Facts, not defamation
To the editor:
Responses to my letter to the editor do nothing to refute my claims. Here are some facts:
Illegal immigrants are thought to make up about 5 percent of the U.S. population. A quick web search shows statistic after statistic supporting my declaration that illegal immigrants are incarcerated at higher rates than others. For instance, the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform found that in fiscal year 2002, 33.6 percent of criminals sentenced in federal district courts under Federal Sentencing Guidelines were non-citizens, and 55 percent of these non-citizens were illegal aliens. In 2005, the Government Accountability Office reported that the percentage of criminal aliens in federal prisons was about 27 percent of the total inmate population from 2001 through 2004. A 2007 GAO study of 55,322 illegal aliens discovered that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about eight arrests per illegal alien
It is estimated that the state of Florida, in 2008, spent $3.8 billion on education, medical care and incarceration of illegal immigrants while illegals contributed only $1.6 billion in tax collections, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. If other expenditures were included, it would be clear the total costs incurred by Florida taxpayers would be much higher. Legalizing these people would do little to increase tax collections. Most beneficiaries of the 1986 amnesty had not become greater economic contributors after five years. Rather, when they became eligible to draw on social service programs, they became much more of a fiscal burden on the U.S. taxpayer at the federal, state and local level.
Our constitution does not say anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen. The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, a time when immigration laws did not exist, to protect the rights of native-born Black Americans. The Supreme Court later in 1884 stated to qualify children for birthright citizenship, parents must owe “direct and immediate allegiance” to the U.S. and be “completely subject” to its jurisdiction. In other words, they must be United States citizens.
As for my calling Barack Obama Emperor Obama, I think the title fits given his many unilateral actions. Presidents are subject to the law, emperors believe they are not. A federal judge in Pennsylvania has found parts of Obama’s new deportation amnesty to be unconstitutional and has accused him of usurping Congress’s power to make laws. We are a nation with laws for a reason; tolerance does not mean lawlessness.
I cannot see the benefit to our country and its current citizens from the addition of millions and millions of illegal immigrants.
Kathy Jones
Saint James City