Issue Position: Illegal Immigration

Issue Position

Kay's Answer: ILLEGAL immigration has a harmful impact on our society on many levels. But one of the most frustrating is the hidden financial damage it's doing to our public schools in Alabama. You may not realize it, but vast sums of precious tax dollars are being siphoned off from your child's education to pay for the teaching of children whose parents are living here illegally.

According to a 2005 report by FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Alabama spends $34 million on education for illegal immigrants every year, plus another $48 million on the children of U.S.-born children of illegal aliens.

But even this $82 million price tag isn't the total cost. The FAIR report doesn't include the additional costs of reduced or free meals for any of these students, nor does it include the cost of dual language programs, which can cost anywhere from $290 to $879 per pupil.

To solve this problem:

* Illegal immigration into Alabama and every other state must be prevented. For our protection and our security, we must not give allowances, public accommodations or incentives to encourage or reward it.

While we are sympathetic to anyone who would leave dire conditions in their countries to come here and make a better life, the matter is one of fairness and the law. There are many immigrants in this great land who have come here and played by the rules. We are a nation built on law, so we must observe and obey it, lest we invite chaos.

Besides not giving away our scarce tax dollars, we must bring swift legal action, including heavier fines, on those who traffic and facilitate illegal immigration.

Unless illegal immigration into Alabama is drastically reduced, the cost of educating illegal immigrants and their children will keep straining our state's already-overburdened education budget and will continue hurting the quality of our own children's education.

The Benefit To You:
By preventing illegal immigration in Alabama, we will increase the amount of education funding by tens of millions of dollars that would go to your children, not to the offspring of those who are breaking the law by being here.

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