Illegal Immigration: Who Profits, Who Pays? (WHO PROFITS MUST PAY

Four hundred thousand strong and they keep coming, drawn by the jobs that North Carolina employers eagerly offer illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants mow our lawns, paint our homes, watch our children and cook our food for bottom wages. Doing so, they provide consumers with affordable services that people in most other industrialized countries can only dream of.

But as the wave of immigration continues and the benefits grow, the costs of illegal immigration also mount and become more painful. The losers in the United States' immigration-system breakdown are numerous. They include: * Taxpayers who foot the cost of educating children of illegal immigrants. * Hospitals that serve thousands of uninsured newcomers. They absorb some of the cost but pass much of it along to their paying customers and taxpayers. * Legal blue-collar workers, whose wages are depressed by competition from immigrants willing to work for less. So far, however, the federal government has chosen to look the other way -- and many businesses are glad it has.

Businesses are the biggest beneficiary of illegal immigration and are the reason unauthorized foreigners are here in the first place. Some employers say they have difficulty verifying immigrants' legal status, others that pressing labor demands force them to flout the law.

Paul, who has employed two illegal immigrants from Mexico for more than seven years, agreed to speak provided he and his business were not fully identified. "If we don't want them here, why doesn't the government send them back?" he said. "The government lets them cross the border, so why should we worry about it?"

Taking into account thousands who arrived from Central America and other Latin American countries, the Hispanic portion of the state's illegal immigrant population is probably at least 80 percent.

Recall - 5 years ago California had announced that illegal immigrants were costing $45 billion a year - before this fact was suppressed in the media.

But costs to the States aren't the only costs. Who will pay for the increased border patrol and policing that amnesty will call for? Who will pay for the major bureaucratic arm of Government charged with registering and administering an amnesty program?

Guess who.

But why shouldn't the beneficiaries of all of this low- cost labor pay? The cost of setting up and opening an account for each illegal will cost an estimated $4,200. each. Why shouldn't benefiting employers pay an initial $2,000 of the cost? Plus pay a maintenence fee of $1,000 per illegal per year employed? This will partially recompense the federal government for some costs.

And states may also choose to get some of their costs covered in this way. And to make it work - put teeth into such a recompensatory effort, put jail time and heavy fines into enforcement provisions.

It seems to this writer that the only workable solution at this point is to enforce against those who have been benefiting from the illegality. RHW 5-30-06

"If we don't want them here, why doesn't the government send them back?" he said. "The government lets them cross the border, so why should we worry about it?"

This man is correct. Most in the government does seem to believe that breaking immigration laws are acceptable behavior. Even the WH says it's A-OK.

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