Arizona congressman J. D. Hayworth on immigration

National Review Online ^ | April 03, 2006 | Kathryn Jean Lopez

[EnglishOnly]

“If Congress should ever send a guest-worker plan to the president for enactment, I think it may just seal our doom come November.”

So warns Arizona Republican J. D. Hayworth, now in his sixth term in Congress, in an interview with National Review Online Editor Kathryn Lopez. Hayworth is the author of Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and the War on Terror, written with Joseph Eule.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: How bad is illegal immigration in Arizona?

Congressman J. D. Hayworth: It could not be much worse. Every night thousands of illegal aliens cross into Arizona. Most simply use it as a transportation hub, but many also stay to the detriment of our state. It costs Arizona about $750 million to educate the children of illegal immigrants and $400 million for nonreimbursed medical care.

[Irontank]

G-d bless Congressman Hayworth

[freepertoo]

My frustration is, they see it...when is something going to be done about it? After even more have crossed the border?

[jjones9853]

“If Congress should ever send a guest-worker plan to the president for enactment, I think it may just seal our doom come November.”

I think J.D. gets it. To bad McCain doesn't.

[i_dont_chat]

What has happened to the response time on Free Republic?

Mine has slowed down to a crawl.

Anyone else?

[bill1952]

> costs Arizona about $750 million to educate the children of illegal immigrants and $400 million for non reimbursed medical care.

No, no, no. All of the OBL butt boys here have told us repeatedly that immigration is good for the economy

Hell, we can't live without it. /s
Someone ping Dane to set this congressman right!

[george wythe]

Hayworth wants to make illegal aliens into felons.

Tancredo does not want to make illegal aliens into felons.

Who's right?

[shield]

We need to put our military on the border until a wall can be built from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. It's obvious even when illegals are spotted very few are picked up. A Wall is the only solution.

[HumanitysEdge]

Today you march, tomorrow you vote?
While you demand I learn Spanish
Or you’ll yell racist and lunge for my throat

You demand rights and citizenship from me
While waving the large flag
Of the country your risked your life to flee

You say want what is your right
While I pay for your children’s schooling and births
And we watch as MS-13 and our police fight

You shout that you came and that you should stay
While my money pays for your food stamps
And you and your friends take my friends’ jobs away

My taxes rise to pay for your children born here
Their schooling, their births, every trip to the emergency room
And left to run wild gangs add to our fear

I say I can’t pay for everything you demand and you say I had “the race”
While the poor kid from Oklahoma can’t afford college
When the kid from Mexico gets into college and funding in his place

Break our laws with your hand out for more
For welfare, for anchor babies, and demanding of jobs
When ever more jobs leave our own shore

How can we be equal when we import poverty and destroy law and order?
How can we afford the burden that they and their children bring?
And ask those who are raped and murdered because we have an open border.

For the black guy who loses his job and the Canadian who waited his turn
And the Chinese told to learn Spanish and the Indians who earned their visas
If we give Mexican illegals amnesty, what is the lesson THEY learn?

[george76]

The Mexican constitution does not allow foreigners to participate in the political affairs of the country.

That ban applies to participation in demonstrations.

[Shermy]

Why don't you give us your opinion?

[IamConservative]

Hayworth wants to make illegal aliens into felons. Tancredo does not want to make illegal aliens into felons. Who's right?

I personally don't think it matters. Being an illegal is already illegal. This is an enforcement and economic issue. I think making it a felony only provokes the fight, it does nothing to address the problem.

Build the fence. Remove the economic advantage for illegals and employers of illegals to engage in the activity.

[george wythe]

Being an illegal is already illegal. This is an enforcement and economic issue. I think making it a felony only provokes the fight, it does nothing to address the problem.

Thank you for your opinion.

I tend to agree with you. Last week, CNN broadcast footage of a patriot calling ICE and CBP to report illegals, and the federal bureaucrats told him that they don't care.

Congress can pass 10,000 news laws, but who's gonna enforce them?

[D-Chivas]

Being an illegal is already illegal. This is an enforcement and economic issue. I think making it a felony only provokes the fight, it does nothing to address the problem. Build the fence. Remove the economic advantage for illegals and employers of illegals to engage in the activity.

I agree completely.

[IamConservative]

If it cost an American company the same to hire a citizen as it cost to hire an illegal, which do you think they would hire?

Keep in mind "cost" is more than salary. Cost include risk of being caught hiring illegals, interruption of business, possible IRS problems, possible increased fed and local taxes to support the illegals, etc. Lot of room to implement enforceable laws among these cost factors.

Level the economic playing field and the unskilled illegals will self-deport. It costs much less to be poor in Mexico. Of course, stopping the invasion immediately is step one.

[ANGGAPO]

My vote in November is based on how the Republicans in Congress respond to the illegal immigrant crisis. (No amnesty in any form. Out of our country now. Guest worker program that starts at the front door when you can speak English, read and write. Then get in the back of the line. No other way.)

[Northern Yankee]

I like this guy!

[Shuttle Shucker]

The more pressure we keep on Mexico, immigration-wise, the more reformers
inside of Mexico can be emboldened and empowered to scale back monopolists'
abuses down there which keep our own country flooded with economic refugees.
Here's an interesting new thread on new legal reform progress that finally
emerged in Mexico I think as a result of immigration reform's failure:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1611677/posts

We can make a difference for our sake, and their's as well. Isn't it the
neighborly thing to do?

[JoeFromSidney]

One of the things that distisnguishes America from the Europe that most of our ancestors came from is the idea of the dignity of labor. A job might be hard, or dirty, or dangerous, or some combination, but they were never considered undignified. The idea that "there are jobs Americans won't do" is a direct denial of the idea that labor had an inherent dignity despite unpleasant features of the job. The day we deny the dignity of labor, we have lost something that was intrinsically American.

[HiJinx]

J.D. Hayworth Ping!