By: Andrea Shea King
The Radio Patriot

State lawmakers in Arizona and Mississippi aren’t waiting for the feds to fence off the southern border.

The Arizona state legislature on Wednesday filed a Border Fence Fund Bill, joining the State of Mississippi in an unprecedented effort to get the border fence built by the States, bypassing the Federal Government to do it.

Representative Michelle B. Ugenti of Arizona filed the bill on behalf of the North Phoenix Tea Party, the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots and the Mississippi Patriots. Representative David Burnell Smith of Arizona co-sponsored the bill.

Mississippi’s bill, SB 2255, which was authored by Senator Joey Fillingane, will fund the border fence by imposing a user fee on money wire transfers out of the country from people unlawfully present in the United States. SB 2255 passed in the Judiciary A Committee on Feb. 1, 2011 and is now awaiting a vote from the Finance Committee before going to the floor of the full Senate.

Arizona’s HB 2677 is very similar. It will establish a fund using fees on remittances collected from those unlawfully in Arizona that will be used to build the border fence.

Arizona and Mississippi are urging other States to join them now in passing this legislation in their States. If just half the States participate, $1.2 billion dollars can be raised annually for the border fence using a 5% fee.

Churches, missionaries, non-profits and legitimate businesses are exempt from the fee in SB 2255.

The United States spends $113 billion dollars annually on education, medical care and incarceration of illegal aliens.

$46 billion dollars annually in remittances are sent to other countries instead of being spent here. In some countries remittances are the number one source of their GDP.

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I think we can all agree that it is time for the individual States to start protecting the very lives of American citizens and the budgets of communities throughout the Nation. States often send aid to other States when they are hit by disaster. Americans getting killed in our border States every day certainly qualifies. States will need to change the way we proceed when it comes to a point that the Federal Government shirks their responsibility for decades.

Typically, State lawmakers are initially in shock with the concept of sending money to another State, even temporarily. However, once they realize the benefits that their State will gain, they are all for it. Other legislators who would rather spend the money for other illegal immigration charges, are only putting their finger in a dam that has burst while their town is under water.

The citizens of the United States have spoken clearly on this issue for years. They want a border fence built and protected. They feel very strongly about our border security, while Washington DC apparently is only concerned about where their next vote will come from. Only until Americans accept another amnesty bill first will the Federal Government take our National Security seriously. Then they will argue about where the money will come from for years.

States are capable of defending the Nation if we work together. After all we are the United States of America not the divided States of America. We embrace personal responsibility.

Americans have a voice to propose ideas in the Tea Party movement. Call your State Legislators and tell them to join Mississippi and Arizona.

For more information, click Mississippi Patriots mspatriots.com

North Phoenix Tea Party http://originalnorthphoenixteaparty.ning.com/

Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots http://phoenixteaparty.ning.com/