On Illegal Aliens And Illegal Immigration…

Illegal aliens have invaded South Carolina.  Estimates are from a low 100,000 to a high of 500,000.  We have towns like Saluda SC that have been overrun by these third-world foreign nationals, who claim to be here for a better life, but consequently are destroying our social services and draining our limited financial resources that are available for our education, health care and law-enforcement.  Mr. Garcia-Quintana knows that the selfish-greedy employers who bring them here are exploiting illegal aliens.  These unscrupulous employers are the ones who need to be penalized for what they have done to our state and communities. 

Not only are jobs in South Carolina moving to Mexico and China, but also people who should not be here in the first place are taking the few jobs that we still have here.  Our African-American citizens of South Carolina have been affected the most by the illegal alien invasion.  Much progress in earned wages had been made by these citizens over the years just to have illegal aliens come in and undercut their wages by more than 50% in many cases.  But, it is not only the African-Americans who are affected. 

We still have many business owners who don’t engage in hiring illegal aliens.  However, they are struggling and must be helped.  It is hard for these honest and patriotic owners to compete with the selfish and greedy ones who only care about the bottom line, regardless of the damage that their hiring practices is doing to our state and our nation.  This must stop!

Our schools are having a hard enough time teaching our own citizens.  It is unfair to them and to our students to have to teach individuals who don’t speak English.  From 2005 and 2006 there was a 200% increase of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers as a consequence of the illegal alien invasion that we are experiencing.

It is a sad statistic that South Carolina public school system graduates about half of its high school students.  This means that the state already generates its own unskilled labor.  So we don’t need to import any unskilled labor.

Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime, as some would have you believe.  Not only have illegal aliens broken the law by being here without permission, but in order to work they have to resort to document fraud, forgery and identity theft, which in turn affects the lives of innocent Americans who are not aware of their identity being stolen.  In many cases the employer is facilitating the possession of these documents. 

Perhaps Roan Garcia-Quintana is best known for his tireless effort during the past two years to push South Carolina legislators to pass a law that would result in the self-deportation of illegal aliens in our state.  His research on immigration and his constant vigilance of the bills with which our legislators tried to deceive us, made Mr. Garcia-Quintana the person to go to in South Carolina on the issue of illegal immigration.  Roan traveled all over South Carolina to help citizen-groups deal with their illegal alien invasion. He testified at all but one of the state senate and state house of representatives’ public hearings on this topic.  He also testified before several county and city councils around the state. 

Roan Garcia-Quintana was able to bring together organizations from all over the state of South Carolina that usually don’t work with each other, to pressure our legislators into doing the right thing and give us a strong immigration law that will result in the self-deportation of the criminal alien invaders.  It is this ability to bring together various groups with a common goal that will give us a solid state senator in Mr. Garcia-Quintana.  Roan will be a senator that will work for the good of “we the people” and NOT the interest of the corporate elitists who are trying to run and ruin our state and our nation.

As your state senator, Roan Garcia-Quintana, will make sure that the law that was passed by the legislature in June 2008, THE SOUTH CAROLINA ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT, will be strengthened and not weakened.  As Mr. Garcia-Quintana often tells it, “the law that was passed is a good start.  It needs to be tweaked.  It needs to be strengthened.”

As your state senator, Roan Garcia-Quintana plans to introduce and promote the following legislation:

Instead of our state imputing a “license to hire” as is now the case with the law that was just passed, our state should impute a “license to operate.”  The “hiring” language in our current law makes the consequences of hiring illegal aliens somewhat vague. 

Anyone who is caught driving without a driver’s license will be arrested.  The immigration status of those arrested then will be checked while they are still in prison and before any bail is granted.  Those who are found to be here illegally will be reported to Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) so that they can be picked up and deported.

Anyone who is caught driving a vehicle without insurance will have the vehicle impounded.  Once impounded, the owner will have to show proof of SR-22 for one or two years.

English is the official language of South Carolina.  However, we need a bill to operationally define what that means.  The senate passed a bill earlier this year that would prohibit multilingual literature to be printed by our government agencies.  It died in the House of Representatives.  This bill needs to be reintroduced, promoted and passed!

What we want to accomplish is to STOP the enticements for illegal aliens.  To do that we must remove the license to operate a business from anyone who continually hires illegal aliens and make it unpleasant for illegals to live here in South Carolina. 

