Illinois needs to change loose immigration policy

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Updated: January 23, 2012 4:06AM

In September, Alabama enacted the nation’s toughest immigration policy while Illinois went in the opposite direction, toward the Midwest’s most lenient policy.

As Alabama discovered, the cost of an open-door policy mounts as the number of immigrants seeking refuge and employment weighs on a state’s budget. Illinois’ generous policy is costing taxpayers millions each year.

In 2009, Illinoisans paid out about $51 million to cover health care for more than 53,000 undocumented children registered in Rod Blagojevich’s All Kids health care program. Because the federal government has not adopted an equally benevolent policy, 100 percent of the cost of All Kids falls on the state’s already collapsing budget.

But the open door is not just for health care.

In Illinois, university students who are children of illegal aliens are given in-state tuition discounts. Cities such as Chicago and counties such as Cook are immigration “sanctuary” regions, where it’s illegal for law enforcement to ask during arrests whether those arrested have current immigration documents.

Then in May, Gov. Pat Quinn declared that Illinois State Police would no longer cooperate with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in enforcing federal law, making Illinois an unofficial sanctuary state.

Dr. Rob Sobhani, author of a book soon to be released, “Press 2 for English: Fix Immigration, Save America” asked a question after I outlined Illinois’ immigration policy for him: What’s the local Catholic archdiocese’s position on immigration?

I told him that, for the most part, the Chicago Archdiocese is sympathetic and stands with immigration activists, including those promoting amnesty for illegals.

Sobhani quickly responded that there’s a way to fix Illinois’ immigration policy — change the countries from where illegals are coming.

“The people escaping Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and coming to Chicago and Illinois deserve much better from the Catholic Church. Why?” Sobhani said. “Justice is to fight corruption in Mexico and El Salvador. Justice is for priests to stand up to the corrupt politicians in Mexico, in Central and South America and demand they do justice for their own people.”

“We are to love our neighbors, and our neighbors are the world,” he said, “so that would mean we should invite the world into Illinois? I really wonder if the Vatican would like the idea of being overrun by billions and billions of people, I don’t think so. The Catholic Church should demand justice for Mexicans in Mexico and Peruvians in Peru.”

Secondly, Sobhani, a second-generation Iranian, said open-door immigration contributes to the despairingly high unemployment rate of 40 percent among black American youth.

“What the politicians of Illinois are doing is relegating blacks to third-class citizenship,” the former Georgetown University professor said. “In the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, blacks made up the labor force alongside whites. Then in 1986, politicians decided not to enforce the federal immigration laws and we had desperate people begin to come over the borders from these corrupt countries, and that trend, unfortunately, has continued.”

That 1986 policy change was made during Ronald Reagan’s second presidential term, one of the most controversial moves Reagan made while in the White House.

Hard-working, God-fearing Mexicans deserve better than to live off the wages they make now and to be separated from their families, Sobhani said.

But his assessment of the situation from afar provides little hope for real change in Illinois. It’s politicians from both parties using immigration policy to pander for votes and political power that has led to the current disastrous situation.

“And Barack Obama has shown no leadership on this issue. Dictators stay in power through the barrel of a gun. Politicians stay in power through giving handouts. That’s the only difference,” Sobhani said.

He also suggested that English be made America’s official language.

“No more ballots in other languages,” Sobhani said. “If you come to America, you’ve got to vote in English, you’ve got to speak English. It is absolutely un-American to not ask for English to be the official language. It’s the one glue that holds our diverse nation together.”

That’s unlikely to happen, I told him, because a close political ally of Obama, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (4th) is working hard to pull Obama in the opposite direction — more toward immigrant tolerance and amnesty than assimilation and adoption of American traditional values.

“Luis Gutierrez has good intentions, but he is wrong,” Sobhani said,

Puerto Rico and Mexico are beautiful countries with tremendous natural resources, and their governments should be accountable for allowing their countries to deteriorate so much that all those who have the means to do so escape.

Alabama set the mark for enforcing federal immigration laws that Illinois’ scofflaw officials pretend don’t exist and don’t enforce.

When legislators return to Springfield this month to discuss raising more revenue via expanding gambling and try to maneuver their way through union demands, pension issues and billions of unpaid bills, perhaps they also should consider forming a task force to study the cost of ignoring immigration laws.

It’s got to be much greater than any of them dare to imagine.

Fran Eaton is a Southland resident who co-founded and edits the popular conservative political blog,
illinoisreview.com