Heard this one? "Immigration is not a hot issue right now - people are concerned about jobs, the Georgia budget cuts, the mortgage meltdown, education and health care."

Nonsense. The far-left illegal alien lobby that screams "racial profiling" and "hate," in defense of the uninterrupted supply of resentful victims of geography needed to expand the entitlements and political power on which it feeds, never stops talking about "immigration." It is a thriving industry. But, in the Newspeak of the 21st-century open-borders business, sneaking past border security is "immigration" and illegal aliens are "immigrants."

During the presidential campaign, candidates spoke a great deal about immigration and amnesty, but mostly in the Spanish-language media. Candidate Barack Obama repeatedly made the promise of a repeat of the legalization and path-to-citizenship scheme of 1986 in his first year in office. Candidate John McCain raised the stakes on Univision, the Spanish-language television network, pledging to present a legalization plan to Congress "on my first day."

Not for the last time, we should note that real "immigrants" do not require legalization.

U.S. Border Patrol Agents are talking, too. They report apprehending more than 1 million illegal aliens at our borders in the 2008 fiscal year.

Apprehensions always have been a dependable method of estimating the volume of illegal entries into our country. The optimistic estimate is that one of four illegals is caught crossing.

It also was estimated last year that illegal aliens had taken about 5 percent of American jobs, although it's probably "xenophobic" and "mean-spirited" to mention that while our unemployment rate soars.

Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway is talking plenty about illegal immigration. In a 26-day operation that ended in February, 917 victims of geography who eluded the U.S. Border Patrol and were looking for a better life were located in his jail, including 13 charged with murder, 154 with felony drug charges, 23 charged with child molestation and 11 charged with kidnapping. Ahhh, the "rich tapestry."

Mortgage lenders, having been allowed to illegally make mortgage loans to illegal aliens for years, may be silent on the issue now - but wait until they start loaning their taxpayer-funded bailout money. If you listen closely, you will hear the whispered sales pitch to the newest batch of illegals: "The coast is clear, come on in for a loan."

I call them "banksters."

That federal law that makes it a crime to harbor an illegal alien or to encourage him to remain in the United States? Forget about it. The Bush administration did and the Obama administration will. Follow the money.

For the illegal aliens who make it past Border Patrol, it is handy that children born here become eligible for Medicaid until they are 18. It certainly seems to be a big help to the family budget of the illegal willing workers who provide the "cheap labor."

For readers who remain convinced health care is somehow a separate issue from the illegal immigration crisis, stay out of the local emergency rooms, which are no-cost for illegals. A trip there will destroy your fantasy.

The law saying we must pay for the education of illegal aliens is enforced nationwide. In two languages.

Just an observation, and likely somehow "un-American," but because we know illegal aliens migrate out of communities where American law actually is enforced, shouldn't we at least try that concept out in Georgia before we cut more services to citizens?

• D.A. King is a recognized authority on illegal immigration and president of the Cobb County-based Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for immigration law enforcement and secure borders.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, April 09, 2009