The Institutionalization of Illegal Immigration

By Randy Alcorn

In a recent editorial, the Los Angles Times characterized people opposed to New York governor, Eliot Spitzer’s proposal to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens as cruel people more interested in punishing illegal aliens than in improving public safety. The Times concluded that these people lack common sense.

While such derogation may vent the frustrations of those delivering it, it is a tedious distraction that only interferes with resolving what has become one of the most serious issues confronting America today.  

Objecting to granting drivers licenses to illegal aliens is neither cruel nor illogical. It is a reasoned reaction against what is becoming the insidious institutionalization of illegal immigration. Elements of society sympathetic to illegal immigration, including some of the mainstream media and certain special interests, foster the notion that illegal immigration is unavoidable, even economically necessary, and not really a crime.

Meanwhile, government, especially Federal government, has continued to accommodate illegal aliens while it neglects serious enforcement of current immigration laws. Federal regulations require public school districts to educate illegal alien children, and mandate that state and local public health agencies provide services to illegal aliens. Meanwhile, local government agencies not under federal mandate intentionally ignore the residency status of illegal aliens to whom they provide tax-funded services.

A recent grand jury investigation in Santa Barbara, California found that county agencies there were neglecting to verify the residency status of those applying for social services even though the county had a data base system available with which to do so. The grand jury determined that social services provided to illegal aliens are costing county taxpayers millions of dollars annually. The jury found that nearly 30% of the student population of the county’s public schools is non-English speaking. This not only puts a financial strain on the public school system but it also dilutes the overall effectiveness of public education. 

Furthermore, it is costing Santa Barbara County nearly half a million dollars per year to incarcerate illegal aliens convicted of crimes. Gang warfare among competing Hispanic gangs has made city streets lethal urban battlefields. In the past year alone, the county sheriff has destroyed over 100,000 marijuana plants found on clandestine farms planted and maintained by illegal aliens.

Santa Barbara County is not alone in suffering the negative effects of the unrelenting influx of illegal aliens. People throughout the country are experiencing the effects, and suffering the consequences of decades of implicit acceptance of illegal immigration. As more communities in California, and, increasingly, throughout America experience these negatives there has been a growing ground swell of opposition to illegal immigration.

As it becomes more difficult to hide immigration’s negative realities from the American public, attempts by government to accommodate illegal aliens are now being fiercely protested by an increasingly concerned public. When the City of Laguna Beach, California began funding a day laborer facility used primarily by illegal aliens to secure employment, a local citizen filed suit to prevent the use of taxpayer money to fund illegal activity. Similarly, the city of Santa Maria, California is drawing objections for using tax money to provide a van service for illegal alien farm workers.

Nevertheless, there are politicians who persist in accommodating illegal immigration. The city of San Francisco recently approved a municipal ID program for illegal aliens that would facilitate their living in the city. Worse, the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsome, has forbidden city employees from assisting federal authorities in apprehending illegal aliens who have committed crimes or defied deportation orders.

Such actions by government or the private sector to aid and abet illegal aliens are not only a disturbing defiance of the rule of law they are also indicative of the institutionalization of illegal immigration. A wink here, a nod there and eventually we have acceptance of open borders and the devaluation of citizenship.
 
The push to grant drivers licenses to illegal aliens is simply another one of those winks and nods. Printing election ballots in Spanish is another. Placing employers in a catch 22 situation if they attempt to discover whether employees are legal residents is yet another. Bilingual education programs, bilingual phone messages and utility bills are all manifestations of the institutionalization of illegal immigration.

How do the majority of Americans and the future of America benefit from the unregulated influx of desperately poor, under-educated, unskilled, and medically and criminally unscreened foreigners? Where is the common sense in continuing accommodations that reward and attract illegal aliens?

Be aware that the calls for immigration reform are mostly attempts to officially confirm the institution of illegal immigration. Immigration law reform is not needed as badly as is immigration law enforcement.  But then, that’s just too much cruel commonsense.