Illegal Immigration 

There are 12-20 million illegal aliens in American because we accommodate and reward their illegal behavior. If we want to end illegal immigration, we must secure our borders and stop the incentives that bring them here.

First, We Must Secure Our Borders

We cannot reform our broken immigration system until we secure our borders. If we don’t secure our borders, illegals will continue to come into our country. It is a national security issue when we do not know who is in our country.

We Must Also End Incentives that Encourage Illegals to Come Here

Anchor Babies: I support legislation that would change the law so that if illegal aliens have a child on U.S. soil they would not automatically become a citizen.

Education: I have introduced legislation to prohibit federal dollars from funding colleges and universities that knowingly admit illegal immigrants.

Healthcare: I believe that no illegal alien should be getting Medicaid. I helped pass a law that requires states to verify that those who apply for Medicaid are in this country legally.

Welfare: No illegal alien should have access to our social services. These services are meant for American citizens who are in need.

Employments: Illegals should not be given jobs. I have introduced legislation and voted for bills that increase the fines on businesses who knowingly hire illegals. I also support mandating the use of electronic employment verification programs to help businesses identify illegals during the hiring process. This will help reduce the burden on businesses while making sure illegals are not being employed.

No Drivers Licenses/ID: I don’t support illegals getting any form of government ID. It allows them to drive on our roads, open bank accounts, and get on planes while unlawfully present in the country. We saw this happen on 9-11, and it is an issue of national security. I introduced a bill to strip federal transportation funds going to North Carolina if they didn’t stop giving illegals driver’s licenses. North Carolina finally woke up and changed its flawed DMV laws. Driver’s licenses are not a right. They are a privilege and illegals who broke federal laws by coming here don’t deserve them.

Once we secure the border and start to enforce the law, we can start working to fix our broken immigration system.

Right now there are close to 1.5 million people in line for citizenship. Around 300,000 are just now at the background check stage. We must speed up this process and make the background checks stronger and more efficient. I have proposed that we bring back retired agents to help relieve some of the backlog, so that the government can update the system.

We must also find ways to ensure temporary workers, and students with visas, return home after their legal time here has expired.

I have been hard at work on this issue:

• I’m co-chair of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus, which promotes policies to ensure Americans don’t lose jobs to illegal aliens.
• Voted for the Secure Fence Act. This bill adds more fencing on the southern border, increases agents on the borders, adds funding for technology to help guard our border, and ends the catch and release program.
• Voted for the REAL ID Act, which provides clear federal standards for the issuance of driver’s licenses. This went into effect in 2009. I’ve also co-sponsored bills to close off the loopholes in the REAL ID Act to prevent states like New York from giving illegals driver’s licenses.
• Voted to increase fines on businesses knowingly hiring illegals.
• Introduced TRUE ID Act, which forced NC to change its driver’s license law so illegals couldn’t get licenses.
• Introduced the Scott Gardner Act, which would deport illegal aliens convicted of a DWI.
• Worked to bring an Immigration Court to NC, which opened in 2008.
• Helped bring the 287(g) program to our area so that deputies can check the legal status of inmates in our jails. Mecklenburg, Gaston, and Union counties currently have this program.
• Voted to increase ICE tools and resources to combat illegal immigration in our area.
• I signed on as an original co-sponsor of the bipartisan SAVE Act, which seeks to secure our borders, clarify and enforce exiting immigration laws, and set up a practical employer verification program.

We have started making headway on this issue, but I will continue to fight for the tools and resources our community needs to combat illegal immigration.