Heart, Brain and Cain Solution to Immigration Problems.

Heart, Brain and Cain Solution to Immigration Problems.

By~Laurie Pruser-Stockman

How can you separate the illegal immigration problem from the economic, unemployment or national security issues?  If you can, I’m missing something. 


Let’s look at TEXAS.  In Texas there are an estimated 1.6 million illegal immigrants are in Texas, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.  An estimated 60k babies are born to illegal in Texas yearly.  Since 2002, the births of these children to mothers without adequate financial resources are covered by the U.S. taxpayer; since of course the child is now a legal U.S. Citizen.

 

Unemployment is higher than it’s been in decades in TEXAS as well as the rest of our country.  According to the numbers released by the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus, Texas is the only state where the number of illegal immigrants in the workforce exceeds the number of unemployed citizens and that was in 2010.   81% of the job creations in TEXAS since 2007 have gone to illegal immigrants.  Rick Perry has used the job growth in TEXAS to substantiate his bid for the presidency.  But 81% of these jobs have gone to illegal immigrants.  And from 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers in Texas rose from 221,000 to 550,000, an increase of nearly 150 percent.  In my opinion, since the number of illegal immigrants holding jobs in TEXAS exceeds the number of unemployed it stands to reason that these people may very well also be minimum wage earners, they very well may be heads of families and probably have parented one or more children being born in TEXAS during their stay. So it also stands to reason that they have used Medicaid and food stamps. 

 

But wait, illegals can’t get Medicaid; right?  They can’t get food stamps; right? No. legally they cannot but their children born here can. In Texas, 54% of legal immigrants and 79% of illegal immigrants receive welfare assistance, with illegal immigrants generally receiving benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children, according to a study written by a think tank that favors reducing immigration into the U.S.  The myth that illegals are not receiving and benefitting from government programs is greatly exaggerated since most illegals participate based upon their children’s status as U.S. citizens. Overall, Texas tied with California and New York for the second highest immigrant welfare rates behind Arizona.  One-third of these households have a head of household that is not a high school graduate. So what welfare programs are these illegals benefitting from?  The welfare programs which were analyzed in this report include Supplemental Security income for low income elderly and disabled, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Women, Infants and Children food program, free/reduced school lunch and breakfast programs, food stamps, Medicaid, public housing and rent subsidies. 

Education:  What is the cost of educating these illegal immigrant children in TEXAS?  That’s more difficult to define since there needs to be a distinction between those brought here by their parents and those born here.  In 2009, Immigration Reform Coalition of TEXAS estimates that illegal immigration costs the state $4.5 billion to $6 billion a year and amount mostly spent on educating their children.  In 2006, Lone Star Foundation issued a report which found the costs of educating children of unauthorized immigrants aren’t offset by the estimated $1 billion a year in tax revenues the state collects from their parent, making such families a burden to the state of Texas.

So what about national security?  In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security states that 331k people from countries OTHER THAN MEXICO have been apprehended trying to cross the Southern land border of the U.S.A.  These individuals came from virtually every country in the world, including some with whom we have an adversarial relationship, such as Communist China, Iran and North Korea.  Former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security; James Loy confirmed in 2004 the seriousness of lack of border security.  According to Mr. Loy, “ Al Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons.”   Two retired Army generals commissioned to conduct a study of the border violence by the TEXAS LEGISLATURE and paid for by the Texas Departments of Agriculture and Public Safety concluded that       “along both sides of the Texas-Mexico border are tantamount to living in a warzone in which civil authorities, law enforcement agencies as well as citizens are under attack around the clock.”  Of course this report has been mocked by the Obama administration who not that many of the witnesses interviewed were not identified.  Perhaps this will clarify why those witnesses chose to remain anonymous:  “The situation is so bad that owners of a ranch in Brooks County packed up and left their 38k acre ranch because the area has become, as they described it, a war zone.  Their home had been broken into, their land littered with garbage and the distinct sounds of gunfire could be heard from their front porch day and night.”  Brooks County isn’t a border county but is on the corridor that these criminals use to smuggle, guns and drugs.   Brooks County spent $260k performing autopsies on unidentified bodies in 2010.  The grisly discoveries are become an all-too-common occurrence. 

General McCaffry, (one of the generals commissioned to produce this report) says a fence would be a helpful addition to an increase in personnel.  “… Fencing does have a role to play”.

 

 

Rick Perry says that those of us who oppose giving illegals in Texas in state tuition as Texas residents to our colleges are “heartless”.  I disagree.  This residency status costs us taxpayer money that otherwise would be used to educate legal residents of Texas.  According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, these student also may and often do qualify for state grants, loans and individual known as institutional aid from the specific universities.  As of March 2010, 22,697 illegals have benefited from the Texas Dream act which Rick Perry supports.  Who’s making sure that these kids are following through on their requirements to gain this status and assistance?  No one.  Rick Perry said that the Texas Education Association is but in a statement from TEA, they deny that and state they do not have the resources to do anything like it. 
The Dallas Morning News interviewed a young woman who benefitted from this program but hasn’t managed to become a citizen so she cannot work as the nurse she’s been trained to be.  In what way has this law benefitted her?  She’s still here illegally and she’s still unemployed. 

Rick Perry would have us to believe that we both supplement their education dollars and give them preferential treatment to attend our colleges or they won’t attend and thereby will become wards of the state on our welfare rolls.  That simply cannot be proven and well, unfortunately for Mr. Perry; one may be on welfare and a college student in TEXAS.  Now he’s given them Texas residency status as well though. 

I believe that Rick Perry has failed to do what he could have done.  It took years before the Voter ID bill was passed, how much influence Perry used to have this passed is unclear.  What is clear is that although he put the anti-sanctuary cities bill in the last session; he did only that.  He did little else.  Perry’s criticism of Arizona’s immigration laws is disturbing to me as well.  Perry said, “It would not be in the right direction for Texas.”   He goes on to blame the federal government, “…As the debate on immigration reform intensifies, the focus must remain on border security and the federal government’s failure to adequately protect our borders.  Securing our border is a federal responsibility, but it is a Texas problem, and it must be addressed before comprehensive immigration reform is discussed.”  Comprehensive Immigration Reform????

Okay. . So what does Herman Cain have to say on the matter of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”? 

“... weak borders have caused a compounding problem of terrorists assimilating with illegal immigrants, crossing the border with them and entering the U.S.   Illegal immigration also puts a tremendous strain on America’s entitlement and Healthcare systems.” 

“Protecting our Nation’s sovereignty should be a paramount concern of those elected to lead us, not an afterthought or a reaction once the problem becomes even worse.  Taking a stand on the issue does not  mean one lacks compassion, but instead, that one respects the rule of law and the importance of not becoming a lawless nation.”

 

Mr. Cain has said often and clearly,

1.Yes, we must secure the border with whatever means necessary.

• 2. Enforce the laws that are there.

3. Promote the path to citizenship that's already there. We have a path to citizenship for illegal aliens. It's called legal immigration.

4. I happen to agree with empowering the states and allow them to deal with that issue. If we work on the right problem, we will be able to solve it.

“… in the case of immigration, we've got four problems that we need to work on simultaneously.We can have high fences and wide open doors, all at the same time.”