Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones is actively targeting Ohio lawmakers to oblige them to create and promote legislation that would address the nation's current situation with illegal immigration.
Jones sent a letter to Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted and Senate President Bill Harris Nov. 6 urging the lawmakers to consider immigration reform within the state of Ohio. This action follows the bill Jones mailed in 2005 to the Federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for 15 prisoners believed to be illegal aliens currently held in Butler County Jail. The bill for $71,610 was calculated for 1,023 billable days in which the aliens were imprisoned since June 2005 at roughly $70 a day.
"Why should Butler County taxpayers have to pay for jail costs associated with people we don't believe should ever have been in this country, let alone this state, let alone this county to begin with?" Jones asked. "It's time the federal government should at least pay for the criminals they let stay here. If they don't want to pay for them, then they can deport them."
Jones, a longtime advocate of immigration issues, recently returned from a tip to the Mexican border in Arizona. While in Arizona, Jones met with immigration and customs officials to survey the situation firsthand.
"What struck me the most is how vast this task is," Jones said. "It's such a massive undertaking to try to stop this."
Jones learned during his trip that in Cochise County, Ariz., an average of 300 illegal immigrants are caught by border patrol each day while about 1,000 pass undetected into the United States.
"It's totally out of control," Jones said. "Don't believe that all these people are coming here for a better life."
In reaction to Jones's comment, Kelli Lyon Johnson, assistant professor of English at the Miami University Hamilton campus, said she was unsure if the statement merited a response.
"Who does he mean by 'these people'?" Johnson said. "People with brown skin? Who speak Spanish? What does he mean by 'better life?' One in which they can afford to eat? For their children or their mothers to eat? It is my belief that it is a myth that people come to the U.S. from all over the world to try to attain 'the American Dream.'"
Among the reasons Jones cited for the illegal immigration include drug trafficking and gang membership.
Johnson, however, said many people are driven out of their home countries because of poverty, exploitation and environmental destruction.
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"They generally do not want to leave their loved ones, their home ground, their communities and their memories to go find low-paying work in a foreign country," Johnson said. "But many of them are starving, and they feel like they have no other options. If you could save your mother's life by finding a job in another country that refuses you legal entry, would you?"
Illegal immigration is not an isolated problem for regions that share a border with foreign countries, Jones said. According to Jones, illegal immigrants do not stay long in states such as Arizona and Texas before migrating to other locations.
Although Jones did not provide specific data, he said there has been an increase in illegal drugs, specifically marijuana, in Butler County. Along the Arizona border, Jones said authorities told him they captured nine tons of marijuana and cocaine in just six months.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service document, "Estimates of Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: 1990-2000," 7 million illegal immigrants were estimated to be living in the United States. The number was 3.5 million in 1990. Of these illegal immigrants, the Office of Immigration and Naturalization said most resided in California followed by Texas and New York. In addition, 69 percent of the illegal immigrants were estimated to be Mexican with other large populations from El Salvador and Guatemala.
Jones said he is frustrated by these statistics.
"It is to a point where I am concerned, and you need to be concerned as the American public," Jones said. "You won't see it televised much."
Johnson described the issue as both difficult and emotional.
"I think that the complexity of the issue makes it hard to write about and is one of the reasons that Sheriff Jones makes it so difficult for Latinos in Butler Country to live peacefully," Johnson said. "He often puts them all in a single category without any dialogue or debate about the nuances of his problems."
Besides urging lawmakers to address immigration issues, Jones said he hopes organizations such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) will help encourage more attention to the problem.
Ira Mehlman, media director for FAIR, described the current immigration system as outdated for the modern problem.
"Our country's immigration policy has no interest in the needs of a country in the 21st century," Mehlman said. "We are divorced from the reality of our immigration problem."
Mehlman attributed the nation's inadequate immigration policy to the U.S.'s long history of immigration.
"Our country has nostalgia for the immigration of the past, but those benefits of welcoming everyone with open arms are gone," Mehlman said.
The subject of immigration reform is a sensitive one for Paula Gandara, Miami University assistant professor of Lusophone studies, which is the linguistic study of Portuguese.
"I do think there is a good amount of Hispanic and Latino immigrants in Ohio and that the number is growing," Gandara said. "I cannot complain, myself being an immigrant, of the legal treatment I have received in this country, but I'm part of a minority of well-studied immigrants."
Gandara, a native of Brazil, sympathized with the illegal immigrants.
"The others have to face not only the difficulties that come with being in an illegal situation, but also the ignorance and lack of interest in their culture," Gandara said. "Ignorance creates distrust and ill feelings and living with that on a daily basis is a constant source of stress for everybody."
Like Jones, Gandara agrees that attention must be given to the subject of immigration.
"It is quite obvious this country needs an immigration reform-a lengthy and complex issue-that should at least provide basic notions about the 'others' throughout the country," Gandara said. "My role is simply to fulfill my task as an educator the best I can and to help out by spreading as much as I can and all that I have to teach about Brazilian, Portuguese and African cultures."
Gandara left one piece of advice.
"Build bridges so we can cross the gap of ignorance-that's the first step," she said.
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