced approach and see immigration not as an unmitigated threat but as a source of needed labor and a means of attracting productive new citizens.
Balanced approach? My grandpaents had to file papers every year because they were Canadians. Why should illegals get preferential treatment.
No matter which word you use Ilegal, undocumented etc. They are all breaking the law. Round em up make them pay a fine do a real background check. If they pass they stay if there is anthing major out you go. I know alot of people would say just ship em out. With generations of them being here. Some are citizens like it or not (I dont).
The answer is so simple I am amused by the lack of action. #1) Build a fence the entire length of the U.S./Mexican border and guard and protect the fence with the National Guard. (This is what they are for.) #2) Round up all illegals and put them on the other side of the fence. How difficult is that?
Please tell me you’re not actually silly enough to think that building a giant wall on our southern border would actually prevent anyone from crossing into America illegally.
There is nothing silly about it and yes it would prevent illegal crossings since most simply walk into this country.
Totally agree, it will create jobs too…
Open borders advocates conflate legal immigration with illegal immigration as a matter of course.
It’s an intellectually dishonest attempt to make those in favor of enforcing immigration laws appear to be xenophobes.
Mr. Barber is simply wrong. Interesting that the BDN gave him paragraphs to illustrate his ignorance, while the noble lady in Holden was limited to 17 words to shine her brilliance.
Here’s the deal. A nation is defined by two primary elements: its laws and its borders. Illegal immigration offends both.
Alabama is on the right track. It is provoking people who are here illegally to pack up and leave. This is the answer – attrition, not necessarily deportation. I appreciate that Gov. LePage’s first act was to rescind Gov. Baldacci’s unethical executive order.
We must take control of our borders – it is an essential for our national security – and we must continue to compel those who are here illegally to go the back of the line and apply to become citizens LEGALLY.
And Dave Francis got 18 paragraphs of borrowed cut and paste …
Simple rule of thumb, anytime you find yourself agreeing with the state of Alabama, it is time to rethink your position.
Excellent, well-informed, and well-presented comment. Thank you for this very helpful information. One more example of how the new media via such intelligent commenters are providing balance to the silly editors of dead-tree media like the BDN.
What does the government NOT understand about ILLEGAL? We have laws in place about immigration let’s try enforcing them for a change and see how it works for ohhhhh maybe ten years so it has a chance to straighten out!
1492….the start of illegal immigration.
I think the Bering Bridge opened it up before then.
Or possibly ancient Europeans before that
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/radical-theory-of-first-americans-places-stone-age-europeans-in-delmarva-20000-years-ago/2012/02/28/gIQA4mriiR_story.html
“…but as a source of needed labor and a means of attracting productive new citizens.” C’mon, BDN…the governor is wrong to cut public assistance AND there are jobs going unfilled? If there are so many employers looking for workers, they should be filled by Mainers first, no?
Besides, if you employ illegal immigrants, you are breaking the law…is that what you are advocating?
The information in BDN’s opinion piece is a little misleading on E-Verify. E-Verify doesn’t consult “… a national database of undocumented immigrants. ” When an employer “runs” an new hire through the system, the system basically verifies that the name and social security number match. A weakness in the system is that an illegal alien with a set of stolen identity documents won’t be detected if the info matches. The data in the attached link is a little “stale”, but the system is constantly improving. The error rate presently is in the range of 1% or 2%, contrary to what advocates for “immigrants” often say.
E-Verify has proven effective in preventing illegal aliens from finding jobs in the U.S. It would be even more effective if it were improved and was made mandatory for all employers nation-wide.
http://www.cis.org/Everify
“may consult a national database of undocumented immigrants.”
The phrase doesn’t even make sense. How can they be undocumented if they are in a database?
What should be done is put the onus on the employers of illegal immigrants. If caught employing illegal immigrants, the employer should be fined $1,000.00 per day that the illegal has been employed.
