Early this morning, Prince William County's Board of Supervisors unanoumously to approve an anti-illegal immigration resolution. It's been mainstream news here. My county is going to be the bow-wave of sister resolutions being considered by many other counties surrounding Washington.
Here's a summary from the Washington Post newspaper:
Prince William County supervisors early this morning voted to move forward with a nationally watched plan to crack down on illegal immigrants by increasing local police enforcement and restricting certain public services.
The measures approved yesterday improve cooperation with
federal immigration authorities and direct police to check the immigration status of anyone accused of breaking the law if the officer suspects that person is an illegal immigrant. They also would deny certain county services to illegal immigrants, including drug counseling, some elderly services, and business
licenses.
The county's plan to deny services has evolved since it
was first proposed. Services such as access to schools and emergency medical care are federally protected, and illegal immigrants are already ineligible for benefits such as Medicare and food stamps.
Instead, Prince William has pinpointed a more limited set of services and benefits, including substance abuse counseling, homeless assistance and in-home care and other county programs for the elderly. County officials said they are not sure how many illegal immigrants are taking advantage of these programs or how much money would be saved by curbing them.
Now, I'm not a fan of illegal immigrants being coddled in our country at the expense of the legal citenzry, but I have some doubts about anything good coming out of this particular set of restrictions. The reasoning appears to be: if we don't help illegal immigrant drug addicts and don't provide elder care to illegal immigrants, we'll solve the illegal immigrant problem? I'm sure that can't be the rationale, but I didn't attend the hearing to get the background. Seems to me that this might save a few bucks, sure, but is it worth it to deny those specific humanitarian services?
I support stiff fines for the employers of illegal immigrants and a standardized National ID card. But that's another blog from this hard-pressed liberal.
4 comments:
NPR ran a story on this a few weeks ago. It sounded pretty ugly and more than a little racist. Yes, I agree that people who don't pay taxes shouldn't leech benefits.
However, I strongly oppose a national id card system. Be prepared to be asked for your "papers" everywhere soon after.
Closed borders are an economic burden. I'm not talking about just the cost of guards and inspection, but crippling trade with Canada and Mexico. All this idiocy for no real increase in security.
I believe that if you can't provide your papers and truly are an illegal immigrant you should be tossed out immediately and the person who is employing you, renting to you should go to jail.
Employers and landlords would think twice about hiring illegal immigrants if they were looking at jail time over it.
Come into the country properly and participate properly.
I carry a drivers license, an insurance card, vehicle registration, 2 Nursing licenses, CPR card, Social Security card, debit card, credit card, picture of my sweetheart, exactly..umm $3.00, and a Dairy Queen Blizzard Free-Quency buy 6 get one free punch card (3 more punchs and a free one)in one wallet with a few other items with "no" difficulty or inconvenience at all for years.
When I'm pulled over I am asked for DL, Ins., and registration in which I always provide in haste with little effort because I keep them in one spot in front. No problem. When I apply for a Nursing job they ask for Nursing license, CPR, insurance card, and a few more things in which I present without objection. They make copies and give them back. It takes 5 or 10 minutes no problem.
For an illegal immigrant to be expected to carry an ID card is "not" asking to much. I dont understand the objection.
Now when the excessive requirements exceed the practicality of a wallet and we start migrating to something like RFID tags or implants, I may become a tab concerned. It does however seem that we're headed in that direction.
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