More from Reader, Natasha Cooper of Indiana

March 29, 2006 Illegal Immigration View Comments

President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard B. Cheney
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Northwest
The White House
Washington, District of Columbia 20500-0003

All Members of the United States Senate
Washington, District of Columbia 20510-0001

Dear Mr. President, Mr. Vice President and People of the Senate,

I am writing you after learning that $247 million has been requested in the budget to implement a Temporary Guest Worker Program for illegal aliens in our country, while only $153 million is being requested for immigration enforcement and voluntary employer verification of worker eligibility. I urge you to reject this proposal.

With all due respect, this proposal is insane. Americans are already paying billions of dollars each and every year because the federal government has ignored our countryâ€™s immigration laws. And now you want more of our money so you can reward illegal aliens for breaking our laws? As an American who voted for you twice, Mr. President, I am appalled. Illegal aliens cost us too much as it is, and they are taking our jobs. Between the years 2000 and 2004, approximately 1.8 million jobs were created. However, the jobs held by native born Americans during that time period actually DECREASED by half a million. Jobs held by the foreign born, including illegal aliens, rose by 1.3 million. Americans are actually being displaced because our government refuses to enforce our countryâ€™s laws!! Under those circumstances, how can any United States politician promote legalizing, temporary or otherwise, illegal alien workers? You were all elected to look after your constituentsâ€™ best interests, not that of illegal aliensâ€™.

We need our laws enforced, not ignored under pressure of wailing Latin American government officials or American businesses. Rampant immigration only benefits them. It does not benefit Americans as a whole. It is harmful for young American men, especially African Americans who are disproportionately affected, looking for entry level jobs into various industries, jobs which are being given to illegal aliens who will work for lower wages and, in many cases, for cash under the table. The massive influx of illegal aliens over the past decade has also been particularly harmful to our school children whose classes are held back because of the extra time needed to teach English to illegal alien children or children of illegal aliens. The cost to teach English as a second language alone is costing your constituents tens of billions of dollars annually.

American jobs are being taken by illegal and legal aliens in the United States. They are not simply taking jobs that Americans will not do, and this has repeatedly been proven in various recent studies. American workers have to, in many instances, compete with groups of low wage illegal aliens in various industries and jobs â€“ construction, food service, pipefitting, and roofing, just to name a few. Making illegal aliens legal will not help those you were elected to look after â€“ your American constituents.

This does not even take into consideration the numerous other ways Americans are negatively impacted by rampant immigration. Your constituents pay higher medical bills to cover for the costs of care illegal aliens receive but cannot pay for. Hospitals, wherein your constituents are working, are forced to close down services, costing your constituents jobs, because caring for illegal aliens has become too costly. Your constituents are paying higher insurance premiums to cover for the costs of uninsured illegal alien drivers. Your constituents are paying higher education costs because of the influx of people who have come, and continue to come, here illegally. The costs to incarcerate illegal aliens, which reaches tens of billions of dollars annually, are also paid by your constituents, an expense that would not exist had our laws simply been enforced and respected. We are seeing a resurgence of diseases once thought long gone, such as tuberculosis, in cities where high populations of illegal aliens are found. Many of these cases are found to be â€œdrug resistant,â€ meaning that instead of costing the American taxpayers the usual amount for the care of a TB patient, about $2,800, these cases cost American taxpayers approximately $250,000 each. Over the past year, there has been a 25% increase in drug resistant tuberculosis cases in some communities housing high illegal alien populations. American taxpayers pay for the majority of these cases because they seem to be endemic to the illegal alien population, people who cannot pay for their treatment.

Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen, I implore you to listen to the American PEOPLE who have repeatedly asked and demanded that our immigration laws be enforced, and quit listening to American businesses or officials of any foreign government, all of whom have a financial interest in keeping the borders porous.

Creating a Temporary Guest Worker Program is nothing but amnesty in disguise, and it does nothing to confront the problems that exist. If history is any indication, and Iâ€™m inclined to think that it is, a guest worker program will only make it worse for your American constituents. Low wage earning illegal aliens, upon gaining legal status, become eligible for all those cash help welfare programs they cannot currently use with ease, though some still manage to use these programs by obtaining fraudulent documents. Illegal aliens gaining legal status via the 1986 Amnesty actually increased the number of welfare programs they used, thereby increasing the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on their care. It also encouraged more illegal aliens to follow in their footsteps and come to this country illegally. The same will happen again, at a time when our country can ill afford it, a time when our extra tax dollars should be going to support our troops, to fight the War on Terror, and to make our country secure, rather than caring for illegal aliens who have no respect for our laws and who have not been properly screened.

I urge you to reject any kind of guest worker program. A vote for a Temporary Guest Worker Program is a vote against what is best for this country, against our troops, against your constituents, and against the oath of office wherein you swore to uphold this countryâ€™s laws. For once, please listen to the American people by getting a grasp on the enforcement side of immigration, returning home those aliens who do not belong here, and stringently regulating those who come here legally. Anything else is a slap in the face to all those who supported you.

Please advise as soon as possible how you intend to vote for this proposal. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Natisha Cooper
Indianapolis, IN