To the Editor:

In many ways, President Bush has done a good job. Tax cuts have stimulated the economy by letting Americans keep more of their hard-earned money as well as creating jobs.

Bush has been vigilant in fighting the war on terror. It appears that his nominees for the Supreme Court were eminently qualified. He has recognized the role and value of religious faith as important to most Americans.

In my opinion, illegal immigration is one of the top three most important issues facing our country today. Sadly, the president and the Republican leadership in Congress are doing very little to deal with this issue. Even when Sen. Shelby was in Selma recently, he acknowledged what most of us already know. He had a chart showing that we have about 12 million illegal immigrants in our country. Unfortunately, he still had no solution to solve the problem. Yes, it is important to recognize that a problem exists, but real leadership involves coming up with a solution to solve the problem.

While I recognize that many of those coming across our Southern borders are coming here to seek a better life and many of them are apparently good workers who are willing to do a job that many Americans will not do, still they are breaking the law. We have a legal process that needs to be followed for those wishing to come to our country and stay.

We must also realize that some of these people coming across illegally are violent criminals, drug dealers, possible terrorists, etc. We have enough criminals and drug dealers in America without getting any more from our southern neighbors.

Many of these people may be coming here carrying diseases that could affect the American people. The problem of illegal immigrants is costing our country billions of dollars – (notice I said billions – not millions) in costs associated with health care, educational cost, Social Security, and the like. One example is as follows: Birthright citizenship statistics are shocking. At least 383,00 babies are born in the U.S. each year to illegal aliens. That is 10 percent of all U.S. births and about 40 percent of indigent births. The cost to us (the U.S. taxpayer) is enormous because all those babies, called anchor babies, claim birthright citizenship.

Their mothers and other relatives then sign up for a vast stream of taxpayer benefits. Congress and the president have failed to protect American citizenship, sovereignty and the taxpayers from this type of abuse. Hospitals in many of the southern border states are going broke because they are having to treat such a high number of illegal immigrants who obviously cannot pay for the services they are getting.

Just a reminder that President Clinton was in office eight years and he didn’t do anything either to solve this problem. On this issue, it appears that both parties are in bed together, neither party having the courage to tackle the issue head one.

I do have a solution. First, the southern borders must be secured – whatever the cost. If it takes the National Guard, military or whatever, do it. The amount spent to secure the borders will be less than what we are spending on benefits.

Step two involves the process of finding those here illegally and determining what you will do with them when found. Here is my plan. Those found and caught here illegally and do not have a job would be deported. Until they could be deported, they would be jailed or put in some type of detention center. If we need to build a tent city type facility – so be it. By the way, all law enforcement personnel should have the authority to arrest and detain those here illegally.

Those who do have a job would be given an option, either they could be deported, or if they wish to remain in this country, they would be fined a certain amount – perhaps $1,000.

Once the fine is paid they would be placed in a period of probation – perhaps a year or two. If they did not get in trouble during that time of probation, then they could apply for U.S. citizenship. Under this approach, at least they would pay a price for coming here illegally.

Some politicians would have you believe the problem is too big to deal with. I want to remind you that we went to Iraq (a country with millions of people) and our government said we had a list of 52 key people we wanted captured or killed. I believe our military found almost all of them. If there are about 12 million people here illegally, that means about everyone one person in 25 or so is here illegally. That should be a lot easier than trying to find 52 out of millions.

Sen. Jeff Sessions seems to be one of the few senators who is trying to do something about this problem. I encourage you to write your congressman and senators as well as the president and voice your concern on this issue. Do it before it is too late.

For a safer and stronger America, I am …

Adney Taylor