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Donna Locke Published 10:02 a.m. CT March 18, 2017 | Updated 20 hours ago

City leaders pledge to keep immigration-friendly policies despite threats to pull funding Time

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Jason recounts a conversation that he had with one mom whose kids fear parents' deportation after election. Jason Gonzales, Kyleah Starling / The Tennessean

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Zacnite Vargas speaks about her concerns, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. Vargas is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) nursing student at Belmont University and is taking general education classes at Trevecca. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean

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The president-elect appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes" to talk about promises made throughout the campaign season. Newsy

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Three organizations held a "March Against Hate" through the "heart of Nashville's immigrant and refugee community" on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016, to protest Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election. Tom Stanford / For The Tennessean

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A look at the socioeconomic and environmental impact of a 2,000-mile long wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to deport about two to three million undocumented immigrants, speaking in a pre-taped interview that will air Sunday night. Time

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The number of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. remains steady at 11.1 million. USA TODAY

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How mayors across the U.S. are defying Donald Trump on immigration

Kids fear parents' deportation after election

DACA may be endangered by Trump presidency

Trump is sticking with campaign election immigration policies

March Against Hate supports immigrants in Nashville

Impact of Donald Trump's 'Great, Great Wall'?

Donald Trump plans to deport up to 3 million immigrants

Number of undocumented immigrants in U.S. stays same for 6th year

Immigration(Photo: Aleksandar Stojanov, Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Many of us are outraged by lawbreaking, not by law enforcement. Sob stories go both ways.

Most of our illegal immigration comes from Latin America, mainly Mexico. The Mexican government has long interfered in our country's affairs and has pushedto get millions of Mexicans into our country in a blatant money and power grab.

In 2016, Mexico got more money from remittances its emigrants sent home, a record $26.9 billion, than it received from oil revenue. Mexicans aren't the only migrants doing this. Tennessee should place a fee on these remittances, as Oklahoma does.

Seventeen years ago, I viewed a tape recorded undercover by off-duty Latino officers of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in Georgia. Several INS officers there hadformed an immigration-control activist group that allied with a group I was in.

These immigration-enforcement officers were furious, and much of that anger was directed at our government, which was, and is, undermining its own citizens. Our government's policies have greatly increased the dangers immigration and local police officers face.

The Georgia tape showed a Mexican official instructing a room of Latino illegal aliens on how to evade U.S. laws and how to tap into our welfare system. When presidents talk about deporting only "criminal aliens," actually all adult illegal aliens are criminal aliens.

That's what those words should mean, not just murderers and rapists. Illegal aliens have to commit a number of crimes, such as fraud and driving without a license to remain in this country.

As for welfare, more immigrant households are getting it than are households headed by our native born, according to Census data and a study from the Center for Immigration Studies.

Our laws say that, except for refugees and asylum seekers, we're not to admit immigrants likely to become burdens on the American people. Well, that happens every day, and a profit-making industry is devoted to bringing in refugees, automatically eligible for welfare.

Assorted research indicates that immigrants who come here with modest levels of education cost us far more in services than they pay in taxes, especially if they have children. Our country is generous, but we can't save everyone.

The American Farm Bureau, among others, has lobbied for amnesty for illegal aliens and for bringing in more foreign workers. A documented "Latinization" of the fields was accomplished decades ago by systematically running American, primarily black, workers out of those jobs. This history was reported by Dr. Monica Heppel, a former director of research for the U.S. Commission on Agricultural Workers.

Sixteen years ago, the Tennessee Farm Bureau lobbied our legislature for driver's licenses for illegal aliens. That law was passed, then essentially repealed after the mess it caused in this state and after the terrorist attacks in 2001.

The H-2A visa program provides an unlimited supply of legal, temporary guest-workers to agriculture. The Farm Bureau isn't satisfied with that and wants amnesty that would legalize current illegal workers, freeing them to seek other jobs, meaning the Farm Bureau would then call for more foreign workers.

We've had amnesties. The trick one under President Reagan was supposed to be the last. It wasn't.

Visit the Center for Immigration Studies' Web site, cis.org, for the truth about what is happening to your country.

Donna Locke is an immigration-control advocate who lives in Columbia.

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Illegal immigration part of a 'money and power grab' - The Tennessean - The Tennessean