A Letter to the Editor - Never Published

(Doug sent this in on December 5th but it never was published. We thought you'd enjoy reading it.)
Key to the discussion of illegal aliens is the question of criminality. Some would call sneaking into the United States a “victimless crime” and suggest we should allow them to stay and give them legal status.

Others cry out to our elected officials, “What part of the word ILLEGAL don’t you understand?”

There was an interesting confluence of information in the Daily Herald on December 5th. First, you had a report about immigration enforcement and the fact that our government is getting better at finding and deporting those fugitives who have been ordered deported and failed to comply. Nationwide the government found and deported over 30,000 of those fugitives last year, up from 15,000 the year before.

But there is a seemingly endless supply of people who have been through the appeals process and ordered removed. How many? Over 600,000 people as of August 2006. It kind of makes the 30,000 number seem insignificant, doesn’t it?

The article quoted a spokesman from an organization called the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. They are an advocacy group with field organizers who help put together protest rallies. Those who remember the crowd on the lawn at village hall in Carpentersville last year know exactly what the group does.

Here’s what their director told the Herald: "There's no question there's a huge increase in deportations," Hoyt said. "And an overwhelming number of those they're deporting, their only crime is working."

But let’s take a careful look at that statement, “Their only crime is working.” The people spoken of in the article were fugitives. They had their day in court and they disappeared rather than report for deportation. That sounds like a crime to me.

But simply getting a job presents some unusual obstacles for someone who is here illegally. He can either use false documents or he can work for cash, “off the books” as they say. Either way, he has committed crimes in the process of working.

Which brings me to the second article in the Herald. It was an article about two Rolling Meadows residents who had stolen the identity of a Carpentersville man and run up delinquent accounts in addition to using the ID to get jobs. Immigration has placed a hold on one of the men, indicating to me that there is something amiss with his residency status.

Now, about those people paid under the table. Bear Stearns Asset Management reported that four to six million jobs have shifted to the underground market and “The United States may be foregoing $35 billion a year in income tax collections because of the number of jobs that are now off the books.”

As for the criminality of document fraud committed by illegal aliens, the United States Congress had a research study done about the laws involved. You paid for the study. You might as well read it.
Here’s the link: http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2006,1018-crs.pdf

Each of us must answer for ourselves if illegal aliens are breaking the law and what the penalty should be. It seems to be a complex question in Washington. It really shouldn’t be that difficult to answer.

Sincerely,
Doug Heaton