If you go after the employers and fine them heavily and/or put them in jail there would be no need for 99% of the undocumented immigrants to come to the US.
Oh and we also need to stop the destruction of the local economies in Mexico and Central America by the big multinational corporations. They cause the local economies to collapse making it almost impossible for the local peoples to survive where they are. Since no person is willingly going to lay down and die they migrate to where the jobs are.
“As election year progresses, Mainers will do well to accept Mr. Barber’s balanced approach and see immigration not as an unmitigated threat but as a source of needed labor and a means of attracting productive new citizens”
I see you do not differentiate between immigration and illegal immigration…This county was built with the hard work of immigrants and can continue to be so. Equating them with the people who are flaunting our laws and consuming our social safety net resources does a disservice to the actual immigrant community. And how exactly is ignoring the presence of illegal immigrants “attracting new citizens”???
If you were “replying” to someone, it is not clear who. I do differentiate between illegal and legal. It is my whole point. Mr Barber’s position is NOT “reasonable. Why should taxpayers be forced to support illegals?
“In Maine, some business leaders including David Barber of Barber Foods and Adam Lee of Lee Auto Malls, worried about possible state legislation and the message sent by Gov. LePage’s order denying state services to undocumented immigrants. They launched a “Maine Compact,” urging immigration policies that would enhance Maine’s reputation as a welcoming and business-friendly state.”
What do you think the motivation is for either one of these business owners? Cheap immigrant or illegal immigrant labor, plain and simple.
I damn sure won’t be patronizing those businesses.
There are tons of out of work Nigerions in NYC who could do these jobs. Why import trouble when we have plenty right here at home?
What we ought to be doing is going after the demand side of the ledger. If a person or business is found to have hired an illegal immigrant, then that person or business’s assets are seized and auctioned off to law abiding competitors. It would only take a couple of these cases before others in the business community start closely examining their labor forces and hiring practices. The current system of searching for and rounding up individuals is only treating the symptoms, and it’s not doing a very good job at that.
If we want “THE PEOPLE’S” America back,
Voters must punish the Politicians, Governors, Mayors, special interest groups
and the whole blend of elected officials that are harboring foreign nationals,
who have implemented Sanctuary cities ordinances, who have driven policies of
the Dream Acts, Chain migration ID Theft, Voter Fraud and other catastrophic
Comprehensive Reform packages. But more important than anything else is to
remove this President before drives us into further debt, which we cannot
possibly survive. Even citizen voting privileges are not safe anymore, from
groups like ACORN involved with voter fraud. Every voting precinct in America need to check their election rolls, as
Non-citizen voting is a Federal felony and
should be prosecuted as such. Investigative reporter James O’Keefe rendered
proof positive that organized hordes of illegal “voters” can extensively warp
the results of elections throughout the nation, just by claiming the identities
of registered voters in those particular districts.
The stunning
investigative report by Andy Pierroti of NBC-2 in Fort Myers included
interviews and voting documents illuminating nearly 100 non-citizens who are
illegally registered and in some cases have voted in elections as far back as
2001. One Naples, Florida voter admitted she was not a U.S. Citizen, nor a
legal immigrant – but election records show she voted six times in the past
eleven years. The U.S. citizenry
must step forward and adjoin with the TEA PARTY “THE PEOPLE’S PARTY” to stop
the erosion of legal rights, which are being reduced by this
administration. Remember the TEA PARTY
is millions of like minded members in chapters across our nation, who does not discriminate
against any race, color, religion as long as you entered the United States
legally. Both parties have abused immigration enforcement, by neglecting the
fence and the incompetence of acknowledging that ID theft is out of control,
that every foreign worker is committing a felony by using U.S. victim’s Social
security number and identity in the majority of cases, but nothing has been accomplished
to halt these issues.
