Inyo County Sheriff

For several months now, alarm bells in Lansing have been ringing uncontrollably as we are warned of the state’s impending financial collapse should we fail to balance our budget and keep the cost of doing state business down.

Unfortunately, many in Lansing are only willing to pay lip service to the problem rather than finding solutions to it. I choose to focus on the concerns of the taxpayers from the 74th district and their agenda, rather than the Lansing agenda of raising taxes and partisan bickering. For this reason, I am happy to join other Republicans in support of the Taxpayer’s Agenda. An important part of this Taxpayer’s Agenda is the creation of several task forces to address the issues that many in Lansing choose to neglect.

I am excited to be a member of the Border Security and Immigration Reform, which focuses on homeland security and seeks ways to limit the negative impact that illegal immigration has on Michigan’s economy.

Taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize illegal aliens in this state, and state programs are the vehicle that allows this. Medicaid costs have been increasing by millions annually, and the last thing we need is the added cost of care for people who should not be here in the first place.

Other Midwest states have gone to a system where a Medicaid applicant must prove their citizenship before receiving assistance. After doing so, those states have seen a 5 percent reduction in Medicaid expenditures. If Michigan were to implement a similar program and achieve similar results, we could see a drastic decrease in Medicaid spending totaling roughly $125 million.

Illegal immigrants who go to hospitals for emergency care rarely have the means to pay for their care. However, due to current laws, hospitals are not allowed to deny treatment based on inability to pay. As a result, the hospitals must count this “free” care as a loss, therefore passing the cost of this care onto other paying customers.

Spectrum Health incurred charges of more than $700,000 last year alone on illegal immigrant health care, and they expect that figure to increase this year.

Michigan’s employment environment is also polluted with illegal immigrants. In fact, there have been several instances in which new projects have been hijacked by illegal immigrant workers. In the Thumb area of Michigan, the Harvest Wind Farm project so highly touted by Gov. Jennifer Granholm was being staffed by a contractor who hires not only out of state workers, but employs illegal immigrants as well.

After first chiding the Republicans for forming the Immigration and Homeland Security Task Force, the Democrats have recently introduced legislation embracing some of our ideas. However, their half-hearted attempts don’t stand up under scrutiny.

Although they say they want to punish employers who hire illegals, they would only do so by canceling state contracts with these companies and requiring them to pay back incentives. No other punitive action would be taken. This is unacceptable.

The latest task force hearing held in Jenison focused on homeland security threats that Michigan is now plagued with because of illegal immigration. Testimony included representatives from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Ottawa County Sheriffs, 9/11 families for a more secure America; and Jon DeWitte from Congressman Peter Hoekstra’s office.

The discussion centered on of law enforcement personnel, security officials and other concerned community members. We were successful in our mission to conduct a frank discussion in ways that we can end the unnecessary burden of illegal immigrants on our state.

As my colleagues and I travel the state we look forward to hearing ideas from a diverse background.

– Rep. David Agema represents the 74th House District. He lives in Grandville.

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