Tony Dolz

Our state is under siege. Although we are rich in ideas, resources and live in a beautiful state with an enjoyable climate and a geographic location that gives us a competitive edge, we are struggling financially and environmentally; and we are painfully aware of our congested and increasingly deteriorating quality of life.

The main cause of the deterioration of our quality of life in California, not all of which can be measured monetarily, is:

The loss of jobs and the depression of wages of Americans unwilling to work for the wages of a desperate and docile illegal alien

The loss of jobs and the depression of the middle class wages of engineers, technical workers, nurses and teachers due to our government's sale of H-1B and derivative visas to cheap third world workers

Unsustainable, chaotic and exploding illegal immigrant population

The destructive and corrupting influence of $150 billion in drug and human trafficking at our border

The crime and human suffering at the hands of primarily illegal immigrant gangs that ensnare our youth and threaten our future

Millions of foreign nationals from many parts of the world show their disrespect for our values, as a nation of laws, by making their first act upon arriving in this country the violating of our borders. Time Magazine has reported that 3 million aliens will sneak illegally through our borders this year. Our government does not know who these people are, where they came from, where they hide in our country and more importantly whether or not they have terrorist and criminal backgrounds or intent.

On Monday, January 24th, 30 United States law enforcement officers had a showdown on United States soil with Mexican army troops at the service of criminal cartels escorting a shipment of thousands of pounds of drugs. The Mexican army drove military vehicles onto our side of the border and protected their position with 50 mm caliber machine guns. The Federal government has officially reported hundreds of similar incidents in the last two years. The President of the National Union of Border Patrol agents, T.J. Bonner, contradicts the government's report and claims that this is a far more common threat to Border Patrol agents and local residents than stated. As Christ Simcox, President of MinutemanHQ.com has said, “ If heavily armed members of the Mexican Army are crossing the border with impunity guarding drug shipments, what's to stop al-Qaeda from doing the same thing with weapons of mass destruction? The Chief of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, in response to alarm over these incidents said that the American people's concerns over these armed incursions were “over-blown”. Christ Simcox is unimpressed by Secretary Chertoff and has called for his resignation. Many see the Bush's Administration enabling of illegal alien employer's addiction to desperate and docile cheap illegal labor as the cause for this security blind-spot.

Our neighbor, the Republic of Mexico , has a law similar to our own which prohibits any foreigner from entering or leaving Mexico except at a legal point of entry. Yet, our Southern neighbor prints Immigrant Guidebooks in Spanish instructing would-be-illegal border crossers in Mexico, whether they are Mexican or al-Qaeda, how to cross into the United States illegally.

Why doesn't Mexico do its part to secure our common border? The reason might be the sizeable yearly contribution to the Mexican economy of $150 billion in drug and human trafficking and the 17 billion dollars in remittances from illegal aliens living in the U.S. . Do not expect Mexico to help bolster our border security; it is not in their economic interest.

America 's most pervasive and costly addiction is not to drugs, but to cheap and docile illegal workers. Our nation is now awash with 15 to 20 million illegal aliens that form a visible underclass. This massive influx of unassimilated foreigners with values at variance with mainstream middleclass American values and their anchor babies, who are reared in the shadows of our society, will eventually change the political DNA of this nation, unless we act now.

Crooked unethical employers have for the past few decades become addicted to cheap illegal labor, due to the Federal Government's failure to protect our borders. These crooked employers, with the help of the elected officials who betray us, put out of business ethical employers who pay living wages and benefits. Both the displaced American workers and the underpaid illegal workers seek tax-paid social services to survive. Keep in mind that our government subsidises the agricultural sector by allowing milions of illegal aliens to come to do "seasonal" work knowing that these workers will abuse the social support system between seasons. If illegal aliens work seasonally and if they earn minimum wage, then how much income tax could they be paying. Do you know what it cost to educate ONE child in our District schools? It is over $7000 per student per year! Do the math. According to the Federation of American Immigration Reform, illegal aliens cost the State of California almost $8 billioin per year. Overall each household is paying $1183 to cover the $10.5 billion in State costs to provide services to people who do not have the right to live in our country. This contributes to the not-much-talked-about REAL COST of cheap labor, the part that you as a tax payer are saddled with.

Kevin, a satellite dish installer that I know, tells me that over the last two years he has seen an explosive increase on the number of non-English speakers who his former clients now hire to do the work he used to do, only at a fraction of the cost. In three years he has gone from making a good living to raise his family, to working harder than ever and not making ends meet.

Big businesses, represented by their well financed lobbyist, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are well aware of the role of supply and demand on the cost of labor and goods. They like to tilt the scale in their favor whenever possible. On the one hand, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of their rich big business members, asks Congress for higher duty rate on imported goods in order to drive prices higher; meanwhile, they lobby our government to open the floodgates of illegal immigration and H-1B and derivative visas in order to drive the cost of labor (our wages) down.