On Public Education…

Roan Garcia-Quintana has spent the majority of his civil-service career in education testing and research as well as teaching mathematics and statistics in the secondary and post-secondary system.  He has held administrative positions at the US Department of Education’s National Institute of Education under President Regan’s administration, and was director of Title I and Other Federal Programs at the Georgia Department of Education.  Mr. Garcia-Quintana brings with him a wealth of experience in the public education system of South Carolina and the US second to no one currently serving in the legislature or in any school system in the state.  However, Roan has always been an outsider working on the inside.  As your state senator, Roan Garcia-Quintana will use his expertise to introduce and promote legislation that will result in the achievement gains that South Carolina students need to attain so that they can be competitive in the technology revolution that the workplace is experiencing.

As your state senator, Roan Garcia-Quintana, proposes to introduce and promote legislation that will:

Once and for all fix the outdated and flawed funding system that is currently being used by the state to disburse our funds.

Provide a good assessment system for students and a fair and just assessment system to determine the quality of our schools and their districts.

Students should be tested every year starting with end-of-Kindergarten tests.  We cannot afford to wait until third grade to find out that our students are two grades behind in reading and mathematics. 

Provide student and parents choices as to where their child can go to school. 

Make it less bureaucratic for parents and teacher to create charter schools.

Change the teacher-education program by increasing the focus on academics and decreasing the emphasis on philosophies, psychologies and histories, which have never proven to do anything for advancing student learning or the pedagogy that results in higher student achievement.

Guarantee that each teacher has an environment conducive to learning.

Restrict the number of administrators that a school district will have.  District and School administrators should have to teach at least one course every year.  This should be a requirement for license renewal. 

Roan Garcia-Quintana also has researched the juvenile justice system, both at the state and federal level.  In fact, he consults for the US Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).  What Mr. Garcia-Quintana has found in this research is that most juvenile delinquent, by an overwhelming majority, have education-related problems.  Yet, there is no communication between the SC Department of Juvenile Justice and the SC Department of Education.  Until the two work together, little progress will be made in academics or behavior.

On Representing “We The People” Honestly and Responsibly…

Our legislators in Columbia, for the most part, don’t respond to the needs of their constituents.  They are totally out of touch with “we the people” and unfortunately, too much in touch with “them the lobbyists.”  They totally ignore the oath of office that they take.  They totally ignore our US and SC Constitutions.  Do you even know whom your state representative or senator is?  Have you ever tried to reach either one?  Do you ever hear from them, except for every two or four years when they are running for re-election?  The longer they stay, the less connected to their constituents they become!  The lobbyists make it too easy for our elected officials to ignore “we the people.”  This has to stop!

As your state senator, Roan Garcia-Quintana will abide by his oath of office, the State Constitution, and above all, the US Constitution.  He will represent the needs of ALL the people in State Senate District 7.  In order to stay in touch with his constituents, Mr. Garcia-Quintana will hold monthly meetings to provide feedback to the people in District 7.  At the same people will have the opportunity to provide feedback to their state senator as to their needs and their concerns.  He will return your phone calls and respond to your emails within 24 hours.  Communication is the key to any relationship.  A state senator is a public servant, which means a senator serves the people who live in the district the senator represent.  Mr. Garcia-Quintana has been a civil servant during most of his professional career.  He has served the people at the local, state, and federal levels.  Now he wants to serve you in Columbia, as your state senator.

Our legislators in Columbia have gone on a spending spree during the past several years second only to the spending spree that is Washington DC and is bringing our nation down.  In Columbia, our state house and senate members refuse to work with Governor Mark Sanford in reigning in the spending and abiding by our state constitution.  As your state senator, Roan Garcia-Quintana will work with Governor Sanford to limit spending and abide by our state constitution.  South Carolina cannot afford to continue to spend money, particularly at a time when our federal government appears to be heading for bankruptcy. 

As your state senator, Roan Garcia-Quintana will not vote for tax increases.  “We are taxed enough!”  Mr. Garcia-Quintana will introduce and promote legislation for a zero-based budget approach to funding, which will require state agencies to justify each dollar requested.  This will also help eliminate the practice of spending all the money allocated in a fiscal year for fear that the next year the agency will be cut by that amount.  Funds should be allocated based on needs and not on the amount of money spent the last year.