Posted on 05/03/2006 9:50:29 PM PDT by Jeff Head
I wrote Senator Larry Craig, one of my senators from Idaho, a direct letter in March regarding the immigration issue. It is posted on the internet HERE
I received a letter in the mail yesterday from Senator Craig (I had received an email from Senator Crapo earlier), wherein Senator Craig detailed a response to my issues. In that response he expressed a healthy desire for a stronger border security but expressed doubt that the border could be sealed, and that massive deportations could be accomplished because they would also cripple major U.S. industries. Therefore he felt a guest worker program had to be a part of the solution.
This is my respectful response to him.
May 3, 2006
Senator Craig,
I am in reciept of your letter to me dated, April 20, 2006, regarding the immigration issue, in response to my correspondence to you in March. There is much in your letter that we agree on, and I thank you for the correspondence from that respect.
However, there are a couple of areas where I must take issue with you and do my best to, as your constituent, and one who has supported your campaigns in the past, to share with you my heartfelt and direct feelings.
You indicate in the letter that any nation that fails to manage its borders canoot be secure at home. This is absolutely true and our borders have been mismanaged and not strongly enforced for several decades. Despite catching more people recently, the floodgates are still open and they simply must be closed. A double fence barrier should be built along the entire length and our ostuhern border and then patrolled by reserve and National Guard units from California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
We could build or re-open training bases near the border to augment this.
The fact is, we are not managing our border and any attempt to devise a plan to manage the border issue by in any way rewarding those people who violated our laws and soveriegnty to get here simply cannot be put forward. I am extremely serious about this...it has become, for me, an issue like abortion where my vote hinges entirely on a correct approach and response to the issue. Any guest worker program that in essence says, "well, if you are already here and have been for a good while, we are going to help you along to citizenship so you are not a bad statistic for us anymore," is wholly unacceptable and will be met with my vote against a candidate who puts forward or supports any such plan, just as I would vote against any candidate who in any way supports abortion.
You indicate in your letter that, "even if blanket deportations and sealing the border were possible, they would collpase entire U.S. industries."
Senator, this arguement does not fly with me. First of all, those two things are possible and wholly warranted in the circumstances. We have illegal aliens marching in our streets demanding the vote and in many cases, demanding that soveriegn areas of our country be broken away from this nation. The Brown Berets of Aztlan, a militant group calling for just that, led the march in San Diego on May 1st. They are brazen and they are crass, and they are in our faces. Deportation is called for in such instances. Sealing the border is also not only possible, in my estimation, given your own statements in the letter to me, in a post 911 era, it is required.
As to industries shutting down, if we have reached a point where entire industries are dependent on illegal activities, it is high time we pay the price to shut them down. Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry...it should be shut down. Industries hiring illegal aliens are breaking our laws and need to be adjusted, regardless of the pain, so they become legal. The way to do that is not to reward them for the illegality by changing the laws, which are good laws. It is to begin enforcing them.
I may sound harsh and disrespectful, I assure you I am not. I am just passionate about this issue as I believe tens of millions of Americans, in fact a majority of Americans, are as well.
I have thought about this and talked about it in great detail. Here are some recommendations:
1) Begin cracking down hard on companies that hire illegal aliens. Fine them, and where warranted, criminally prosecute them and incarcerate those who knowingly violate the laws. This will, as much as anything else, help alleviate the massive deportation issue because it will dry up the draw.
2) Outside of emergency services for indigent type situations, end all social services for illegal aliens, including the anchor baby interpretation of becoming a US citizen. These provisions along with those identified in item number one, would help dry up the draw and most illegals would then deport themselves.
3) Offer all illegals here a ninety day grace period to turn themselves over to ICE for deportaiton, which if they do, and pass a criminal background examination, will allow them to be favorably considered for future legal immigration after they return home and apply for the same through the legally proscribed method. It will also put them in favorable contention for the eventual guest worker program that will be available after these enforcement provisions have been in place for at least one year.
4) After the ninety days, and when items one and two are also in place, begin an aggressive program to identify and round up and deport remaining illegals. If they are caught after the ninety day grace period, make sure they know that they will never be considered for legal immigration or guest worker status in the United States.