On Thursday, February 2 nd , at the 3M Company in Minnesota , one of America 's best known and respected high technology companies, President Bush expressed his frustration that Congress had set a cap, imagine that, of 85,000 foreign workers per year admitted into the United States to take high paying American jobs under the H-1B visa plan. He would like to see that cap blown to one million foreign workers or more. In our free-market economy companies have to increase the wages and benefits on certain hard to fill positions in order to keep or attract employees. That is fair - but not in the view of President Bush and some businesses in America . The companies that have President Bush's attentive ears dream instead of luring foreign workers from countries with standards of living a fraction of that of the United States and the correspondently low wages in order to take the wind from under the sails of American engineering and technical workers wage negotiating power.

Who looses when there is an oversupply of labor? The American workers - you and me.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, some of their big business clients and our influenced elected representatives, are gearing up to reward illegal immigrants and those who benefit the most, the employers, with a Guest Worker Amnesty program. Guest Worker Amnesty will give an estimated 15 to 20 million illegal immigrants already in our country and their law-breaking employers a free pass. This is a slap in the face of both law-abiding immigrants and law-abiding employers.

Wouldn't you rather see Americans return to jobs at living wage levels and reducing the REAL COST of cheap labor by making much of the tax-supported social services that support illegal immigrants and displaced American workers unnecessary?

The Guest Worker Amnesty proposal is being sold to us by the President and the Senate as a “temporary” worker permit program. Temporary guest worker programs DO NOT work. Look at the situation in Germany . At the behest of employers hungry for cheap labor, Germany instituted a “temporary” Guest Worker Program 20 years ago. Those temporary workers, most from extremely poor countries such as Turkey and Morocco , are still there, about 7.8 million of them or about 9% of the population. Soon after their arrival they brought their families and relatives. Among the very large Muslim Guest Workers in Europe it is their religious tradition to go back to their home countries and bring back an arranged marriage wife. This practice easily swelled the number of admitted immigrants and the social support programs necessary to support them. Today 12,6 % of the German people are unemployed. That is the highest level since the 1933 depression that brought Hitler to power. 1200 German citizen are loosing their full-time jobs per day! But guess what? The temporary German Guest Workers did not go home and will never go home whether there is work to be done or not. On the face of German unemployment they are clinging to the tax-payer supported social support system instead.

France has a huge unassimilated Muslim population. It all started with Guest Worker Programs to satisfy the demands of employers in need of cheap desperate foreign workers. Today's unemployment in France is 8.9%. The foreign Guest Workers displaced French workers; and depressed wages as it is to be expected. Now that there is an over-supply of workers, the Guest Workers don't have jobs, but they are not going home either. Instead they are protesting and burning cars.

In regards to “temporary” immigration programs, look no further than Americas ' own “Temporary Protected Status (TPS)” program given to Central Americans in 1998. We have 300,000 immigrants under the TPS still here in 2006 and there is no sign that the Congress has the will to ever end their temporary status as was promised to the American people when it was passed into law. Those 300,000 temporary workers now have anchor babies born in the United States . Children born in America even if both parents are in the country illegally automatically become U.S. citizens under the current interpretation of the law. They utilize public schools and other public services. That is what happens with “temporary” immigration programs, they do not work! This is a betrayal of the citizenry by some public elected officials who are fully aware that temporary immigration programs do not work. Our elected representatives carry this self-serving torch for the benefit of heartless big business's agenda to exploit cheap and docile labor by whatever means they can get it.

How do you measure the quality of life? Our schools which were the best in the country are now dumbed-down and the pace of learning has slowed to a crawl due to the massive number of non-English speaker who have no legal right to be here. Sixty of our emergency hospitals have closed due to the high numbers of uninsured patients. Many of these uninsured patients are illegal immigrants who utilize emergency rooms for non-emergency treatment. This may include cold symptoms as well as prenatal services or even deliveries. Public hospitals can close down as well, when there aren't enough tax dollars to keep them open. Our elderly in need of emergency care are being hurt by this abuse brought about by crooked employers and their insatiable addiction to illegal labor. Hiring illegal aliens is a crime.

Our government's failure to secure our border and enforce immigration law for the benefit of unethical employers hurts our State and our family budget. The cost of illegal immigration to California is $10.5 billion or $1183 per household!

Our roads are clogged and damaged by massive numbers of illegal aliens that often drive without licenses or insurance. You know the feeling of clogged streets to work, school and vacation spots. Clogged roads and highways translate into environmental harm, increased road repair costs and a lowering of our quality of life.

The most recent Melvin Field Poll shows that 81 percent of Californians consider illegal immigration a serious problem and 49 percent consider it alarming. It is time that we face reality and do something. That is why I have filed for the 41st Assembly District representing the cities of Santa Monica , Malibu , Malibu Heights , Pacific Palisades, Topanga, Westlake Village , Agoura, Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills and Calabasas.