LOVELAND 9-12 PROJECT LEGISLATION COMMITTEE POSITION PAPER

SUBJECT: Illegal Immigration and Border Security
DATE: September 21, 2009

Immigration has gotten out of control in the United States. Immigration laws are not being enforced, our borders are not being protected, and it is negatively impacting the quality of life in the United States. The Loveland 9-12 Project takes the following positions on immigration:

1. We support the rule of law, and illegal immigration violates numerous provisions of the U.S. Code.

Defense

2. We believe in a strong national defense, which includes strengthening our borders.

3. We support the construction of the border fence between the United States and Mexico. We believe that the construction should be accelerated, and completion of the border fence should be accomplished no later than September 2011.

Financial Burden

4. We oppose higher taxation.

5. We believe illegal aliens are an enormous burden on our schools, welfare programs, social services programs, medical services, prisons, and negatively impact the quality of life in the United States.

6. We support the cessation of all governmental incentives and rewards given to illegal aliens. Governmental incentives include medical care (other than emergency and life-saving procedures), Medicare, Medicaid, bi-lingual education, Social Security benefits, welfare benefits, food stamps, AFDC, housing, and the earned income credit, among other benefits.

7. We support penalizing sanctuary cities that provide aid and comfort to illegal aliens, and refuse to enforce existing immigration laws, until those cities terminate their sanctuary status and behavior.

Paths to Citizenship

8. We believe that immigrants should be admitted to the United States based on what they can add to the country, not what the country can do for them. Traditionally, immigration was based on the ability of the immigrant to work. Congress changed that in 1957 to prioritize admission for family members of immigrants already in the U.S., regardless of job skills. Now, less than 10% of immigrants are admitted based on their job skills. In addition, legal immigration has ballooned from the historical average of less than 250,000 annually to more than 1,000,000, due to family member immigration (or “chain migration”).

9. We strongly oppose amnesty for illegal aliens, and strongly oppose accelerated citizenship for illegal aliens over lawful immigrants who follow the rule of law.

10. We strongly support ending automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens who are born in the United States (“anchor babies”). There are an estimated 300,000-350,000 anchor babies born each year.

11. We support ending chain migration of extended family members. Chain migration is the practice of legally admitting family members of immigrants already in the United States. While allowing nuclear family members of legal immigrants is acceptable, the practice of allowing extended family members is contrary to our country’s best interests.

12. We believe that immigrants can only be successful when they speak English. Therefore, we strongly support laws that designate English as the official language of the United States, and each of the 50 states. To date, 31 states have adopted English as the official language. We support the effort to adopt English as the official language in the remaining 19 states, as well as by the federal government. All government documents should be printed in English only, and translators should be provided by the non-English speaking person, not the government or private business. We oppose any federal mandates that require states, private businesses or individuals to provide translators.

Enforcement and Deportation

13. We support the expulsion of illegal aliens from the United States.

14. We support increased enforcement of immigration laws by all branches of law enforcement—federal, state, county and local.

15. We support a requirement that all law enforcement agencies verify the immigration status of foreigners they come in contact with, and expulsion of illegal aliens wherever and whenever found.

16. We support the immediate expulsion of criminal illegal aliens as soon as they are released from prison.

Employment

17. We support the mandatory use of E-Verify by all employers to ensure that all employees are lawfully in the United States and have the proper approvals to work here legally.

18. We support sharply curtailing the number of work visas issued to foreigners. The unemployment rate in the United States currently stands at 9.7%. We believe that lawful citizens of the United States are entitled to jobs before illegal aliens, foreigners with work visas, and foreign guest workers.