SOLUTION/SMITH: The answer on immigration

The U.S. routinely awards green cards to more than a million legal immigrants each year. They play by the rules, and together with those who have come before them, now comprise the largest legal immigrant population in U.S. history. But to sustain this generous legal immigration policy, we must put an end to illegal immigration.

The solution is simple: enforce current law.

For years, concern about illegal immigration was confined to border states. Texans, for example, experienced the immediate impact of illegal immigration in our crowded schools, overburdened hospitals and strained police departments. We understand what many elected officials still don’t - rewarding lawbreakers with amnesty only encourages a new flood of illegal immigrants.

Today the impact of illegal immigration is not isolated in the Southern border states. Illegal immigration affects Americans from sea to shining sea and throughout our heartland.

With more than 11 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S. and hundreds of thousands more entering illegally each year, it is obvious that illegal immigration is a problem that must be addressed.

In fact, Congress did address it many years ago. It started in 1986 with the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Then, in 1996, Congress passed comprehensive immigration reform. Since then, we have passed even more laws. Unfortunately, both Republican and Democratic administrations have refused to enforce the laws.

In 1996, for example, Congress prohibited states and cities from maintaining policies that forbid law enforcement officials from informing federal immigration authorities about illegal immigrants.

Such policies have resulted in safe havens that make it easier for illegal immigrants, including criminal aliens, to live undetected in the U.S. Although these “sanctuary city” policies are illegal under federal law, neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the Department of Justice has ever challenged them.

Likewise, in 1996, Congress prohibited public colleges from giving preferential treatment to illegal immigrants. The law required colleges and universities that offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants to also offer in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizen students. But to date, the Department of Justice has not filed a single suit to stop the 10 states that violate this law.

More recently, in 2006, Congress called on the administration to secure the border with more than 850 miles of fencing along the southwest border. To date, only 375 miles of fencing have been constructed. Of that, only 218 miles are built to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the border on foot; the rest are vehicle barriers.

Failure to enforce these laws has contributed to the more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. There are, however, some recent bright spots.

In just the past two years, the administration has begun to focus on the job magnet that attracts illegal immigrants and is also working with state and local law enforcement authorities to identify and deport criminal aliens. Close to one-quarter of all federal prisoners are foreign born.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up its efforts against employers who hire illegal immigrants by relying on criminal prosecutions and the seizure of assets of companies that employ illegal immigrants.

Some 93,000 employers now participate in E-Verify, a program created by Congress that enables them to verify that workers are eligible to be hired.

The nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the illegal immigrant population may have declined by more than 1 million in the past year thanks, in part, to these immigration enforcement measures. News reports echo the sentiment. One news service reported that data “suggest that more Latin Americans are voluntarily heading back home, the apparent result of the U.S. economic downturn and anxiety generated by a federal crackdown on illegal immigration.”

Story Continues →