California Conservative

I could just scream when I hear a Mayor, Supervisor or city council member declare that they “wish I could do something about illegal alien, but it is a Federal problem.” They tell us immigration is a federal issue, that border control is up to Washington, not their community. And, they are right. Regardless of the President sending the National Guard to the borders, border control can only be done under federal law.

Yet, local communities, by not enforcing their own laws, already on the books, act as “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens. Just as the Governor of California can not complain that the Feds are not enforcing the laws due to his inability to enforce our Workers Comp, tax withholding, OSHA and other laws, local government has laws they can enforce to stop being magnets for illegal aliens.

Mayor Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita, and the next Assembly member from the 38th AD, presented this plan to the City of Santa Clarita city council and it passed, 5-0. It is a good start in the effort to let illegal aliens know that we enforce all of our laws. Employers, property owners and citizens can do a lot to stop this abuse of taxpayers, students and the elderly. The time has come for government to enforce its’ own laws. By doing so, illegal aliens will have no place to live, no place to loiter to get jobs and no place to work if the employer is a government vendor.

Mayor Smyth presented this plan:

1. No vendor to the City can hire illegal aliens. If they are found to have illegal aliens working for them, they lose their city contract immediately. This means construction firms, Staples, food service people, etc. Hire an illegal alien and you can not do business with City Hall.

2. Enforce the trespassing laws. Promote property owners to file charges with the Sheriffs Department (Santa Clarita contracts with the LA County Sheriff for law enforcement). This allows strip mall owners to get rid of illegal aliens loitering on their property.

3. Enforce the loitering laws in the city. This stops the illegal aliens from standing on street corners, stopping cars, negotiating for jobs, etc.

4. Enforce the health and safety codes already on the books limiting the number of unrelated people that can live in one apartment.

5. Have the Sheriffs Department check the immigration status of arrestee’s, just like Costa Mesa does.

If the Governor enforces the State laws, if the President secures the borders and if local government enforce local codes, illegal aliens will not have jobs, no place to live and employers can choice between jail or hiring honest citizens and legal residents.

I am hearing a strong rumor that due to the Presidents’ speech tonight in re: illegal aliens, the Governor has moved up the date he will appear at the border, with his own plan for illegal aliens. It might happen as soon as Friday of this week. The President will be on the border in Arizona, Thursday, which can cause changes in the governors schedule.

When listening to both the President and the Governor, here are three items to look for:

1. Does the plan include some form of a “path” or “legitimacy” for those who have violated our immigration laws.

2. Do they detail efforts the State or Federal government will use to take illegal aliens off the welfare rolls, food and housing vouchers, enforcement of tax and safety laws?

3. Will they create policies that unify citizens by speaking a common language, promote government forms in English only, since Americans speak English and naturalized citizens must prove they speak English.

Short of this, or the promotion of any form of “path” or legitimacy” will cause weeks of denouncement by volunteers and donors that feel the Governor or the President don’t understand the severity of the problem.

This is the week that could decide the November elections in California and nationally. The issue is illegal aliens, the right answer will energize the base–amnesty–which is what a “path’ really is–could cause a repeat of 1964 or 1974 for the GOP. We can not afford a Democrat Congress or Senate. We can not afford a Democrat governor in California. The choice is up to the President and the Governor.

RELATED:
Gov. Schwarzenegger Could Enforce Laws

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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.

Technorati Tags: Homeland Security, Immigration, Border Security, Mexico, Bush

This entry was posted on Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Articles, Author: Steve Frank, 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.