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Kingston after immigration reform
Fri, Aug 26, 2005
Thoughts follow visit to Brunswick's Latin American Resource Center By HANK ROWLAND The Brunswick NewsU.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-1, says there's trouble aplenty for cities and counties across the nation due to the government's failure to stop illegal immigration at the borders."Illegals have become a big challenge to local law enforcement," Kingston said. "And border security is a huge terrorist concern."We need to reform our immigration policy in a comprehensive manner, which should include addressing guest worker programs, illegals and aspects of immigration."Kingston's comments follow a visit Monday to the Latin American Resource Center in Brunswick. The center serves 3,745 of the more than 6,000 Hispanics said to be living in the community.While touring the center, Kingston was told by LARC Director Barbara Sullivan that "many" Hispanics in the community are undocumented.Kingston is one of 121 members of Congress who have signed on as sponsors of a bill spearheaded by Rep. Charles Norwood, a Georgia Republican whose residence is in Evans.The measure, stuck in the House Judiciary Committee its first two years, from 2003 to 2004, would give local and state police federal powers to arrest and detain illegal immigrants.A new version of the bill seeks to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize the appropriation of federal dollars to local authorities to detain illegal immigrants for deportation.In 2004, the federal government estimated that of the 400,000 aliens living illegally in the United States, 80,000 have criminal convictions – a number that is overwhelming to the 2,000 Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who enforce America's immigration laws."Right now, if a local officer in my hometown ... pulls over a car for speeding with someone who is illegally in our country, they have to call (immigration agents), verify their status and wait until someone from (immigration) comes to pick them up," said Norwood when promoting his bill 2004.Norwood represents the state's Ninth Congressional District in northeast Georgia. "Sometimes they have to wait for hours on the roadside for the pick-up to arrive," he said. "But most of the time (immigration) says they're too busy to come by – telling the police to let the lawbreakers go (facing only local charges). That is as wrong as the day is long and it's high time we fixed it."
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