The New Hanover (N.C.) County Commissioners have passed a resolution supporting Arizona’s immigration state law. The resolution also calls on our State Legislature to pass a similar law.  Of course that opportunity was missed as North Carolina’s General Assembly just ended their session with the Democrat majority in charge not even allowing two separate resolutions to come up for a vote, requesting permission to bring up legislation similar to Arizona’s. In a recent NC Civitas statewide poll, 64% of North Carolina voters support the Arizona immigration law.

Yvonne Pagan, a member of N.C. Governor Beverly Perdue’s new Hispanic/Latino Advisory Council, was quoted in the Wilmington Star News as saying ”North Carolina isn’t facing the same (immigration) issues as Arizona”.   What planet is Ms. Pagan on?   Secondly, why isn’t there a Governor’s Advisory Panel on illegal immigration or a Governor’s Panel of reducing unemployment in our state?  I suppose Ms. Pagan isn’t aware that illegal immigrants are costing our state over $1 billion per year (see NC Impact) and that illegal immigrants are holding over 150,000 jobs in our state which have nothing to do with agriculture.

Isn’t it also interesting that the Obama administration’s Department of Justice is suing the state of Arizona over its state immigration law, which mirrors federal law.  All the while there are “sanctuary cities” in the USA which give illegal immigrants a free ride and thwart federal immigration law, but this same U.S. Department of Justice hasn’t gone after those city governments!   Maybe we need to change the name of the Department of Justice to the Department of Preferential Bias.

And to coin a phrase from Congressman Bilbray, “The Obama Administration is denying the State of Arizona the opportunity to do something, while the federal government takes the opportunity to basically do nothing.”

FAIR estimates that illegal immigration costs North Carolina taxpayers $1.3 billion annually. Read the full report to learn more about the impact of illegal immigration on NC.

NC Listen advocates these 4 basic immigration policies to combat illegal immigration and increasing legal immigration:

1. Enforce Immigration Laws and Control Our Borders
2. No More Amnesties
3. Return to Lower, More Sensible Legal Immigration
4. No More “Guest Worker” Programs – Americans Need Jobs

You can learn more about these policy recommendations on our Policy Page.