In his 1995 State of the Union Address, President Clinton said, “All Americans are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers.”

A decade later, in 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama echoed a similar sentiment, saying, “We all agree on the need to better secure the border and to punish employers who choose to hire illegal immigrants.”

Today, if you use the same terms to discuss this issue as Clinton and Obama, there’s a good chance you’ll be labeled a racist.

This is something we need to discuss, and we need to be able to discuss it without using loaded terms. That admonishment also applies to people who use disparaging terms when talking about people who entered the country illegally. I don’t think it’s helpful to talk about eating dogs and cats in Springfield.

But illegal immigration is a real concern with serious implications for our state and society.

For example, the state of Michigan is giving $500 per month in rent subsidies to “newcomers.” According to the Whitmer administration, none of this money is going to people who are here illegally, but the administration hasn’t been as transparent about the Global Michigan program as I’d like. I’m concerned that people may be abusing loopholes in our asylum law by claiming asylum only after they get caught. (A person who claims asylum is not considered an illegal alien.) And I want to make sure that taxpayers aren’t paying rent for people who entered the country illegally.

Illegal immigration has exploded under the Biden/ Harris administration. At least 10 million people have illegally entered the country since January 2021. That’s based on the number of apprehensions plus known gotaways. The true number is probably much higher because there are also unknown entries.

Ten million is like adding another state with a population the size of Michigan to our country in just three years. I think legal immigration is a good thing that makes our country stronger, but that doesn’t mean we should tolerate people who break the law, and you certainly should not have to pay for it.

Even the governor recognizes this is a problem, which is why in April she said that state assistance shouldn’t go to those in the U.S. illegally.

I have a lot of differences with the governor, but she is politically savvy enough to recognize that it’s really unpopular to give taxpayer money to people who are not here legally.

And yet, Democrats who control the House blocked a budget amendment to make sure that taxpayer money cannot go to people who are not here legally, and the governor still signed the budget into law anyway, even though it didn’t include that amendment.

Also concerning: Democrat lawmakers introduced legislation that removes the requirement that you must prove you are in the country legally to get a Michigan driver’s license. House Bill 4410 states that “For the purposes of this act, the citizenship or immigration status of an individual must not be considered in determining whether the individual is a resident of this state.”

Illegal immigration is not just a federal issue; it’s a top concern that I hear from constituents, right up there with inflation. Securing our borders and protecting our country from millions of unknown, unvetted entrants should not be a divisive, partisan issue. Securing our borders should be common sense.