Two Area Lawmakers on Illegal Immigration
* Your editorial calling for a “more refined approach” to addressing illegal immigration endorsed the very proposal I have been calling for--yet stated that I had been recommending something different.
I would like to set the record straight.
I am not advocating the creation of a new national ID card, as your editorial and an earlier news story indicated. I have introduced legislation and testified in favor of doing exactly what you proposed as “a better way”: developing a tamper-proof and counterfeit-resistant Social Security card to be used as the single work-authorization card for everyone who is eligible to work in the United States, citizens and legal immigrants alike.
As you noted, workers must already submit their Social Security numbers for employment, so this proposal would not entail creating a new form of documentation.
In addition, along with Reps. Howard Berman and Henry Waxman, I support providing additional federal reimbursements for California to pay for the health and education costs of new immigrants--which is only fair. That approach, however, simply spreads among all U.S. taxpayers the cost our state has to bear for the federal government’s failure to enforce our immigration laws. It does nothing to actually solve the illegal immigration problem.
Only measures which reduce the incentives for foreigners to immigrate illegally, such as making it possible to enforce employer sanctions by creating a tamper-proof Social Security card, will actually reduce illegal immigration.
The Los Angeles Times deserves credit for supporting this key proposal, and I appreciate having the opportunity to let your readers know that I, too, support it and am trying to gain congressional approval of it.
ANTHONY C. BEILENSON
Washington
Beilenson is the congressman representing the 24th District. * Your ill-conceived editorial “When Anger Against Aliens Clouds Reason” (Aug. 8) is a tragic example of twisted facts, half-truths and untruths.
In an effective sleight-of-hand strategy, you generously mix the terms of aliens and illegal aliens in order to erase the difference between those who have waited patiently to enter our nation legally in search of the American Dream and those who enter illegally.
You also unfairly attack those who simply urge the U. S. government to enforce the law. If the Los Angeles Times believes the United States should scrap our immigration laws, then be honest about it and advocate a change in the law!
The blame for the $1.5-billion annual cost of services Los Angeles County renders illegal aliens for law enforcement, health, welfare and educational services must be placed at the doorstep of the federal government.
This is a government which gets upset over the illegal entry of 2,300 Chinese immigrants by sea since last September but ignores the 1 million aliens who illegally crossed our land borders below San Diego during the same period.
The campaign for responsible reform which we have been waging for many years, calling for effective enforcement by the federal government and strategies to stop the plundering of Los Angeles County residents’ pocketbooks, is now gaining support at home and in Washington.
The list of those calling for reforms now includes the bipartisan team in Congress of Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Alan Simpson, Barbara Boxer and Bob Dole, along with Reps. Carlos Moorhead, Elton Gallegly, Anthony Beilenson and Chris Cox. Gov. Pete Wilson recently came aboard.
Neither the United States government nor the residents of Los Angeles County can afford to be the cradle-to-grave educational system or health maintenance organization for the world.
As far as those leaders who are seeking reimbursement from the federal government are concerned, I would agree on a temporary basis. But don’t forget that we are the federal taxpayers and we should not have to subsidize illegal activity locally or nationally.
MICHAEL D. ANTONOVICH
Los Angeles
Antonovich is the Los Angeles County supervisor for the 5th District.
