It has long been common knowledge that Dalton, Ga., has a high percentage of Hispanic residents, many of whom were drawn to the city and the surrounding area by jobs in the textile industry. In fact, today, almost half of Dalton’s 33,000 residents are Hispanic.
Many Hispanics in Dalton are hard-working U.S. citizens or immigrants who have come to the United States lawfully. We are grateful for their contribution to society.
Unfortunately, however, an uncertain but probably fairly high percentage of Dalton’s Hispanics are illegal aliens. Though we appreciate the work ethic demonstrated by many of them and we understand why they seek better economic opportunities than they can find in their homelands, they consume expensive educational and other social services paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
In addition, in this time of extremely high unemployment, some illegal aliens are taking jobs that might otherwise be filled by citizens or legal immigrants. That is probably especially true in Whitfield County, Ga., where Dalton is located. Whitfield County’s unemployment rate is a painful 11.1 percent. It is unjust that potentially thousands of legal workers may be denied jobs because those positions are filled by illegal aliens.
But encouragingly, there is at least anecdotal evidence that some fairly simple law enforcement efforts appear to be reducing the number of illegal aliens in Dalton.