5) In conjunction with these steps, also plan for and implement the following:
a) Building the double fence barrier along the border with physical and electronic checking, and cleared land on either side of the fence and between the two, topped woith razor wire.
b) Reopen existing or build new training bases along the border for the California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas Reserve and National Guard and have them conduct training operations in concert with regular army units also stationed on the border to monitor and interdict any illegal entry into this nation.
c) Perfomr the above in concert with ICE efforts.
d) Develop a volunteer auxillary of civilians who assist with the monitoring function. Similar to the Coast Guard auxillary. Thosuands would sign up to assist.
6) Once the fence is complete and the other provisions are in operations for at least a year, introduce a temporary guest worker program for any needed jobs. Make sure the emphasis is on hiring Americans first wherever possible and incent teenagers to take these jobs. For what cannot be filled, then introduce the guest worker program that includes the following provisions:
a) Applicants must pass a criminal background check.
b) Terms will be for three years, renewable at the employers discretion up to a year.
c) Guest workers cannot bring their families with them.
d) Any conviction for a crime other than a minor misdemeanor invalidates the permit and the worker is returned home after serving the sentence.
e) Guest workers are not automatically on the road to citizenship. They still must apply through the normal legal method for citizenship.
7) Illegal aliens who are caught entering, or residing in the country will be, after this program is implemented, deported after a five year incarceration where they are put to work on public projects. Each additional apprehension adds an additional five years to the next sentence, up to a maximum of 20 years.
Senator, such a program could be implemented if our politicians had the will. The majority of American people already have the will. The House of Representatives is very close to these types of provisions already. I urge you to reassess your position on some of these issues. We have reached a point with this crisis, and in the current circumstances of global terror, where we simply must have the will to accomplish these types of direct and straight forward measures.
Please visit the following links and read the details of Representative Kings proposal (Iowa Fifth District) and the stories of the vistims of what ammounts to this invasion by illegal entrants to our country.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1623720/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1625726/posts
The United States always has and always will welcome those people of the world who want to come here in the legally proscribed method and accept and bear allegiance to our constitution and the fundamental moral values that make it work. That is why we are free, that is why we are prosperous, and that is why we have what we have here. By breakling the law in the first place to come here, the very essence of that compact is broken and connot be fixed until the illegal alien returns to their home and seeks to come here in the legally proscribed method. In the mean time, thousands of crinimals and potential terrorists stream across into our nation, masked by the herd of illegals, who themselves are working a fundamental and dangerous change on our culture and society by their numbers and their willful disavowal of our laws.
Thank you for your attention to what I know has been a long letter.
Sincerely,
Jeff Head
Emmett, ID
Here's what we need Congress to pass:
The Illegal Alien Children Non-Citizenship Act (2006)
An Act To clarify that the citizenship status of the children of persons illegally in this country.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all offspring of persons who are illegally in the United States of America at the time of birth are not automatically granted U.S. citizenship by virtue of said birth in the territorial U.S.A.
canoot?
anel?
My idea of legal and illegal is also tied to right and wrong. Ideally, that is what should be the case.
I do not believe the founders envisioned a relativistic society where right/legal and wrong/illegal were changed on a whim or based on who was in the state house or capitol building, or who was able to lobby the best for their particular special interestr. While it is true that issues unrelated to foundational moral issues can ebb abd flow with the political winds, it is equally true that foundational moral issues were meant to be, indeed ought to and must be unalterably tied to much firmer foundations.
It is upon that foundation that our constitution and our laws were meant to be built. There is right and wrong and with this issue and the boundary is, at least IMHO, fairly well defined.
In Senator Craig, I am appealing to an individual I know has strong moral values and thus can be appealed to on the moral level. That is a key component to our governance and outr constitution ...without it...we indeed siink into the abyss.
That moral/religious component was a key part of this nations founding, its liberty and its prosperity ever since. As John Adams said,
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."- John Adams, Oct. 11, 1798 I believe that there are fundamental issues with respect to immigration and becoming an American and that our laws, for the most part reflect it. What is not happening is the enforcement of those laws. I am appealing to Senator Craig, as is my right and my duty, to begin doing so and to establish a policy in line with what I feel are fundamental moral principles governing people wanting to "become Americans".You may feel differently and then have the same right and duty to share and influence your own representatives.
