Ivy League Conservatives

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This post is not about illegal immigration. It’s not about inherent racism or hatred of any kind towards Mexican illegal aliens. It’s about how legal citizens–who originally came to the U.S. from all over the world–are being punished for the illegal actions of others. It’s easy enough for you to fill in the blanks yourself as to how.

This morning, I read a Fox News story about another effect of illegal immigration–the trash they leave behind. Here’s a bit from the article. I’ve added emphasis, but only to one word:

Government officials and border activists say the garbage dumped in the desert by illegal immigrants and their smugglers is staggering.

And the cleanup is costing taxpayers millions.

In 2006 alone, more than 1.18 million pounds of trash was collected along southern Arizona border, many in the meeting spots where immigrants rest, change clothes and wait to hitch a ride further north with a smuggler.

“You can find everything,” said Shela McFarlin, special assistant for international programs at the Arizona Bureau of Land Management. “Blankets, airline tickets, Bibles, wedding pictures, photos of children, school reports, because clearly people don’t tend to throw away everything they’ve brought with them — they’re forced to.”

Arizonia officials have spent approximately $4.4 million over five years to clean up the mess, that continues to build with each crossing. Nearly $1 million was spent for 2007 from a base BLM appropriation.

You’ll notice that immigrants aren’t sent the bills for this little cleaning service. Nope. They go to us, law-abiding taxpayers. Makes sense, doesn’t it? $4.4 million over the last five years. A tidy sum, to be sure, but then I remembered another article I read yesterday and quoted in America Needs Me:

L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich says the county spends more than $1 billion a year on benefits to undocumented immigrants.

According to new data from the Department of Public Social Services, nearly twenty five percent of Los Angeles County ’s welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of undocumented immigrants, at a cost of $36 million a month — for a projected annual cost of $432 million.

The supervisor said, in March, undocumented immigrants collected over $19 million in welfare assistance and over $16 million in food stamp allocations.

I’m no math whiz, but that’s sure a lot of money to spend on people who shouldn’t be here in the first place. And it’s sure a lot of money to hand out to people that don’t care enough about our country to obey the simplest of laws–like, you know, not murdering people or obtaining a driver’s license from the DMV with authentic birth documents. Even the illegals that reside here and do nothing else that’s against the law still send money back home to profit their families there. Makes you wonder if the $16 billion budget deficit in California would be alleviated by halting the social programs that enable illegal aliens to live and prosper here. 

For six months, I worked in New Jersey and lived in Pennsylvania. And during tax season, I paid taxes in both states. That’s how law-abiding citizens do things. This post isn’t about illegal immigration. It’s just about being fair.