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Bill undermines our political structure

On Monday, Aug. 27, Illinois' Gov. Bruce Rauner signed SB 31, an unpopular bill that designates Illinois as a sanctuary state by forbidding the arrest or detainment of its nearly 500,000 illegal aliens and shielding them from federal immigration laws.

For those who are trying to convince Illinoisans that SB 31 is not a sanctuary bill, consider that sanctuary policies are any policies that seek to frustrate, impede or prevent federal enforcement of immigration. By enacting SB 31, Illinois took any discretion away from individual local governments, police departments and sheriffs to set their own policies and choose to comply with detainers or to consider immigration status as a basis for even the most temporary investigative stop. Merely because the bill did not also impose every other conceivable sanctuary policy doesn't mean it didn't make Illinois a sanctuary state.

Did Gov. Rauner ever consider that once illegal immigrants learn Illinois has become a sanctuary state, there will be an influx of new immigrants flooding into the state? Can Illinois afford what this will cost an already bankrupt state?

Illinois is being invaded, pure and simple. The Democrats want their votes, the businesses that hire them illegally want their cheap labor (to the detriment of citizens looking for entry-level jobs), and law enforcement would rather protect illegal immigrants from arrest than citizens from illegal immigrants.

Illinois is sadly crumbling before our eyes, with the ever-increasing heavy tax burdens, the embarrassingly high crime rate and now the enactment of a law that undermines the cornerstone of the American political structure and will spawn litigation.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff

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