We Must Demagnetize Tennessee
June 3, 2005
Illegal immigration. It may not be at the heart of all the nation's ills but it certainly is a part, in varying degrees, of almost every problem we face today. School budgets are strained because of the added cost of educating students who don't speak English. Federal stats show that somewhere around a third of our prison population nationwide is made up of foreign-born convicts, many of them illegal. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing in part because of the heavy burden of treating illegal aliens. Many show up at emergency rooms for routine ailments, charging the exorbitant costs to the taxpayers. Many others are on TennCare and Medicaid equivalent programs across the country.
The war on terror abroad could likely take a direct hit if and when a terrorist sneaks across our border illegally and attacks American citizens with a nuclear or biological weapon. Recent Homeland Security stats reveal that some 100,000 illegals arrested at our southern border are from countries other than Mexico. Many of these illegals are from terrorist hotbeds like Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.
Aside from the recently passed Real ID Act, that requires states to comply with federal guidelines prohibiting the issuance of driver's licenses to illegal aliens, little has been done to combat the problem on the national level. That's why it's time for Tennessee to act unilaterally to protect itself from this eminent and growing problem.
We have become a magnet for illegal aliens with employers openly flaunting immigration laws and government agencies falling all over themselves to accommodate illegal aliens. I have urged our general assembly to do something. Watchdog groups in the state have lobbied our lawmakers to pass common-sense legislation to address the illegal immigration problem. The general assembly just concluded its business without addressing any of these major issues.
It's time for this nonsense to stop. It's time for us to act. It's time to demagnetize Tennessee!
In the spirit of the now-famous Tennessee Tax Revolt that, with its horn-honking masses, forced lawmakers to listen, we are congregating like-minded, fed-up citizens in Nashville on June 9 to take a stand. Demagnetize Tennessee: Stop Illegal Immigration Now is shaping up to be a watershed moment in the fight against illegal immigration. We in Tennessee can't control our nation's borders but we most assuredly can do something about those illegal aliens coming and staying in our state.
The approach is quite simple. I'm proposing that the general assembly pass laws imposing a $25,000 fine on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. Currently federal law imposes a fine of up to $10,000 but it starts at a pitiful $250 and is rarely enforced. The primary excuse I hear from local and state law enforcement is they have no jurisdiction over federal immigration laws and are, in fact, instructed not to arrest illegals on immigration charges. The solution is a state law that gives them the authority many of them crave to enforce the law. If they're reluctant to enforce federal laws, they will have full authority to enforce state immigration laws.