Having said all of that...irrepsective of whatever change may be made in the future (and from this letter it is clear what direction I hope to influence that debate), the current laws are being broken and those breaking them must be accountable and responsible for those actions.
You are welcome...we all need to become very involved with this one.
Agreed.
OK :o)
You know, Jeff, I'm on your side moreso than you seem to believe.
I'm simply convinced that a large number of congresscritters are not basically concerned with right and wrong, nor are they critically concerned with lawlessness, as shown by their indifference to current immigration laws going wholly unenforced.
I am amazed that the legislature, as defined by the founders, is still churning out legislation in a moderated manner.
But I'm unconvinced that appealing to Congress to make this law or that law is the problem. The problem is that we are selectively applying laws here and there means that the rule of law (new law, old law, any law) is seriously broke!
Illegal immigrants should be dealt with as the law prescribes NOW, and meanwhile, Congress can consider changes for the future.
I agree that our current representatives, by and large, with some notable exceptions, are convinced that their job is simply to pass more and more laws based on the interst groups and influence they receive...and I feel that this is a gross wresting of what they were meant to accomplish.
"He who geverns best, governs least," should be the motto.
If I were ever to run for state or national representative of any kind, one of my principle planks would be what I have described to others here as the "Two-fer Act". It is simply this. Any new law passed by the legisalture, must be law include in its passing the elimination fo two other laws already on the books. If we simply did that, in about 20 or so years we would start to maybe get to something managable as long as those enacting those provisions were statesmen who understood the motto I described above and who understood the foundational moral principles upon which this nation was established and abided by them.
Same principle could be applied to taxation..call that one the 125% Act.
Best regards.
This bunch doesn't have the guts to do that. We need some more pols with guts!
Their employers should also have to sign a statement of responsibility for their actions while they're in this country, including being able to prove that the worker will be able to provide for his own health care. Guest workers should not be eligible for any tax-payer funded entitlement programs.
Agreed that such an agreement and statement shuold be in place. But that entire program, in watever form it takes (and that form should be geared towards temporary wor), should not even be considered and put in place unitl the current borders are secured and the current crop of illegals are dealt with in such a way that allows them to go home to be considered for such a program, or, if they do not voluntarily leave to do that, then depots them with no chance at such a program in the furure for those individuals.
I absolutely agree with you. Unfortunately, I don't see it actually happening. There is no political will on either side. Oh sure, someone will pay lip service to it to get elected, since it is obviously a very big issue to the majority Americans, but it will just be empty word and once said candidate is safely installed in office, it will be business as usual.
Jeff as usual you anticipate what will become the norm in the future but the ignorant of today do not realize it. The world's two phase experiment in globalist utopia (Phase 1, 1945 - 1991, Phase 2, 1991 - 2001) was a dismal failure. But to admit the failure is to admit the Ponzi scheme of the current "Flat World" perception driven economy. Nationalism of both the good and bad kinds is back in force. Only the most naive among nations, such as the US, fail to see it. Talk of fences make Thomas L. Friedman as well as Barnett & Co very nervous. As well they should be. We are in for a world of hurt. This "Fast / Flat World" is not realistic. There will have to be a period of correction and pain. Either we proactively manage all that, or, we'll be pulled read end first through it. I'll take the former, if asked to choose.
It's real simple. There will be a correction. It will either be done proactively, or, later, reactively, after some very bad additional things are allowed to occur. Business does not defend a nation, end of discussion. At some point, martial considerations trump business. If taken too far, it might be at gun point. I don't think the US would go that far, but at some point, in a conflict regarding national security where business interests conflict with martial interests, well, you know there is really only one practical outcome. As a businessman myself, I rather not be seen to be undermining national security and would rather avoid being rolled up for treason.
You have more patience with these politicians than I do...
Jeff,
Excellent letter. So good, that I am hesitant to paraphrase it for fear of diluting the message. May I cut, paste, and send to my representatives? Of course, I have Rino McCain. Thanks,
Renée
Use any or all of the letter as a base for contacting your representatives as you see fit.
I think Craig is afraid his big agriculture contributors will withdraw their support if he does anything to harm their supply of cheap, illegal alien labor.
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