There
are many Constitutional minded, a non-profit organization whose dedication is
to lower immigration and enforcement of immigration laws, that unless them two
parties start by securing the border and have remained inert to increasingly
alarmed public of their deteriorating quality of life due to sprawl,
congestion, overcrowded schools, lost open spaces and increasing restrictions
on their individual liberty caused by the new population explosion! Stop this
travesty that is being deliberately bypassed by the Senate and House. Close all
the loopholes in the law, which is pandering to the illegal alien invaders.
When did this country genuflect to the crazy
environmentalists, stopping us from drilling for more oil? Our country can be
self-reliant as we have huge deposits of oil, natural gas and coal, which will
last generations. The land doesn’t belong to Congress, but all of the people
who live here. We should not be paying $3.98 a gallon, when we could be
importing oil from Canada. Stop the huge banks from speculating over on oil; at
least reduce the percentage to 10 percent for speculators? The illegal alien occupation are racking up
over a $100 Billion dollars a year, with no end in sight. How much more money
will Obama soak us for, to pay not just for illegal aliens, but U.S. residents
who are perpetual welfare recipients? Did you know that illegal foreign workers
are estimated to wire over $40 Billion dollars annually outside this country to
foreign banks? Do you think that
“Obamcare passes” that illegal aliens will have to pay their own insurance?
Health Care for illegal aliens is already a unfunded Mandate for the 50 states,
for these people pouring through every bloody hole or flying into America from
God knows where is going to pay—ZERO. NOTHING! Just like they do now for
education, as they pay nothing for all their children who have swamped our
school system. Foreigners have become cannibals of taxpayers’ money, forced on
them by the courts. Yes! They pay some taxes, but not enough to cover this country’s
huge deficit?
Obama is skirting the laws of the
Congress, to implement another sordid avenue, to covertly allow illegal aliens
to stay and in addition allow family members to join them. You can also learn more of the Obama
government ignoring your Constitutional rights of citizens and they can easily be located by surfing the net
with keywords as illegal aliens—costs—ID theft—Voter fraud. Enter several words
in Google, Yahoo or any search engine, with spaces in between. These are website
that the Democrats and Liberals don’t want you to view. It allows the reader to
investigate a daily helping of articles of National and rural media, not
compliant with the liberal agenda of “Political Correctness” established by the
by Left to divide the country. Learn more about the E-Verify program to extract
illegal aliens from the workplace and other policing applications as the “Secure
Communities” for local police to detect and criminal aliens by fingerprints for
another resource for ICE.
Please copy and Paste
where you can. Distribute freely.
The figure from your left-wing buds at MSNBC is 12 to 20 million, and I am in favor of kicking them all out lock-stock and barrel. ALL OF THEM.
AND…
while we are at it, how about making these groups who import aliens responsible for their upkeep until they find work and become citizens. Maybe make them post a bond…I’d say about 50k per person.
Hit the nail on the head…
A lot of people share your views, but it’s unlikely that the U.S. will ever remove every single illegal alien. For example, polls consistently show that Americans would allow children who have been brought here at a very early age and really know no other country to stay. (DREAM Act, etc.) Also it’s unlikely that we would remove very elderly illegal aliens who have been here for many years. That said, we should secure our borders, pass E-Verify, etc. Enforcement has been shown to work.
And there are laws requiring certain aliens to have “sponsors” who file “affidavits of support” before the alien is allowed to enter the U.S. Unfortunately, the requirements, like many of the immigration laws, aren’t well enforced.
http://www.immigrationdirect.com/immigration-articles/what-is-an-affidavit-of-support-form-i-864/index.html
Some people are more “liberal” than I. I’d chuck ALL OF THEM. There is no way a person entering this country incorrectly should have a free pass. No dream act, no welfare, and jail until deportation if they are caught using an incorrect social security number.
How about we throw the employers in jail and take their voting rights away. I think that would work fine.
No employers = no job = no illegal immigration
I could go for that…. BUT unless the employers had them shipped in, they are not the only criminals.