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
I can recall a day when the roofing, framing and other similiar jobs were done by Whites, Blacks and Mexican-Americans in Houston and surrounding areas. This was about 15 - 20 years ago.
The illegals then arrived en masse and undercut the existing wage structure and soon had all the jobs.
I doubt that the illegals wages are as much as the Americans were 20 years ago. (But we can have cheaper houses).
The illegals are not doing jobs Americans won't do. They are however doing doing jobs Americans can't do at the illegals wage scale.
The Employers importing these people in so that they can exploit them for cheap labor under almost slave - like conditions have the same short sighted mentality of the Slave Importers of the 18th and 19th Centuries.
I once thought Larry Craig was a hardcore Conservative. He looks like the NWO on this immigration disaster though.
With all due respect, I have to laugh when I read stuff like this.
Are you aware that most of these roofers are making $10-12 per hour? That they get regular breaks? That many of them have their own cars?
That they can move from company to company?
There are no "slave" conditions with most of these illegal laborers. They have too many choices for jobs, and make too much money.
Yah, you do that. Replace Larry Craig.
: rolls eyes :
I'm sure he's shaking in his boots. He only got 65% of the vote last time.
(1). Stop paying them the welfare checks, immediately.
(2). DEFINE the "anchor baby" clause in our Constitution, it was not created to make the children of illegal aliens instant citizens and this needs to be clarified.
(3). Using current laws and resources, begin finding, arresting and deporting illegals immediately. No massive numbers are needed, we just need to begin the task and send the message.
(4). Stop all programs that reward illegals, especially in-state college tuition, driver's licenses, food stamps, e-v-e-r-y government benefit currently enriching illegal aliens must stop immediately.
(5). Heavily fine each and every business that hires these illegals, publish those business's names in local newspapers or on the internet, (or nationally if it pertains), so people can stop dealing with them. Quadruple the fines each time they are caught again. Make it financially untenable for them to ever take the risk of hiring illegals.
(6). Pay local kids to do your lawn work and other jobs instead of hiring illegals. Every American must do their part with this.
(7). Make English the mandatory language of America. No more 'second language' b.s. on corporate customer service phone menus. STOP the pandering.
(8). Release every single illegal alien convicted of crimes and currently incarcerated in our prisons, and deport them to their countries of origin.
(9). Get Dan Quayle to show you how to grow your own tomatoes.
While the above is being implemented, begin building a real border to our south, and with the enormous money we will be saving as a result of stopping welfare benefits to invaders, use some of that money to fund more border guards and electronic surveilance.
If we make the above changes there will no longer be any reason for foreignors to risk life and limb sneaking into our country to rape our land and reap a windfall of welfare benefits. Not a shot has to be fired, not a single dollar spent, not a drop of sweat wasted. Just simple, common sense measures and we can prevent illegals from wanting to come here, and discourage the present ones to the point that they will return home voluntarily because it is no longer financially beneficial to be here, and the danger of deportation will be hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damacles.
Great patience and ideas Jeff. 'specially like the public works aspect!
Your letters were excellent. Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to send them. Hope we get results.
Who did landscaping and roofing in the Southwest 30 years ago?
It might take a little time to bring legal citizens back into these types of industries...but it would be well worth the cost.
And regarding deporation. If all of the 'free services' are taken away from the illegals...they'll deport themselves!
And maybe someday the 14th amendent will be clarified so that the so-called anchor babies will be 'anchored' to their parents citizenship.
Great letter. Consider it 'stolen' and sent to my own senators. Thanks.
Yah, you do that. Replace Larry Craig.
: rolls eyes :
I'm sure he's shaking in his boots. He only got 65% of the vote last time.
65% is pretty bad when he didn't really have an opponent and the state is pretty much wall-to-wall "Republicans".
I went to his office and griped about his support of a agricultural guestworker/amnesty program, the "American dream" act (illegal aliens attending colleges at resident rates), and driver's licenses for illegal aliens (I didn't find a second source for this one, but since I had for the other two, I complained about it anyway particularly since I had just had my civil rights stomped on and the Federal Government did nothing).
Yesterday, I sent copies of a similar open letter to my Senators (Sarbanes and Mikulski), as well as Frist, Specter, Kennedy, McCain, Cornyn, and Kyl (involved in various versions of border control legislation). I hope that covers the waterfront.
As far as the military goes, if they do anything beyond assisting the border patrol and providing defense against armed drug runners and smugglers, they could get into trouble with Posse Comitatus.
As far as guest workers go, I don't agree with that at all. If, as Senator Frist says, our country needs 400,000 immigrants per year to keep the economy going, then hand out 400,000 green cards per year only to people who want to become Americans, and who pass a background check. This in itself can only occur after Homeland Security fixes its scandalous background check system.
Neither is Reconquista. These people should not be here. Period.
Illegal drugs do not bring with them the idea of retaking the American southwest on behalf of Mexico or "Aztlan."
Gee, sink, what would YOU pay them, minimum wage?
Jeff-I always appreciate your lucid posts and clear thoughts. I have thought long and hard as well-I agree with you on all points. There is one additional isue, I feel is a major draw for the alien..how we tax. I have long thought coupling the FairTax to this issue would help resolve the porblem, because it either forces the alien to participate in the tax system, by paying the Federal sales tax, or he HAS TO REGISTER to obtain the income exemption refund.
Good work, Jeff.
That's sort of the same initial reply I got from mine. The problem is TOO big to handle, so "we" give in and give up.
I tersely replied to my Senators and asked if employers need guest workers so much, why not require them swear out an affidavit of support (similar to Form I-134) for each worker and require those applicants be processed by the DHS and US Labor departments.
Sponsors of legal immigrants must file a notarized Form I-134, so it's only fair that employers be required similarly.
Although a court had previously ruled those signed affidavits may not be enforcable, that ruling could be contested by the dismissal of any other sworn affidavit coming before a court or by a defendant contesting a sworn affidavit produced as evidence against himself.
The point is, the financial responsibility of guest workers ought clearly fall upon those whose invitation brings them here while prohibiting those from becoming public charges and that responsibility upon both ought be fully enforced.
As they say, "A journey begins with the first step".
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