What A Nevada Governors Can Do About Illegal Immigration 
By Ken Record

Remember this.  Whenever you hear, “Immigration is a federal problem and there’s nothing a governor can do about it,” you are hearing a cop out.  Now, some governors and gubernatorial candidates are weasel wording by implying that only border state governors can do something.  Hello there! The last time I checked Minnesota, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine and New Hampshire were still part of the union.

Perhaps they haven’t kept up to date or rely on Nevada media for their information.  For the moment, I’ll not dwell on the big bucks the cheap labor folk, such as the construction and hospitality industries, can drop into a campaign.

One quick note.  Every candidate for Nevada governor has driven through the Carson Valley.  The farmers and ranchers there use Mexican agricultural labor, but there are no colonias outside Yerington, Minden and other towns.

Those counties are not paying to deliver citizen children to illegal immigrant children or provide for their education.  Instead these are legal workers who come on H-2B visas and leave at the end of the work period.   

At least 40% of the Clark County jobs which use illegal aliens could be handled by legal workers on H-2B visas.  Well, forget those big bucks and go to the people.  The over-whelming majority of Nevadans do not support continued illegal immigration.  

Read this piece and understand what a Nevada governor can do.  Every one of these actions has been undertaken by governors or thrown into the legislative sausage grinder with the support of a governor.  

First a governor must lay the groundwork by appointing a commission to report on the cost or benefit to Nevada of illegal immigration.  Minnesota’s Governor Pawlenty has set up a good structure for cost/benefit analysis; however, it does not account for the millions of dollars sent out of state by remittances. 

Then, clear the air on the important item of citizenship.  Request a ruling from the attorney general regarding an earlier 1997 opinion by former Attorney General Del Pappa to the effect that no breach of the law occurs when a non citizen registers to vote.  This ruling is still being quoted by union goons in Nevada.

Introduce legislation per the models in Georgia and Arizona which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and showing Nevada picture id at the polling place before voting.  As we’ve noted in Arizona, this issue crosses party lines and legislators who oppose it do it with popular peril.  Now matter how hard the unions and far left may beat the drum on this issue, it’s dammed hard to sell non-citizen voting to a Democrat in Lyon county.

Make certain that Nevada agencies recognize that not all illegal aliens are Latinos and all Latinos are not illegal aliens.  Clark County has a very cosmopolitan illegal alien com-munity and young Asiatic women without visas are a staple of the local sex trade.  It’s also one of the many reasons we should disabuse any candidate of pushing Washington to give China visa-free status for entry into the US, no matter how many bucks Chinese can drop on our casinos.

Order the Nevada Highway Patrol to have officers trained and on hand at all times to assist in verifying immigration or citizenship status and trained to work in cooperation with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  There are a number of good training programs available which are run by former law enforcement officers.  NHP has released two illegal aliens with no identification who later caused fatal accidents and another who went on to gun down another man. 

Order that each prison have corrections officers who are trained to check immigration and residence status of inmates.  First, this step will assure Nevada has a better chance of being reimbursed for the felon’s incarceration.  Second, it will mean we are not paying for probation when deportation is deserved and readily available. 

Again, the Ely and Carson City prisons have released illegal aliens to the public without even so much as the protection of parole.   Mandate that all illegal aliens will be delivered to ICE in Reno or Las Vegas on completion of their terms whether or not there is an existing immigration hold order on them.

Release an annual report of the number of illegal aliens incarcerated in Nevada. 

Be very forceful as the bureaucratic howls when the DMV begins compliance with the Secure ID Act.  It is not that difficult to accomplish.

Order a review of procedures to insure that the universities, the state college and the community colleges are using proper identification when granting resident tuition per the terms of 8 USC Sec. 1623.

Refuse to sign any extension of the Millennium Scholarship program which continues to award scholarships to illegal aliens. 

Make certain state welfare workers understand which kinds state assistance require legal residency or citizenship. 

Require verification of Social Security numbers for all contractor and subcontractor workers on state project.

Stand behind legislation which prohibits the expenditure of state funds for the benefit of illegal aliens.  Specifically, this would prohibit Clark County from building day worker shelters with money provided by the state to provide housing and shelter for the homeless. 

A governor cannot stop illegal immigration to the state, but a governor can and must pro-tect citizens from illegal immigrant crime and pull away the welcome mat for more illegals to come.

Kenneth Record
2200 Fiero Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89134
702-869-5007