HB0388, NB0403, HB0677
Ladies and Gentlemen, I offer the following comments for your consideration although I do not hold out much hope that you will consider them. It seems that election to public office in Maryland has a very deleterious effect on a person’s good judgment and erases any sense of responsibility to actually represent the citizens that sent you there. I would think you would at least consider voting for things that improve the lives of the citizens including their safety and the safety of their loved ones.
We recently held a huge rally to protest the release of illegal aliens who were rearrested for vicious rapes and assaults in Montgomery County as a direct result of that county’s sanctuary policies and now you want to spread this problem state-wide! How could anyone see that as logical or responsible?
Again I offer a multitude of reasons why you should oppose these “sanctuary” bills. Ask yourself, should you have any curiosity, why should I, as a supposed state leader, oppose these or any other related bills.
For concerned citizens, who have not been sent to Annapolis, and who are not subject to the groups and lobbyists who want to flood this state with illegal aliens, you must call your state representatives and strongly suggest that they oppose these bill.
Why should state and local leaders oppose these bills?
SANCTUARY POLICIES THREATEN PUBLIC SAFETY.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimates, roughly 2.1 million criminal aliens are living in the U.S., over 1.9 million of which are removable. These criminal aliens continue to live in communities and engage in further criminal activity when state and local law enforcement are prohibited from cooperating with federal immigration officials.
SANCTUARY POLICIES ARE EXPENSIVE.
Illegal immigration is a huge burden to state and local governments. A majority of this expense – $84 billion – is borne by state and local taxpayers. At the federal, state, and local levels, taxpayers shell out approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegal aliens. That amounts to a tax burden of approximately $8,075 per illegal alien family member and a total of $115,894,597,664. The total cost of illegal immigration to U.S. taxpayers is both staggering and crippling. In 2013, FAIR estimated the total cost to be approximately $113 billion. So, in under four years, the cost has risen nearly $3 billion. This is a disturbing and unsustainable trend. FAIR’s numbers were derived as follows:
· In 2017, the total
cost of illegal immigration for the United States – at the federal, state, and
local levels – was approximately $116 billion.
· FAIR arrived at this
number by subtracting the tax revenue paid by illegal aliens – about $19
billion – from the total economic impact of illegal migration, $134.9 billion.
· In 2013, the
estimated total cost of illegal migration was approximately $113 billion. So,
in under four years, the cost has risen nearly $3 billion.
· Evidence shows that
the tax payments made by illegal aliens fail to cover the costs of the many
services they consume.
· A large percentage of illegal aliens who work in the underground economy frequently avoid paying any income tax at all.
· Many illegal aliens actually receive a net cash profit through refundable tax credit programs
The costs of illegal aliens in Maryland have been compiled by FAIR and are shown in the attached report:
To summarize illegal aliens in Maryland cost every citizen $2.4 billion in 2017 or $1,093 for every household in the state.
These costs come in the form of educational, healthcare, welfare, and law enforcement expenditures to illegal aliens and their families. By giving them a place to live and work where they can go undetected, sanctuary policies encourage further illegal immigration that only serves to increase these costs. To any rational person, it would appear a “slam dunk” to not continue to add to these costs when so many other demands are being made on Maryland citizens for tax dollars?
SANCTUARY POLICIES CONFLICT WITH FEDERAL LAW.
In 1996, Congress adopted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act to prohibit state and local governments from restricting their employees from sharing and receiving information regarding illegal aliens with the federal government. Sanctuary policies that shield criminal aliens from the administration of federal law conflict with the execution of immigration law as Congress intended.
SANCTUARY POLICIES THREATEN NATIONAL SECURITY.
It is no secret that Americans face serious threats from terrorist organizations. With the FBI pursuing hundreds of active extremist investigations, federal agents are stretched thin and depend heavily on intelligence provided by state and local law enforcement. By impeding cooperation with federal immigration officials, sanctuary policies create an environment where terrorists and other criminal aliens can go undetected and uninterrupted.
Seems to the ordinary citizen of this state that it would be generally better if state and local law enforcement cooperated with Federal LE, unless, of course, you have no interest in getting gangs like MS-13 off the streets and out of the country? In addition, we have been made aware that many illegal aliens from Muslim countries are coming across the border illegally. Should there end up in Maryland a number of Islamic extremists, would you have any concern for citizen safety in providing sanctuary for Islamic terrorists? Ask yourself how much the risk of this increases if you deny cooperation with Federal authorities.
SANCTUARY POLICIES ARE UNFAIR TO LEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
Tolerating illegal immigration and providing a “safe haven” for illegal aliens is unfair to immigrants who respect our nation’s laws. In addition to waiting months or years to come here, legal immigrants abide by the entry, employment, health, and processing laws and regulations set by our government. Besides giving future prospective immigrants little incentive to follow the law, sanctuary policies are an affront to those who do it the right way.
To Maryland Representatives; It is imperative that you step out of the leftist bubble of Annapolis and ask yourself; Do these Sanctuary Bills make the citizens you purport to represent safer? Do these bills reduce the tax burden placed on citizens? Do these bills enable the school system to manage class size and educational performance? Are these bills fair to the immigrants who came to this country legally?
I, for one would like to see that you have considered these points before, a knee jerk reaction to please the illegal alien lobbyists around the state.