California Conservative

Show He Is Serious About Stopping Illegal Aliens

Last week Governor Schwarzenegger complained that the Federal government was not doing its job in keeping our border secure. He noted how porous the borders are, drug dealers, terrorists and illegal aliens get into our nation with only minor difficulties. Arnold is right, the purpose of the Federal government is to protect the borders, not create amnesty programs when you fail to do the job.

But, local, county and state government agencies can also take a hand in this issue. Just as an open border is a magnet to those wanting to leave their home country, but not follow the laws of the United States, the policies of local, county and state government act as magnets due to the benefits and lax enforcement of law already on the books.

Therefore, since Governor Schwarzenegger is concerned about the Federal government not enforcing federal laws, how about the Guv appoint a Cabinet officer or other state government official to make sure state laws are enforced? Let me list just some of the laws that could be enforced. If they were enforced, the Federal government would not have to deport anyone–the illegal aliens would leave of their own accord.

LAWS THAT THE GOVERNOR COULD ENFORCE, TO SHOW HE IS SERIOUS ABOUT CONTROLLING ILLEGAL ACTIVITY IN CALIFORNIA

1. ENFORCE THE TAX LAWS…..Most employers of illegal aliens do not pay income tax. Have the Franchise Tax Board audit firms, like construction and landscaping firms, are using illegal aliens and not paying state income tax. Bring criminal action against the finance people, human resources and top management for not paying income taxes for illegal alien employees.

2. ENFORCE THE WORKERS COMPENSATION LAWS……like taxes, most employers of illegal aliens do not pay into a workers comp fund. This is illegal in California. Have the appropriate state agency audit firms, such as major hotels and large restaurants. Bring criminal action against the mangers of each facility, the finance people and benefits department for failure to pay. Publish the names of each arrested and how much other workers are paying to cover the costs not paid by these firms.

3. ENFORCE THE WORKER SAFETY RULES….the recent raid on IFCO, the pallet maker in Riverside, showed that the working conditions were massively unsafe. Cal-OSHA should be investigating the safety of the workers. I would expect that unions would also be promoting safety in the workplace. I would expect that Hispanic organizations would not want the illegal aliens to work in severely unsafe conditions. I am positive the Governor does not want any human beings working in unsafe conditions. So, the Guv should be using state agencies to investigate unsafe work places.

4. ENFORCE THE LAWS AGAINST DRIVING WITHOUT A LICENSE…..Recently Senator Cedillo tried to change this law, so that police could not impound cars driven by folks without a license. That got stopped. His reason was that police were impounding cars belonging to illegal aliens, and they were losing cars, a major asset. Instead, the Highway Patrol could put up roadblocks checking for two items–drivers licenses and insurance coverage. Under California law, you must have both. Impound the cars. No cars can leave the impound until proof of insurance and a valid drivers license is produced. Illegal aliens will not be able to do either in California.

5. CROSS CHECK THE STATE TAX PAYERS WITH THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION…Social Security has a database, per the stories about IFCO, of employees with phony social security numbers. This will give agencies businesses to check to enforce number 1 and 2.

6. ENFORCE THE RULES IN THE STATE AFFORDABLE HOUSING GRANTS..rules of the state say that acceptance of the money means the accepting agency will not violate the laws. Laws are very clear that affordable housing funds go to citizens and those eligible to be residents of the United States. The City of Los Angeles specifically disallows asking if the receivers of affordable housing are eligible due to citizenship. Many of the recipients in LA are illegal aliens.

7. ENFORCE STATE BUILDING AND SAFETY RULES… by not allowing housing funds to cities or counties that do not enforce local rules on the number of unrelated resident in a single housing unit. This will stop the over crowding and force cities to get involved as well–they want the money, now let them enforce the rules and laws.

8. ENFORCE THE STATE BANKING LAWS…Wells Fargo and several other banks are pursuing illegal aliens as customers for loans. The more loans illegal aliens take on homes or cars, the less money available for honest citizens–which means the interest rates goes up for the good folks. State and Federal law says you can not harbor or assist those violating the law. Banking codes say you can not give loans to those using the funds to violate the law. Enforce these laws. Quickly the housing market by illegal aliens would dry up. And, the cost of housing will drop by a small amount, with less people chasing the homes.

I know the Governor is sincere when he says he wants to uphold the law and he takes his oath of office seriously. The Governor has said on several occasions over the past few weeks that the illegal alien program is in need of attention. We all know that the minimum cost of illegal aliens to Californians is $9 billion–which is approximately the structural deficit of the state. He does not have to ask the legislature for one new law in order to enforce the current laws. By doing so, it will send a message to corporate California that the hiring of illegal aliens is a serious offense, that criminal action will be taken against executives that use this hiring to exploit people. A few newspaper stories about the pillars of our community arrested for exploiting illegal alines, and maybe it will stop.

For months I have suggested governor Schwarzenegger needs a Republican agenda to get GOP’ers to vote for him. The above agenda would go a long way to getting the vote, solving our fiscal crisis and show young people that it is not OK to break the law.

IF YOU KNOW OF OTHER STATE LAWS, NOT FEDERAL, THAT THE GOVERNOR IS NOT ENFORCING, BUT SHOULD, PLEASE WRITE IT DIRECTLY ON THE BLOG. ALSO, PLEASE SEND THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS AROUND THE STATE AND NATION. LET’S START A MOVEMENT TO HAVE LOCAL OFFICIALS ENFORCE THE LAWS ON THE BOOKS. NO LONGER CAN THEY SAY THIS IS A FEDERAL PROBLEM, NOT THEIR’S.

In a few days I will write another story, this time on how local governments could enforce their laws to cause illegal alines to leave the area on their own.

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Steve Frank is the publisher of California Political News and Views and a Senior Contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org. He is also a consultant currently working on gambling issues and advising other consultants on policy and coalition building.

Read more of his work here or at his blog.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 at 10:10 am and is filed under Arnold, Author: Steve Frank, California, Immigration, Mexico, Op-Ed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.