KARIN McQUILLAN: WHAT AMNESTY MEANS FOR WYOMING
Illegal aliens are the fastest growing segment of Wyoming’s population. They are coming in at double the rate of legal immigration. European immigration is down since 2000, while Hispanic immigration is up 100 percent. Illegal immigration accounted for a third of federal prosecutions in our state.
Wyoming voters want secure borders. We can feel good that Sens. John Barrasso and Mike Enzi voted against the amnesty bill passed this week by the Senate. In Barrasso’s words: “In its current form, the bill fails to secure our border and also provides very expensive benefits to people here illegally.”
It was one of those D.C. specials – a 2,000-page bill the senators did not read before passing, full of pork, not doing what was promised. The law calls for a fence subject to bureaucratic approval. It does not specify the fence be impassable, nor give citizens standing to get the law enforced, nor stop the EPA from requiring gaps for animals to pass through. The Congressional Budget Office determined illegal immigration would only go down by 25 percent.
Legal immigration is important to our state. Hispanic-Americans are valued members of our communities, and contribute to our economy. Amnesty is bad for all of us, immigrant and American- born.
The cost to taxpayers of illegals in Wyoming is
$50 million in the last decade. The cost to our nation as a whole is $100 billion. Amnesty without secure borders will destroy us, financially, politically
and culturally.
Democrats want this bill because it legalizes 11 (by some estimates 20 – no one actually knows) million illegals, and on top of that, doubles the number of legal immigrants, while leaving our borders and visa system wide open.
This will create a record number of foreign-born legals and illegals, mostly Spanish-speaking, Third World, with few skills to offer — an estimated
56 million people within a decade. It will be the biggest, fastest immigration boom in American history.
Immigration “reform” will permanently wipe away America as we know it. Democrats say this openly. They think it will bring them an undefeatable majority for a liberal big government welfare state. They are right. The Democrats’ hope is Wyoming’s worst nightmare: An irreversible one-party nanny state based on identity politics. 56 million paid-for Democrat voters, whose households suck up more than $47,000 a year in government benefits, far more than they pay in taxes.
According to the Heritage Foundation: “In 2010, in the U.S. population as a whole, households headed by persons without a high school degree, on average, received $46,582 in government benefits while paying only $11,469 in taxes. …Lawful immigrants receive significantly more welfare … than U.S. born households.”
For the illegals still pouring into our state and nation, who are about to be given amnesty, it is far, far worse: “Amnesty would provide unlawful households with access to over 80 means-tested welfare programs, Obamacare, Social Security, and Medicare. … If amnesty is enacted, the average adult unlawful immigrant would receive $592,000 more in government benefits over the course of his remaining lifetime than he would pay in taxes.”
We are looking at crushing tax burden for our economy, and lowered wages and a loss of hope for our black and Hispanic citizens as they are forced to compete with illegals.
Yet, unbelievably, Republican leadership, including Congressman Paul Ryan, are pushing for amnesty. Political analysts say Republicans in the House plan to pass a bill, and then accept the Senate amnesty in the conference committee.
They think they can ignore us. They are wrong. Do their voters want higher taxes, a bankrupt safety net, a bigger government? They are breaking every promise made during the election, and every interest of the majority of Republican voters.
The Republican Party won’t survive if the House compromises on the amnesty bill. This shouldn’t be too complex for the D.C. geniuses: If you betray your party’s base to pander to the opposition’s base, they win, you lose. If you destroy your base’s trust in government, by passing yet another 2,000-page bill no one has read, Republicans will stay home. Republicans are too busy working and raising their families to waste their time voting for a bunch of cynical, power-hungry politicians.
Mitt Romney lost because 5 million Republican voters didn’t feel listened to and didn’t bother to vote in 2012. Amnesty will be the final insult to the Republican base.
Our state, our nation cannot afford to let these politicians run wild.
Karin McQuillan lives in Jackson.
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