Russ Karpisek of Wilber, who, in his third year at the Legislature, is leading an effort to fight illegal immigration.Last week, Nebraska's 49 state senators named their priority bills, according to the Unicameral's Web site. Senator Karpisek's LB 403 was named a priority bill by the Legislature's Judiciary Committee.
Senator Karpisek's bill -- if it wins approval in three separate Unicameral floor votes -- will do three things according to the summary found on the Unicameral's site:
- It will ensure that illegal immigrants do not receive federal, state or local welfare benefits.
- It will require public employers and businesses that contract with government to check the status of newly hired employees against the federal database known as E-Verify.
- It will require businesses that apply for state tax incentives to use E-Verify in the future.
The Times has oft noted the challenges that illegal immigration has brought to nearby Crete and the surrounding area. The problem is becoming especially dangerous with the proliferation and increased violence of Mexican drug gangs, which are more active than ever in Nebraska according to media accounts. One would be more than naive to think none of this gang activity is taking place in our backyard -- or that gang members are not actively seeking employment or welfare benefits while conducting their other activities.
We applaud Senator Karpisek for his comprehensive immigration legislation. Moreover, we note that Senator Karpisek, a Democrat, introduced the bill on behalf of Governor Dave Heineman, a Republican. Partisanship should never get in the way of protecting taxpayer dollars or the taxpayers themselves.
We are also glad to see the Karpisek bill has already received first-round approval by a vote of 45-2. Nice job, senator.
* "Illegal Aliens will take 300,000 of the 2 Million Construction Jobs to be Created by the Stimulus Bill" (MSNBC)
ReplyDelete* "In a study of 55,322 illegal alien prisoners in the U.S., researchers found that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. Nearly all had more than 1 arrest. 38% had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32% had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26% had 11 or more arrests." (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007)
Our communities across the nation are going to hell in a handbasket while we all sit on the sideline and watch. Reminds me of a song a few years ago called "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next." We've all become the "gutless wonder" and "pacifist" lamented by the song.
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next
wow you guys will print anything. get a clue
ReplyDeleteAnother illegal immigration rant by the Dorchester Times. Pathetic. There is no such thing as an "illegal" person. Did you people even monitor the lyrics of that trash written by 90s loser? it talks about "shooting fascists". That is a direct threat and I thought that wasn't allowed on your website???!!!
ReplyDeleteSenator Karpisek what about LB 93 what is your stand on that. How about helping kids that don't have a say. How many kids have to ride in cars while there parents smoke. You can't tell me for a second that the kid has an option to ride in that car or not. A parent says lets go and the kid has to get in the car. I have wrote you many times on what your thoughts are on this issue. Maybe you will finally answer it on here.
ReplyDeleteI am in Arizona and we have illegals.Yes they are illegal if they do not have permission to be in this country.Arizona is first for kidnappings and breaking into foreclosed homes.I also think that any children of these immigrants should not automatically become citizens.
ReplyDeleteThe Nazis are coming, the Nazis ar coming ... and they're not the ones who want to protect the border or the taxpayer. They are the ones who want to tell people where they can smoke and let the state take kids away from parents who smoke. Brownshirts are everywhere ... DON'T TREAD ON ME.
ReplyDeleteRuss,
ReplyDeleteI have known you since your mother and my grandmother worked together at Saline State Bank in Wilber. You were a toddler at the time. I was excited when you replaced Jeanne Combs as our State Senator. I thought you would bring innovative, progressive ideas to our district. A longtime mutual friend had assured me that job creation and keeping Nebraska graduates in the state would be your top priorities. Sadly this has not been the case. Like your predecessor, you have pandered to the base which is always helpful at re-election time. You stated in an interview that you sold the butcher shop founded by your grandparents because you could no longer afford to pay for healthcare as a self-employed individual. You and so many Nebraskans share a similar fate. Why not fight for healthcare reform? Finally, one of the saddest days in Saline County history was the day Vise-Grip (Petersen Manufacturing) closed its doors and moved to China. During that long build-up to October 31, your constituents heard not one word from you. It would have been nice to know that you were there fighting the good fight. You still have the Czech accent of your ancestors, why not honor their heritage and become a Knight of Blanik.
