Center for Immigration Studies
At a time when 83% of Americans view government corruption as a very important problem, isn't it time that we stop fostering a culture of corruption by failing to control illegal immigration?
Most illegal aliens come from countries where corruption is rampant. In 2008, the average corruption score of the ten countries with the largest number of their citizens residing illegally in the United States was 3.43 out of a possible ten signifying a serious to rampant level of corruption.
Corruption is involved in virtually everything illegal aliens do. They either sneak into the United States or lie to consular and immigration officials in order to obtain visas and legal entry.
Once in the United States, they quickly commit felonies when they obtain and use fraudulent documents, perjure themselves on I-9 forms, and steal the identities of millions of American men, women and children in order to get jobs.
Illegal aliens have an exceptionally high incidence of drunk driving infractions. They drive without licenses and without auto insurance. Their advocates try to blackmail public officials into giving them driver's licenses by essentially telling them that "If you don't give us licenses, we will drive anyway and we won't buy auto insurance. We will have auto accidents and we will flee the scene. We may even kill you. So you had better give us what we want or else."
Apologists for illegal aliens reveal just how corrupting the system is when they cave in to this blackmail and blame American citizens for illegal alien crimes. Commenting on a proposal to repeal Utah's Driving Privilege Card for illegal aliens, a former Utah state legislator said "So if we repeal them [the Driving Privilege Cards] what we're going to do is we're going to make all these people drive illegally. They're not going to have insurance, so therefore when they hit somebody on the road they're just going to take off and run."
This corruption extends to law enforcement agencies that ignore the legal status of individuals as well as many serious crimes committed by illegal aliens in order to maintain good relations with the illegal immigrant community. Rather than upholding the law and prosecuting and deporting drunk drivers, identity thieves, tax cheats, and a myriad of other illegal alien criminals, law enforcement officials ignore legal status and give illegal aliens a pass on many crimes in order to gain their trust.
In Utah, at an immigration rally, the state's Attorney General went so far as to publicly tell the illegal aliens present, 75% of whom were likely using false Social Security numbers along with identities belonging to tens of thousands of Utah children, that he would not arrest them.
Sanctuary cities offer protection to illegal aliens who are committing serious felonies including drug and human trafficking, identity theft and gang related violent crime. Universities allow illegal aliens to benefit from in-state tuition in spite of the fact that many of these students are committing serious felonies in order to get jobs to pay for their tuition.
Religious leaders actively court illegal aliens. They tell them in effect, "Join with us and go forth and continue to commit document fraud, perjury on I-9 forms, and identity theft in order to get jobs. Drive without licenses and insurance. Corrupt other people's medical records with life threatening consequences. Lie and cheat every day as you go about your lives in the United States."
These spiritual leaders put the interests of illegal aliens ahead of the rule of law and the American men, women, and innocent children who are the victims of their crimes. This is not only corrupt; it is cruel to both the illegal aliens who learn that crime is acceptable in the eyes of the church and to American citizens who are the victims of their crimes.
The corruption extends to the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service. Both of these governmental entities place the collection of taxes ahead of protecting American citizens from illegal alien driven identity theft and document fraud even though they know this is occurring. As a former director of the IRS said: "We want your money whether you are here legally or not and whether you earned it legally or not."
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The corruption extends to banks that cater to illegal aliens in order to enhance their bottom lines. It extends to chambers of commerce and to the world's largest professional human resource association as they actively work to prevent the federal and state governments from requiring employers to use E-Verify that would protect millions of American children from illegal alien driven identity theft. It extends to the corrupt landscape contractor, to the family that hires an illegal housekeeper and even to those of us who do business with companies that refuse to use E-Verify.
There are many things that we must do if we are to effectively address corruption in America. A good starting point would be to end the culture of corruption that surrounds illegal immigration by enforcing our borders, requiring all employers to use E-Verify, aggressively prosecuting all illegal alien driven document fraud and identity theft, and by refusing to succumb to blackmail by illegal aliens.
-------------------------------------------------
The above editorial is from the Blog at The Center for Immigration Studies.
The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. It is the nation's only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States. It is the Center's mission to expand the base of public knowledge and understanding of the need for an immigration policy that gives first concern to the broad national interest. The Center is animated by a pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted.
