[StBernard] Continuing the Fight Against Illegal Immigration

[Westley Annis]

Dear Friend,


	

Knowing of your interest in fighting illegal immigration and securing our
borders I wanted to let you know about legislation I recently introduced to
combat the growing illegal immigration problem.  Last week as Congress
started its work in the new year, I filed three bills to continue working
toward our goal of reducing illegal immigration. 

	

The first bill I introduced would prohibit aliens and their spouses and
dependents from claiming social security credit for work performed while in
the United States illegally.

	

Each year hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens cross our borders into the
United States.  Unfortunately, a loophole exists that allows them to draw
social security benefits based on their working illegal jobs.  We should not
be rewarding illegal aliens for breaking our laws, and this bill will help
remedy this situation. 

	

U.S. law prohibits illegal aliens from receiving social security benefits,
but some benefits can be applied retroactively if the illegal alien leaves
the country and legally reenters at a later date, or if he or she obtains
legal status to reside in the United States.  My bill would prohibit illegal
aliens from being credited for income earned while living and working in the
United States in violation of U.S. immigration law. 

	

I introduced another bill that would restrict Community Oriented Policing
Services funding from going to cities with sanctuary policies that bar local
law enforcement officials from asking about the immigration status of
suspects or reporting illegals to Immigration and Custom Enforcement for
deportation. 

	

Some municipalities across the country have put in place sanctuary policies
that stand in clear opposition of federal requirements. Despite laws
requiring them to verify the immigration status of suspected illegal aliens,
these municipalities have instructed city employees and law officers to not
report illegal aliens residing in their communities to the federal
government. To ensure compliance with federal law, my bill withholds COPS
federal funding for cities that do this. 

	

I also reintroduced legislation that requires that the identify of all
individuals who are not American citizens to be verified through a social
security number, a passport number and the country of issuance, an alien
identification card number or any combination of the three in order to
ascertain their immigration status for the purposes of opening banking or
credit card accounts.  To prevent the use of matricula cards as a form of
ID, the bill specifically designates unexpired passports as the only
acceptable form of identification issued by a foreign government.

	

We have already seen several instances in Louisiana of banks stating their
intent to accept matricula ID cards for the purposes of opening bank and
credit card accounts. The governments that issue these cards do not attempt
to ascertain the status of immigrants.  Preventing the use of
questionabledocuments as an acceptable form of identification will add
another layer of security to banking processes.  As our nation faces a
deepening financial crisis, this extra layer of security becomes even more
important.

	

As the chairman of the Border Security and Enforcement First Caucus, a
coalition of senators focused on bringing about real immigration reform with
attrition through enforcement, I'll continue to work on these and other
measures to reduce illegal immigration.

Sincerely,
David Vitter
U.S. Senator