Immigration

The federal government must regain control of immigration policy by controlling our borders, improving record keeping for visas, requiring businesses to comply with legal hiring practices, and introducing legislation that will allow working immigrants to follow a clear and fair process.

Those who simply say, “We cannot reward bad behavior”, do not understand the complexities of placing the burden of immigration enforcement on state and local governments. The concept of “rounding up” 17 million immigrants would be another costly and ineffective response to the problem that would be passed on to local property taxpayers and local law enforcement.

I propose that we:

• Invest in border and port security.

• Promote an effective e-verify system for employers and raise penalties on employers who ignore the law.
• Create a payroll deduction system for workers who are earning citizenship status that would shift the burden from the general fund to cover immigration enforcement. They pay for the cost of their processing, a paycheck at a time!
• Enforce the laws and when a person who is arrested for a serious crime is found to be here without proper immigration status, he should be deported.
• Evaluate federal support for local schools which have been financially impacted.

One of the major headline issues during the past two years has been the growing realization that the U.S. immigration policies and porous borders have created a shadow population of illegal immigrants. For those on both sides of this issue, the fundamental concerns are frequently related to jobs and economic well-being. It surprised many, therefore, to see a quote from Congressman Roscoe Bartlett that seemed to dismiss the importance of this issue.

The Cumberland Times-News description of Bartlett’s visit to that paper last week included the following segment, “He [Bartlett] called Maryland’s brief foray into the illegal immigration debate “most interesting.” “It was just kind of an irrational concern that people had,” said Bartlett, 81 pitted against Dougherty, 46, a former Frederick mayor. “But I think the people’s concern about it exceeded the personal effect it had on them. That’s all abated now.”

In response Jennifer Dougherty noted, “It’s unfortunate when any politician describes the concerns of his constituents as ‘irrational’. We need to secure our borders, improve the visa program, and provide comprehensive, fair-minded immigration reform at the federal level. And we need people in Washington who listen to their constituents.”

As citizens, we support the rule of law, we want our laws to be enforced and we don’t like it when people get away with breaking the rules.  We support legal immigration.