When the news broke that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich had been arrested by the FBI on a laundry list of corruption charges, I had mixed feelings about what awaits the man who was my governor before my wife and I legally crossed Wisconsin's southern border three years ago and took up residence in 'America's Dairyland.'
Naturally, I was pleased to learn that 'Blago' probably is headed for a fairly long stay in a federal prison, but whatever sentence he receives won't be long enough to suit me. That is because none of the charges in the feds' 78-page complaint include what he has done to make the state in which I was born and worked my entire life an even bigger magnet for illegal aliens. Latest estimates show that nearly 600,000 illegals are living on the backs of Illinois taxpayers.
Never reluctant to boast that he is the 'son of immigrants,' Blagojevich wasted no time in hanging out the welcome sign for illegals. In May 2003 he signed into law a bill giving in-state tuition to illegals, and he always has supported the idea of giving them drivers licenses so they 'could get to work.' Fortunately, numerous attempts to 'make the roads safer' in Illinois by teaching illegals the 'rules of the road' have thus far failed.
In late November 2005 Blago, working closely with the left-wing Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), created by executive order the New Americans Immigrant Policy Council (NAIPC) for the purpose of helping immigrants 'assimilate' into Illinois society. Among the 15 council members is a representative of the ICIRR, which has received thousands of dollars from the Donors Forum of Chicago for the purpose of pushing legislation that would give driving privileges to illegals. NAIPC's national advisory board members include Frank Sharry, formerly of the National Immigration Forum and now head of America's Voice, and Cecilia Munoz, who had been a senior vice president with the National Council of La Raza before recently being named to President-elect Barack Obama's White House staff.
- During the March 2006 illegal alien demonstrations in Chicago that included appearances by Mayor Richard M. Daley and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Blago helped inspire the crowd when he told them in Spanish that he 'understood' their values and concerns.
Recent revelations about Blago's very brazen and bizarre chicanery even though he knew for three years that he was being closely watch by the feds help explain another of his equally bizarre actions: Last August he signed a bill 'prohibiting' employers from using, E-Verify, the federal government's highly effective voluntary workplace verification program that determines whether an individual can work here in accordance with federal law. In other words, if Illinois employers attempted to comply with federal immigration law they would find themselves in hot water with their state.
Blago's asinine attempt to circumvent our immigration laws (with the help of the General Assembly's Latino Caucus) was to have become effective at the beginning of this year, but it was put on hold after the state was sued by the Department of Homeland Security. The last I heard a new bill that substitutes the word 'discourages' for 'prohibits' is under consideration.