The state is not taking kids away from parents who smoke. On that issue though, you would rather have the parents smoke in a small confined space with the kids inside so that before they even grow they will have lung cancer from second hand smoke. Smoking is just completely stupid. With all the studies in this day and age how can any start smoking. I am so glad that Nebraska will be smoke free this summer. Hopefully the next stage with deem cigarettes illegal all together. That will definitely increase the health of the nation.
ReplyDeleteWhat about "illegal alien" do you not understand? You can go to the Court House in Wilber, and in Manotowac County, Wisconsin and find the naturalization papers on every one of my Bohemian, and English ancestors who came to this country. On those papers they swear allegiance to the United States, and renounce FOREVER, allegiance to the country of origin.
ReplyDeleteThere is a LEGAL way to immigrate to this Republic, and if you do not, you are of ILLEGAL status. A criminal. You have subverted the laws of the land, and of the State you reside in. You show no respect to God or man. Might want to read Romans 13!
As someone in law enforcement, I can tell you there are plenty of good immigrants, and some of them are illegals. But many have no regard for out laws. Accidents happen daily where illegal's have no insurance, no license, and do not even use their real names. They are cited to court and never show up. They are arrested only to find out this has happened multiple times. They just move on and use another name, and maybe even YOUR social security number. It costs us millions of dollars locally to pay for the losses in not only personal property, which hikes YOUR insurance, but even in loss of life. Health care costs, have inflated because of illegal aliens using our helath care facilites. Our own people find it hard to get assistance in these hard times, because the children of illegal immigrants have been using up our social services and funds. Our courts are being logged up with court cases of illegals who simply do not care, for many do not have any allegiance to the United States or our laws.
The Federal government is responsible for this, and they have done little to help, which only encourages more illegal immigration. And many of those so called immigrants are criminals to begin with. They come here to commit crimes. Aid and abet gangs and illegal drug profiteering.
Are there some of these illegal immigrants who are basically "good people?" Of course, but then again, if they are good, why did they come here by subverting the law?
I am not a coward, and will not hide behind "ANONYMITY to say what needs to be said. And Saline County should be proud of their Senator Karpisek. I wish he were ours. And I do not always agree with him, but he has a quality that is rare in one in politics. He tells you what he thinks, and is honest, even if he does not agree with you.
I am sure I will be excoriated in this blog for voicing my opinion, and so be it. But I will not hide behind a curtain and throw barbs like the Wizard of OZ.
God save the Republic!
JR Wolfe
York
Interesting that your story talks about saving taxpayers dollars.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of government agencies in the county, and Dorchester, where a lot of taxpayers dollars are wasted.
Dont look the other way, we can save alot of money locally if we clean up our own backyard, before we work on others.
I'm very ambivelant when it comes to the topic of illegal immigration. The only way to really fix the problem is to go after the companies that hire undocumented workers, which this bill does to a small extent (government funding). I don't know if it will really affect the meat packing industry, the primary cause of illegal immigration in Nebraska.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, as long as a company is presented with sufficient documentation (even if they know it isn't legit, i.e., fake), they are no longer on the hook for any wrong doing.
This is the primary cause of undocumented workers in the U.S., and it was done to make certain manufacturing segments of our society more profitable (they could pay workers less - "bust" the unions), hence the laws were written to allow employers to "wink" at the forged documents and face no ramification when the worker is later shown to be undocumented.
I bet bar owners would love to have the same leniency. That is, if someone presents fake id and drinks in their bar, bar owners would love to be let off the hook. Then they could also "wink" and become more profitable. They could only be so lucky. As it stands now, they are punished quite harshly if minors drink in their bars (repeated offenses can lead to their liquour license being revoked), even if they presented fake id. Thus they work hard to make sure minors don't drink in their establishments (trust me, I know). The same would be true for large industry if they knew that by hiring illegal workers that they would be faced with sufficiently large fines.
That said, I do think that most undocumented workers are hard working good people. We have had dangerous gang problems in this country for the better part of 50 years, and most of them weren't in this country illegally (most all Hell's Angels are legal). I have worked with people who I suspect are undocumented and can atest to the fact that most are genuinely good people who care for their family as much as I do. I also think deporting all of the undocumented workers in this country isn't at all feasible and is probably morally wrong for the ones who have bought houses here and work hard.
