Issue Position: Illegal Immigration

Issue Position

Illegal immigration is becoming a problem in Alabama. In January of 2017, the Birmingham City Council passed a resolution declaring themselves a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants. Although the resolution failed to enact any specific policies, those will most likely be rolled out over the coming years.

Here are 5 huge threats that illegal immigration poses to Alabama right now:

Crime. Every single crime committed by an illegal alien could obviously have been prevented had the person not been allowed to enter the country illegally.

Increased expense to taxpayers to cover the cost of education for 25,000 children of illegals born in Alabama. That's a total of over $200 million that could have been spent on children of legal Alabama residents!

Additional state and local law enforcement officers and increased jail/prison capacity to the tune of $50 million dollars a year. That's money that could be repaving our roads or hiring more state troopers.

Illegals take jobs that should go to Alabama citizens. Think how much lower our unemployment would be if 73,000 illegal immigrants had not come to this state. They also don't pay payroll taxes on their earnings, because many of them are paid cash under the table.

Not only do illegals take our jobs, they depress our wages. Big Business loves illegal immigration because it allows them to pay sub-standard wages across the board for manual labor jobs. With less workers in the job market, companies would be forced to offer more money.

All told, illegal immigration costs Alabama taxpayers $434 million per year! So, what can the state do to help the federal government and the ICE agency enforce our border laws?

First and foremost, we need our law enforcement to cooperate at the state and local level with federal officials to help catch illegal immigrants. Between 60%-80% of the illegals being caught and deported in Alabama right now have committed a crime. These are people we do NOT want on our streets.

Second, we need to cut state-level funding for cities who declare themselves sanctuaries to illegals. These cities are flaunting their opposition to established state law and endangering the suburbs around them. Meanwhile, these same cities (Birmingham) are taking the lion's share of the state's road projects while areas such as House District 3 in the Shoals get very little.

If you're concerned about the impact illegal immigration is having on Alabama, I ask for your consideration and your vote on November 6th.

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