Don't Close The Golden Door
BY STATE SENATOR FRANK PADAVAN

I have spent much of my career in the New York State Senate addressing immigration issues both on the state and federal levels. A national debate has been sparked on immigration rules in the United States and public interest is at an all time high. In recent weeks we've seen the federal government battling over illegal aliens and how to handle them.

As chairman of the New York State Senate Majority Task Force on Immigration, I think it only prudent that the residents of Queens and all of New York are aware of the impact that federal immigration policy has on us - both financially and personally.

Over a decade ago, our Task Force released two reports reflecting extensive research and a series of public hearings: the reports concluded that New York State and its localities were spending over $5.6 billion annually as a result of federal immigration policy. That's a lot of our hard earned tax dollars.

These costs, including expenditure for social services, health care, criminal justice and corrections and elementary and secondary education have no doubt increased over time yet they remain unreimbursed by our federal government. I believe that any federal immigration legislation should right

this inequity. Before the results of these initial reports, no state in the nation had documented the impact of federal immigration policy at the state or local level.

More recent Task Force reports have documented the current wave of immigration, the largest in our history, finding that while 10 percent of the U.S. population in 2000 was foreignborn, the figure was 20 percent for New York State and 36 percent New York City. New York only follows California in terms of both percentages and real numbers of immigrants.

While the statistical and financial figures are important, what is more important when developing a strategy for dealing with immigration in the U.S. is the very real threat of terrorism.

How do we, as a nation, continue to be the beacon for freedom and prosperity principles that our nation was founded on and protect our borders from those who wish us harm? The answer is not an easy one, but it needs to be addressed and a great place to start is in our policy on immigration. We need to know the fate of the more than 700,000 illegal aliens currently residing in New York State. We need to know that our borders are safe, that's priority number one.

On the state level, I have introduced numerous bills to combat this issue. This year alone I have legislation, which has been passed by the senate, that would;

+Provide for the license revocation of employers of illegal aliens (S.403)

+Prohibit illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses (S.407)

+Require cooperation between police and immigration authorities (S. 409)

+Create the new crime of 'Human Trafficking' (S.3914B)

While I've done my best to resolve immigration issues on a state level, the bulk of the work needs to be done on the federal level. While our representatives in Washington are working to find an equitable solution to this problem, it is our duty to make sure that they know, especially the New York delegation, the issues that we face here.

Recently, I sent the entire New York congressional and senatorial delegation the reports from our Task Force in hopes that they would help them in their decision making process. It is my sincere hope that they consider the findings of the reports during their deliberations. States, like New York, who have larger populations of immigrants, are absolutely more affected by changes to a policy on immigration and I am glad to see that the issue has received so much public attention.

'The Golden Door", the title of one of our Task Force's reports comes from the closing line of Emma Lazarus's poem:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,

tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Nobody wants our Golden Door closed. We do, however, need to make sure it is well protected, that citizens and other legal residents are safe from the continuing threat of terrorist attack and that our policies are fair and equitable for all. State Senator Frank Padavan represents the 11th Senate District in Bellerose.