Guest Column

Preserving the Golden Door of legal immigration

(Note: The following remarks were prepared for my testimony in front of the California State Senate's "Labor and Industrial Relations Committee" chaired by State Senator Richard Alarcon (D) San Fernando Valley. The hearing was postponed at the last minute but the issue remains.
The Senate and the Assembly are actively considering legislation that deals with the cost of illegal immigration in California.)

Joe Armendariz"

April 27, 2005

 

Thank you Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the committee.

       

Thank you very much for this opportunity to appear before you on this important issue.

 

As has been mentioned already, my name is Joe Armendariz and I am the Executive Director of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association and the Santa Barbara Industrial Association.

 

I am also serving my first term on the Carpinteria City Council having been elected in November of 2004.

 

Both of the organizations that I represent are nonpartisan and active in public policy with a primary focus on fiscal, economic and regulatory issues within Santa Barbara County.

 

I am here to speak in support of Senate Bill 692 which would add the California Highway Patrol to the Joint Enforcement Strike Force as well as authorize a comprehensive study by the California State University regarding the costs and benefits of illegal immigration. 

 

However, first I want to take a moment to recognize the sensitivity of this issue. 

 

I understand that men and women of goodwill can and will disagree about our nation's immigration policy. 

 

Nobody, however, should dispute the obvious; illegal immigration is by its very nature antithetical to the rule of law and is therefore something that no serious nation should accept in this new age of global terrorism. 

 

Now, I am a Republican and so it might seem typical or expected that I would have the views I have with respect to illegal immigration, but this was not always the case.

 

In fact, in 1994, I found myself in the interesting position of being a minority who belonged to a political Party with too few minority members in it.

 

Add to that the fact that, with respect to the issue of illegal immigration - and as manifested through CA Prop-187 - I also held a minority view within my own Party. To be clear; I opposed Prop-187. 

 

I opposed Prop- 187 for many of the same reasons that some of my political hero's, including Jack Kemp; Bill Bennett; and former Wall Street Journal Editor, the late Robert Bartley, opposed Prop-187.

 

Like them, I believed Prop-187 was bad politics for the Republican Party and would risk alienating a natural constituency; hard working, law abiding Hispanics. After all, as my Dad used to say: Blood is thicker than water.

 

But as the old saying goes; that was then and this is now.

 

My understanding of the negative impacts of illegal immigration, circa 1994, was much different than it is today.

 

Moreover, few serious minded people would deny that this phenomenon has grown considerably worse since 1994.

 

Indeed, it is now estimated that there may be as many as 20 million illegal immigrants living in this country. And this estimate might actually be conservative.

 

Today, illegal immigration, particularly- if not especially - in California has reached crisis proportions.

 

Why is it a crisis?

 

1. I believe our failure to stop illegal immigration is a crisis because it places a tremendous  fiscal strain on local governments ability to deliver essential programs and services.

 

This is the case because it not only requires public resources to deliver services to illegal immigrants, but illegal immigrants participate in an underground economy which robs local governments of the revenues they need to deliver the services they provide.

 

2. I believe our failure to stop illegal immigration is a crisis because it provides a useful camouflage for terrorists, hell-bent on killing innocent Americans, to enter our country undetected. 

 

According to the Commission on Human Rights: Every year nearly 1 million slaves are smuggled into countries around the world, including America.

 

The overwhelming majority are women and most are bought and sold for sexual purposes. What a world! 

 

Here is the point: a global system that can smuggle slaves can also smuggle terrorists. 

 

America seems to lack the will to do very much about this clear and present risk to our national security.

 

3. I believe our failure to stop illegal immigration is a crisis because it is contributing to the slow and steady decline in the quality of life in many of our local communities. 

 

Many illegal immigrants live in overcrowded conditions, in predominantly single-family neighborhoods, and it is evident to many of the families who live in these overcrowded neighborhoods that those who come here illegally lack the interest and/or the desire to fully assimilate. 

 

This lack of assimilation results in the gradual transformation of once attractive  neighborhoods into something resembling third-world living conditions.

 

This observation is not intended to be mean-spirited. But to be candid; this predictable and unfortunate culture clash puts neighbor against neighbor. And very often, it requires local authorities to get involved.  

 

As this problem grows more frequent and prevalent throughout our communities, impacted neighborhoods eventually lose their appeal as more and more established families leave the area in search of a better quality of life. 

 

This problem is especially bad and growing progressively worse in my own small beach community of Carpinteria.  And I refer you back to my first concern...the cost of providing local services to illegal immigrants with diminishing resources in which to do it.

 

So it would seem to come full circle. 

 

Now, having said all this, I also want to be perfectly clear about the following:

 

I do not support closing our nations borders and effectively stopping all forms of legal immigration. 

 

To quote the famous Catholic Priest from Notre Dame, Father Hesburgh, the reason we need to close and lock the back door of illegal immigration is so we can keep open the golden door of legal immigration. 

 

I believe this speaks to our nation's true heritage.  "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 

Unlike some, I do not worry about those who come to America to work hard, pay taxes and play by the rules. In other words, I don't worry about those who come here to become  Americans.

 

Moreover, I recognize the tremendous political, economic, social and intellectual contribution of immigrants. From Hamilton, to Carnegie to Einstein to Kissinger to Schwarzenegger.

 

I am here today in support of Senate Bill 692 because it attempts to accomplish that which has gone unaccomplished for far too long; to quantify the costs of illegal immigration while helping us realize the benefits of legal immigration.

 

When my constituents ask why the government they support, with an increasing share of their income, via taxes, lacks the financial resources to deliver basic services including fixing roads, incarcerating criminals and educating their children, I need to provide them a better explanation than to simply say it's the state legislature's fault.

 

Therefore, to conclude, I urge this committee to support SB 692 so that we can begin to accurately quantify the costs of illegal immigration and the benefits of legal immigration as it pertains to the real cost of government in California. 

 

I believe this is an idea whose time has come.

 

I also hope this discussion can take place without the usual shenanigans by those who insist on using the issue of race as political currency. We must face these important challenges by appealing to our better angels, as opposed to our lowest common denominator.  

 

Some of the challenges we face include the breakdown of our will to control the border and our seeming indifference to the importance of why immigrants should learn to become Americans. 

 

It has been said and it is certainly true that we are a multi-ethnic society. But, it is also true that we must resolve to become one civilization; American.

 

And it seems obvious to me that in order for us to effectively address this issue on a macro scale, we must first understand its fiscal implications at a micro level. SB 692 will help us do that. 

   

Thank you and I would be happy to entertain any questions.    

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Joe Armendariz is the Executive Director of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association and the Santa Barbara Industrial Association. And also serving a first term on the Carpinteria City Council.  Contact Joe Armendariz at: jaarmendariz@cox.net