So you can see, I'm quite ambivalent when it comes to this issue. I don't know the answer, but I also strongly feel that if this country really wanted to address this issue sufficiently well they could do so by simply going after the business owners/corporations who hire such workers. But there in lies the rub. Clearly the people in power in this country don't want to do that, so I guess that makes it really a non issue for me as the people in power are generally wealthy and don't want to upset the gravy train for them or their friends. So for someone without much wealth or wealthy friends, it is a waste of my time to worry about it (I've already spent too much time thinking about it).
Wow, do I sound cynical? And I'm not Richard!!
Homer
Way to go, Russ. You're right on!!
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the comments from Vested Czech above, the term PROGRESSIVE is code word for UNITE! WE ARE ALL SOCIALISTS NOW.
ReplyDeleteTo that I say, over my dead body!
To Homer!
ReplyDeleteYou make some good points, but I am old enough to remember the amnesty programs of past Presidents. Especially my favorite, Ronald Reagan. It is part of the problem today, because once there was amnesty, more came knowing, and rightly so as it turned out, that there would be further amnesties. It was one of Reagan's few mistakes.
Presidents' Wilson, Hoover, Truman, and I believe Eisenhower deported millions of illegal immigrants. It was needed to uphold the law.
Is it "fair" to illegal's who buy property? Is it fair that we have to be taxed to support their criminal activity? Many of the sub-prime loans that got us into this economic pickle we are currently in, are to illegal immigrants.
Many of these people, good or bad, have no intentions of becoming U.S. citizens. They have no intentions of assimilating into our society. They did not have special language schools for my Bohemian ancestors, or the Swede;s, German's and other ethnic non-English speakers. And as I said in my previous post, they all RENOUNCED allegiance to the old country.
Several years ago, I had a very good neighbor, who was from Mexico. He had a very beautiful family, and he was my friend. We even exchanged gifts at Christmas. He was a devout Evangelical Christain man. But he was an illegal immigrant. When he moved his family to Madison, I.C.E. came and rounded them up, and he and his family were deported. And rightly so, he broke the law. He is no different than any one else who breaks the law. Should he have been exempt from punishment? You as a citizen are subject to the law, so why isn't an illegal alien?
I have compassion. I wear my heart on my sleeve, but if the law is ignored, it only promotes more law breaking.
Should employers who employ illegals be prosecuted......you bet they should. It is because of this encouragement that people are tempted and do break our immigration laws.
AS far as progressivism......socialism is slavery. And I cherish my God given rights. I will continue to cling to my Bible, Constitution, firearms, and you can keep the "change"!
No hiding here!
JR Wolfe
York
Go Huskers!
ReplyDeleteRuss,
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that you would become such a prominent legislator when we were growing up. By the way, I just read that your wife's aunt and uncle spent the week at my parent's house while visiting from CA. How do they rate? When I come home, I have to stay in a motel!
Nebraska is the #2 cattle producer in the country. It is cost-effective to have slaughter houses close to the source. Many native Nebraskans do not and cannot handle the work (although tough economic times may force them to find the inner toughness). Taking illegals out of the meat packing industry would assuredly hurt the industry. For how long who knows!
ReplyDeleteBeef Eater
Beef Eater!
Just wanted to confirm JR's information.
ReplyDeleteBack during The Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL
illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens that desperately needed work.
Harry Truman deported over two million Illegal's after WWII to create jobs for returning veterans.
And then again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 3 million Mexican nationals! The
program was called 'Operation Wetback' so that American WWII and Korean veterans had a better
chance at jobs. It took 2 years, but they deported them!
Now, if they could deport the illegals back then, they can sure do it today!! lf you have doubts about the veracity of this information, enter Operation Wetback into your favorite search engine and confirm it for yourself.
Senator Kaprisek and other readers may be interested in this great article about immigration in Nebraska.
ReplyDelete“Let's Remember: It Was the State Policy In LB775 That Launched The Influx Of Illegal Workers”
http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2009/03/23/49c723dda518a
The link to the previous story was cut off. Here is the entire link.
ReplyDeletehttp://nebraska.statepaper.com/
vnews/display.v/ART/2009/03/23/49c723dda518a
"DHS Signals Policy Changes Ahead for Immigration Raids"
ReplyDeleteHomeland Security may start targeting employers rather than workers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com
Russ, your bill has been signed by the governor. By the way, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for public benefits, so this law is just political pandering at its worst. Russ, why don’t you work on diversifying Nebraska's economy so it is less dependent on farm subsidies? Diversification might also create more-white collar jobs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing something on this, Senator! Good job.
ReplyDelete