SEND YOUR ALABAMA CONGRESSMEN A MESSAGE Alabama taxpayers should NOT pay to support illegal aliens when we have to sacrifice urgent needs of our own children, our elderly, and our needy citizens. The U. S. admits more than one million legal immigrants yearly. The problem is with nearly a million new ILLEGAL immigrants each year. By law, illegal aliens cannot receive public benefits; however, they use their children born in the United States to evade this law and get free public benefits. * Alabama taxpayers alone spend over $112 million every year on families of illegal aliens for education, emergency medical care, and incarceration. But there\'s much, much more. Illegal families with children born in the U.S. also get public housing and rent assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, Supplementary Security Insurance (SSI), unemployment benefits and other public assistance, also at a cost of many millions of dollars each year paid by taxpayers. * About 16% of Alabama\'s 4.4 million residents live in poverty, according to U.S. Census figures, and State officials say we must find additional money to deal with this issue. A new state panel was formed recently. Also, State officials are worried that poor and disabled Alabama residents who rely on Medicaid for health care may see their service cut back in 2008. Every million dollars our state spends on illegal aliens is a million dollars we cannot spend on our needy citizens. * The problem has gotten so out of control that illegal alien households throughout our nation receive a higher percentage of welfare than our own citizen households! * 45% of anchor babies are born to unwed Mexican teenagers. 65% of these lack a high school education. * Costs for illegal families are tied directly to, and are probably the biggest contributor to, shortfalls in entitlement programs and the federal deficit. These costs result in higher taxes and higher insurance costs for U.S. citizens. * At a time when baby-boomer Social Security is underfunded, when college graduates have fewer higher-paying job opportunities because more jobs are going to foreigners, when more lower-paid jobs are going to illegals, and when deficit spending is weakening the dollar, we can ill afford to pay for free benefits for people in this country illegally. Who\'s in control Congress or bureaucrats Bureaucrats, not Congress, made the decision that taxpayers should pay to support illegal aliens. Federal law requires that illegal aliens receive free emergency health care and free education. But federal law prohibits illegal aliens from receiving other free public benefits. Yet bureaucrats made the decision to give illegal families free benefits without the knowledge or consent of citizens and without a vote by Congress. Our citizens are shortchanged and taxpayers are overburdened to support illegal aliens based on decisions by federal officials. H.R. 1940 was introduced in Congress on April 19, 2007 to overturn the expanded definition of citizen in the 14th Amendment by bureaucrats and to close this loophole. What was the intent of the 14th Amendment The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 to ensure that newly freed slaves could not be denied U.S. citizenship. They added the jurisdiction clause to make sure that children must qualify through their parents, and that their parents must be lawful residents. The authors of the 14th Amendment emphasized that the definition of citizen would not apply to foreigners or other aliens. The 14th Amendment was NOT intended to be a magnet for illegal aliens to use their children born in the U.S. to get free benefits, but that\'s exactly what\'s happening. If the U.S. would ban automatic citizenship for children born to illegal aliens, the U.S. would get rid of a powerful magnet for illegal immigration and, at the same time, solve funding crises without tax increases. No politician can truthfully say he/she cares about family values, low taxes, welfare reform, improving education, reducing the federal deficit, and solving problems of healthcare and Social Security if he/she does not support banning automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens. Voters can send a message to our U.S. Congressmen to correct the abuse of the 14th Amendment and end automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens and other non-citizens. Congress can do this by co-sponsoring H.R. 1940 and voting yes on this bill when it comes to the floor for a vote. Passage of H.R. 1940 will be a giant step to rein in runaway bureaucracy and stop out-of-control spending. Everything associated with illegal immigration including birthright citizenship goes against conservative values of being tough on crime, fiscally responsible, protecting America\'s sovereignty, keeping taxes low and the bureaucracy in tow. You can make a difference! Please sign the petition now and ask your family members and friends to also sign. Every signature counts! I will make sure that every Alabama U.S. Representative gets the message that you expect all seven of them to be fiscally responsible and represent the best interests of Alabama residents. THANK YOU for taking action.