Immigration: September 2008 Archives

Now that Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran has kick-started the area debate on illegal immigration with his broadside at "sanctuary city" Chicago the other day and his figures that one in five jail inmates is an illegal alien, it's time for problem solving. The Hound favors the Spanish solution: Pay immigrants to leave.

The federal government is bailing out failing financial institutions, the feds can write a check to send illegals home --- if in fact we really don't want them. After all, one of the major jobs of the federal government is protecting the nation's borders, which appear to be as sturdy as a sieve.

Spain's unemployment currently is running nearly 11 percent on the Iberian peninsula. That jobless rate is the highest in the euro-driven European Union. So, Spain's government has decided to pay the tens of thousands of non-EU people --- mainly North Africans, Turks, Slavs --- in the country to go back to where they came from.

Those that leave get a lump-sum payment of 40 percent of unemployment money once they renounce their residency permits and the rest once they get home. They also have to agree not to go back to Spain for three years, although after the three years they can recover their work and residency permits.

Sounds like a plan to The Hound. What say you, presidential candidates?

Forget that fence the feds are building along the Mexican border from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas. After seeing what Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran had to say about the region's immigration policy, let's build one right here along Lake-Cook Road. Curran, who just spent some time in the Lake County jail, says nearly a quarter of the inmates there are illegal aliens or aliens of questionable status.

And, he blames Chicago and Illinois authorities for letting illegal alien criminals stay in the U.S. even after they do the time for their crimes. Curran says he's had enough --- as have right-thinking people --- and wants to deport any and all illegals who happen to be patrons of the Lake County hoosegow. So far, he's convinced immigration agents to place 75 on a hold status for deportation. The overwhelmng majority --- 105 of the jail's 137 foreign-born inmates --- are from Mexico.

Wonder if Curran has discussed this issue with tough-talking Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz.?

At least this may touch off the long-awaited debate over illegal immigration some have been waiting for in this presidential election year. So far, both John McCain, who hails from Arizona, and Barack Obama, who hails from the "sanctuary" city of Chicago, have dance arm's length on the topic. They need to let voters know where they stand.

In the meantime, get the post-hole diggers ready.