You would think the federal government would appreciate a little help on the immigration issue right now.
Budget cuts being what they are, and an out of control border causing havoc and mayhem to the local citizenry, you’d think the feds would tell Arizona “Thanks for the help! Let us know who we can pick up.”
And of course, you’d be spectacularly wrong. Under the Obama Regime, the federal government has no interest in fixing the immigration problem with anything other than blanket amnesty (which of course only worsens the problem in the long term, as we have already seen post-1987). To the Obama Regime, this isn’t a problem to be fixed, but a Rahm Emanuelesque crisis to be taken advantage of.
So you get the insane situation where rather than enforce its own laws and its own borders, the federal government instead puts up signs warning the locals to stay out of portions of their own country due to rampant lawlessness (above).
Let me point to Beaufort County, South Carolina as evidence that the Arizona approach should be preferred to the federal government approach. Beaufort County, fed up with the federal government’s non-intervention into immigration enforcement, decided to do its own ordinance to cut back on illegal aliens, including fines for businesses that employ illegals.
On the other end of the state, York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant has his deputies trained under section 287(g) to handle immigration cases on their own. Beaufort County is also doing this. This will result in a drop to the crime rate in both of those communities.
And yes, South Carolina’s own immigration reform act has finally come completely into fruition this month, though the Obama Regime’s likely move there is to shut down the e-Verify system that the state relies on for businesses to verify workers and the law to be enforced.
So, it seems to me that there are three things that South Carolina and her communities can do on this immigration issue to clamp down, and tell the feds “Yes, we can.”
First, in addition to the previously passed bill, South Carolina needs to pass the Arizona law. This will accomplish two things: it will put us in a position to protect ourselves, and it will give Arizona (and other states contemplating similar actions) some cover to do the same. The feds can pick on one state far more easily than they can pick on 30. Let’s get other states passing Arizona’s immigration law. I know it will be difficult, but the State also needs to pass enough funding for SLED to enforce the law. This will pay for itself in the long run with reduced costs to our Medicaid and social welfare spending.
Second, South Carolina counties should immediately begin discussing how to bring the Beaufort County immigration ordinance to their county. I have a copy, if you need one – look me up. I’ll be sending copies to the Lexington County Council to see if we can get this law passed here. If every county raised moneys similar to the Beaufort tally, you’d see far less clamoring for state dollars. Sooner or later, businesses are going to figure out that hiring illegals isn’t the money making operation they hoped it was, and you’ll start to see a drop in citizen unemployment rates as well.
Finally, every county Sheriff in South Carolina should follow Sheriff Bryant’s lead and get their deputies trained under ICE’s 287(g) program to handle these cases. The problem of criminal illegal aliens is a serious one, and 287(g) is a serious response while it lasts. (I have no faith that the Obama regime won’t pull the plug on this eventually.)
This would be a serious three-tiered approach to stopping the illegal immigration influx into South Carolina, and an effective way to address unemployment, crime, and the looming budget crisis in our state. I hope our leaders will listen.
