Illegal immigration is not a singular issue. It impacts every aspect of our daily lives. It means crowded schools, increased traffic congestion, rising health-care costs, and more crime.
You've argued that illegal immigration is also an environmental issue?
Gaylord Nelson said that, "In this country, it is phony to say that you're for the environment, but against restricting immigration." The environmentalists of the 1960s believed the greatest threat to the environment was unrestrained population growth, and that's what we're looking at right now.
Nearly 90% of our population growth is coming from immigrants and the subsequent birth of their children. If we continue to grow at this rate, the Census Bureau is saying we're going to have 430 million people living here by 2015 and almost 600 million by 2100.
Are illegals the scourge of American society?
I wouldn't say that they're a scourge. You can't fault people for wanting to improve their lives, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Most Mexicans, when they cross the border illegally, already have a job in Mexico. It's not that they're starving to death; it's just that they can do a lot better here in the United States.
But there are laws that prohibit people from working here illegally. It's a felony to hire someone in this country illegally. I spent 30 years as an editor and reporter in Chicago and I've seen what drives illegal immigration, a Congress of the United States that has looked the other way in terms of allowing employers to hire these individuals, certainly the federal government is not enforcing laws already on the books, and finally, a mainstream media that has failed miserably in its responsibility to provide balanced coverage of this issue.
How has media distorted the issue?
There are two sides to this story and right now the only one the public is getting is the one that portrays illegal aliens as victims who are being forced to live in the shadows. Well, they're living in the shadows because they made a decision to enter this country illegally, so they are suffering the consequences of their own actions. I don't expect editors to agree with our views, but I expect that media allow our views to be heard in the same fashion that the other side is being heard.
When I look at immigration coverage today, both on TV and in print, I come away feeling that the only people today entitled to search for a better life in this country are the foreign born, particularly illegals. What about our own working poor, especially the blacks? Blacks are being hurt the worst, but I never see their story on the front page or the 10 o'clock news.
There seems to be a racial element to this issue, since we're not talking about driving out illegal Russians or Europeans.
Our position is this: If you are in this country illegally, you are breaking the law. Period. When you think about where the majority of immigrants are coming from today, it's from Spanish speaking countries in Latin America, and the majority of them are coming from Mexico. What's racist about that?
Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney is under fire for asking jail inmates about their immigration status and reporting this to federal authorities. Why is this the right thing to do?
Whether you're a law enforcement officer or an elected official, you take an oath to uphold the laws of the state of Wisconsin and the Constitution of the United States. There is no middle ground. Don't look for it. It doesn't exist. To say we're sort of a nation of laws is to say we're sort of pregnant. I don't know what the big flap is.
