Pawlenty Shows Leadership on Illegal Immigration

As most Minnesotans know (for our readers across the country, indulge me) a good barometer of strong, common sense public policy is when it is soundly criticized by Star Tribune's anti-intellectual "journalist" Nick Coleman.

Today, Nick levels some heavy criticism against Governor Pawlenty for taking a strong stand against Illegal Immigration today.

Ergo, Governor Pawlenty got it exactly right.

Well, I suppose it isn't enough to judge what is right and correct based solely on finding out how Nick Coleman sees things and choose the opposite. But it is a pretty good gauge.

The point is that Governor Pawlenty stood before the people of Minnesota today and laid out a common sense plan to manage the current and growing problem of Illegal Immigration in Minnesota (hopefully using his mega phone as the chairman of the National Governor's Association to take his plans nationwide).

Before I go through the specific proposal, let me first highlight a word that is often lost in this debate among some (read: Nick Coleman).

That word is "Illegal."

il·le·gal /ɪˈligəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[i-lee-guhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –adjective

1.	forbidden by law or statute.

2.	contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc.: The referee ruled that it was an illegal forward pass.

One would assume that a clear understanding of the essence of the word would lead towards general and widespread opposition to "Illegal Immigration." But alas, that isn't the case.

Not one proposal established by Governor Pawlenty today targets lawful immigration. I can't speak for the Governor, but I know him to have a good heart, and I am pretty sure he has an unparalleled level of compassion and respect for good people from other parts of our small world who seek to immigrate to the United States respecting the laws governing that process.

If the very first act upon arriving to our open and welcoming country is to break the very laws designed to welcome them, what can we expect of their time here thereafter? Perhaps it isn't a perfect gauge of future behavior, but it should certainly give us pause.

So Governor Pawlenty has developed a handful of common sense proposals to help deal with this issue:

• Forbidding city policies that restrict local law enforcement from asking about immigration status as part of routine business. Minneapolis and St. Paul currently have such policies. Barring such a prohibition, Pawlenty wants to reduce the state aid to cities with such policies.

• Fining employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

• Increasing the penalties for identity theft and use of fraudulent documents.

• Expanding the definition of human trafficking.

Pawlenty also announced today that he used his gubernatorial power to:

• Require the state to check the immigration status of all new employees using the federal e-verify system, an electronic system designed by the federal government to help employers easily check a potential employees' immigration status.

• Strengthen the partnership between state law enforcement and corrections officials and federal immigration officials.

Pawlenty said the steps are necessary to respond to illegal immigration.

"If you have a country that's based on the rule of law and the rule of law gets knowingly cast aside and we allow illegal behavior to continue then the rule of law is diminished and one of the cornerstones of our country gets eroded in a pretty pronounced way," he said.

"These are the types of steps we believe that Republicans, Democrats and a broad cross section of Minnesotans can agree are reasonable steps towards better enforcement of illegal immigration and our country and our state need that," he said.

(Excerpted from Article)

Much of this was bold, executive orders, but much of the rest requires legislative action.

When the legislature gavels down in February, perhaps they will have the foresight and wisdom to follow the Governor's lead on this issue.