Are we racists?
    Our country has never had so many immigrants who came here illegally.  The lines between legal and
    illegal are blurred.  What if we could change all that?  What if there was a way to significantly reduce
    the number of illegal aliens in town?  Then folks would feel better about things.  Remember, people
    aren’t anti-immigrant.  The thing that upsets them is the high number of illegals.  There is a key
    distinction here that Latino activists would rather have you forget about us.

    What difference does it make whether they are legal or illegal?  If you ask that question, we must
    agree to disagree.  We have no answer for those who proclaim, “No human being is illegal.”  We
    simply don’t believe that.

    So, how is it that insisting on the enforcement of immigration laws reduces racism?  Let us explain with
    this example.

    Basic Pilot, the forerunner of E-Verify, was developed as a tool to combat discrimination in hiring.  
    With such a high percentage of the foreign-born here illegally (Pew says it’s 30%) it is easy for
    people to misidentify foreign-looking job applicants as illegal aliens.

    The way to fix this problem is to demand that government at all level do their jobs.

    As an example, some employers, wishing to avoid the wrath of Immigration Police during a workplace
    raid, might simply avoid hiring anyone who looked foreign to them.  But that would discriminate
    against the 70% of immigrants who are here legally.

    The answer is a verification system based on Social Security and Immigration data.  The answer is E-
    Verify.  AFLA supports the use of E-Verify in its proposals.

    During the Clinton years, an immigration commission was formed with Barbara Jordan as its chairman.  
    Jordan, an African-American, was a Texas politician and a civil rights leader.  In 1994 that commission
    wrote this:

    Reducing the employment magnet is the linchpin of a comprehensive strategy to reduce
    illegal immigration…

    A better system for verifying work authorization is central to the effective enforcement of
    employer sanctions.  

    The Commission recommends development and implementation of a simpler, more fraud-
    resistant system for verifying work authorization.  The current system is doubly flawed:  It is
    too susceptible to fraud, and it can lead to increased discrimination against foreign-looking or
    foreign-sounding authorized workers.

    In examining the options for improving verification, the Commission believes that the most
    promising option for secure, non-discriminatory verification is a computerized registry using
    data provided by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the INS.

    - U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, 1994 Executive Summary, Page xii

    In conjunction with this commission, Jordan also testified before Congress and said:

    This verification system will reduce the time, resources, and paperwork spent by employers in
    abiding by the requirements of immigration law. It also should reduce any potential for
    discrimination. Employers would no longer have any reason to ask if a worker is a citizen or an
    immigrant--the only relevant question is: "What is your social security number?"
    -  Barbara Jordan, Congressional Testimony, August 3, 1994

    Now, some people in town want to call us prejudiced and racists for suggesting that we use legitimate
    programs like E-Verify to call out the illegals and hold them accountable for their fraudulent ways
    when it comes to getting jobs.

    We wish we understood if these people approve of illegal aliens and want to let them continue to live
    in Elgin, or if they have some other motivation for their name-calling.