My response to Sentor Larry Craig's letter to me on Immigration

Written (typed) letter from Larry Craig | May 3, 2006 | Jeff Head

[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.

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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

[jos65]

This letter needs legs. Why not send a copy to Rush?

[ballplayer]

What other illegal activities are Senators willing to accept so U.S. industies wont collapse?

[seemoAR]

I am very curious about your statement on the military getting into trouble with the Posse Comitatus. I seem to remember something about Central High School in Little Rock AR. and army tanks being used at Waco, TX a few years ago. Am I having a Senior Moment? Did I dream those up? Did the military get in trouble? I don't remember that either.

[ForGod'sSake]

Exemplary! Ahem, you won't mind if some of us less gifted wordsmiths exercise a smidgen of plagiarism???

Well done.

FGS

[Jeff Head]

That bill he co-sponsored (I believe) regarding educating the children of illegal aliens really was a betrayal of principle in my mind. I believe he feels he is trying to help the agriculktural community in Idaho wiuth such measures...but I also believe he is wrong, that in the long term it will do much more to harm them.

[B4Ranch]

The anchor baby provision, of course, will have to be dealt with via a constitutional amendment, since the Supreme Court has declared them to be citizens.

Would you please give me more details about the Court decision on this matter? When did this happen?

[Jeff Head]

I would not call him lazy or a lackey in the least. On most issues he is fairly conserevative and thus earns 60+% of the vote usually in a very conservative state.

But lately, and particularly with Free Trade and immigration, he has stepped away from those principles and a number of us are trying to call him on it. For me, my vote will hinge on this issue and his response to it.

[Jeff Head]

He needs to be called on these issues. I was particularly upset over the bill for educating children of illegal aliens.

[Jeff Head]

Thanks my friend...God's best to you.

[Jeff Head]

Thank you...I share the same hope. The more of us who do contact them and inform them directly of how we feel, the more likely we will see those results.

[Jeff Head]

Please feal free...the more the merrier!

[Jeff Head]

The current laws, if applied correctly and couple with deterence (coming down on employers and ending the social handouts-inclkuding the anchor babies), and the construction and serious partolling of a border fence/nbarrier would work just fine. We just have to find the pols with the will to do it.

[Jeff Head]

Either way...the tax code is another major issue that has to change and has to be addressed by our pols. In any case, those who come here to immigrate or to work must be involved in the entire process and foot their share.

[Jeff Head]

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.

For any formal guest worker program this is exactly right...what we have now with the illegals is nothing close to that and that is one of the major problems with it...along with many more.

[Jeff Head]

Please do if you feel it will help!

[Jeff Head]

Feel free...the more of us who do, the better. And if these words reflect your own thoughts, you have my permission in advance to use them, modify them, and call them your own.

[B4Ranch]

Thanks for continuing the fight for America.

[RobFromGa]

Beautiful letter.

I have one question-- what do we do about the illegal aliens that have had children since they were here, who are American citizens? I know we can change the Constitution going forward potentially, but what can we do about those already here?

[Fruitbat]

In essence;

Dear Mr. Head,

I'm very sorry, but I placed my testicles in a lockbox until I retire from 'public service.'

I apologize for any inconvenience.

Larry Craig, Eunuch, US Senate

PS I've got my retirement money without contributing a dime, so I don't care. Ain't public service great.

[Old Badger]

Although I think you gave him more respect than he deserves, I'm in total agreement with your response to Senator Craig. I called his office a few weeks ago and confronted an associate that I was passed off to with Craig's propensity to favor illegal aliens in his voting record. I was told in essence I did not know what I was talking about.

See: http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=ID&VIPID=248

So, from now on as far as I'm concerned, I'll treat him with the "no respect" that his staff gave me. He needs to be replaced and I'll be working to that end when his term expires.