BY: B. Keith Plunkett
Opponents of reforming immigration have pulled out every reason they can to keep the status quo in Mississippi.
Builders and agricultural groups have said it would be bad for their business and ultimately the economy. Hard to fathom how that could be if they aren’t hiring illegals.
Maybe it could be because it’s bad for families as some religious groups have said. I was always told the law was blind and showed no favoritism, and these people are breaking the law, right? If that is the case it is they, not the law that is breaking up their family. Why should illegals not accept responsibility for their choices?
If someone is attempting to car jack me, I’m not going to ask them about their families before I decide to pull my .38. Justice should not be determined by a persons family situation, or connections. No one–regardless of the crime, the income level, or the level of connections–should be allowed that entitlement. Aren’t conservatives against entitlements? Don’t conservatives believe in the benefit of hard work and accepting responsibility for ourselves and our actions?
Then there is the law enforcement communities. They have become so enslaved to the dollars they drag in to run their departments that the thought of having to spend the extra time and dollars to ENFORCE THE LAW is apparently too much for them to handle.
Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory, says that the immigration -enforcement measure, House Bill 488, could intrude into the responsibilities of local law-enforcement agencies.
“It appears that this particular bill deals almost exclusively with the state of Mississippi instructing policemen and sheriff’s deputies how they’re to act when they arrest somebody,” Bryan said recently.
Isn’t that what lawmakers do? Shape laws to be enforced? Otherwise, why are we paying these people?
And exactly why did the Lt. Governor place this legislation in a committee that he almost certainly knew it would go to die?
We’ve heard a number of other excuses from the legal community, the business community, the law enforcement community, and legislators. When further challenged, the general response is that the problem really isn’t that bad in Mississippi.
However, as the numbers below indicate, it is. In the past 10 years, the number of estimated illegal immigrants in Mississippi have skyrocketed, while the number that have become legal residents have not.
Yes folks, we have a problem.
- Estimated number of illegal immigrants in Mississippi in 2000………….8,000
- Estimated number of illegal immigrants in Mississippi in 2010…………..35,000
- An increase of 337.5%.
- Number of persons obtaining legal permanent resident status in Mississippi in 2000………………….1,074
- Number of persons obtaining legal permanent resident status in Mississippi in 2009………………….1,652
- An increase of 53.82%
Data Source: Office of Immigration Statistics, US Department of Homeland Security
