Posted on 12/10/2003 1:28:20 PM PST by Klickitat
The country needs your faxes and phone calls immediately and steadily over the next few days.
Tom Ridge, the head of the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security, yesterday advocated legalizing (giving amnesty) to 8-12 million illegal aliens.
Click here to read the story titled: "Homeland security
chief endorses legalizing undocumented immigrants."
"Click for article"
This creates an immediate crisis that must be met with massive outcry -- like the outcry in August of 2001 that stopped Pres. Bush's July proposal for a massive amnesty for some 3.5 million illegal aliens from Mexico.
The most important thing is shoot this trial balloon down as fast as possible. Show the White House that this suggestion is outrageous and will be met with contempt from the majority of Americans.
More in a minute, but first the action.
======================================================
SEND FAXES NOW
======================================================
We just learned of this article in the last hour. Anne Manetas is at the computer writing text for faxes as I write this. Over the next two hours, you will start to see various faxes to Sec. Ridge, to the White House and to key congressional leaders who can put a stop to this nonsense.
Please send these faxes from:
"Send Fax"
If you go mid-afternoon today (Wednesday), they may not be up yet, but be sure to come back and send this evening.
======================================================
CALL SEC. RIDGE AND THE WHITE HOUSE......NOW....and for a week
======================================================
Your actions are the most powerful when they arrive immediately. I am sure that Sec. Ridge made his statement yesterday toin a fairly small audience in to a fairly inconsequential audience in Miami never dreaming that the whole nation would seem to be calling and faxing his office by 3:00 this afternoon. The faster the phones are ringing the better.
But if you are reading this after 6 p.m. EST Wednesday, please call Thursday. For that matter, some of you may want to call again on Friday and again next week. If you are reading this next week, your calls will still be great.
It will be important for Sec. Ridge and the White House to see that this is not a flash-in-the-pan protest but one that grows and continues over time.
Our Capitol Hill team will be working with key staffers over the next 24 hours to begin getting their bosses to send letters to Ridge asking him to recant. And those of you who are regular letter-to-the-editor writers will be called on to fire one to all newspapers that ran this story today.
What apparently is going on here is that the open-borders side is trying to regain some momentum after basically losing everything in Congress this year -- even though its PR machine repeatedly persuaded the NY Times and other commentators to declare that people of all sides were part of a growing, powerful movement that indicated some major amnesty would pass this year.
======================================================
THE PHONE NUMBERS
======================================================
*************************
Secretary Ridge, Secretary Tom
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC
20500
(202-282-8000)
*************************
President Bush, President George W.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500
(202-456-1414)
======================================================
WHAT RIDGE SAID
======================================================
Your calls to both the White House and to Ridge's office should refer to Ridge's outrageous endorsement of amnesty as being a terrible signal from the Administration.
Obviously, it is important to give Ridge the ability to back down gracefully. Because of the confused, garbled thinking in his statement last night, he has room to do so.
The first good sign is that Ridge did not make his comment in a prepared statement or before an influential audience. It was in a Q and A. Second, his actual description of what legalization would look like is full of contradictory ideas. To quote the news story:
"A man who identified himself as Miguel Arroyo of Aventura asked Ridge whether he supported immigration legalization and whether he thought it would benefit national security."
Ridge answered:
"The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal stus some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it.
The story said that Ridge "said he thinks the body politic is about ready to address the issue of the illegal immigrants, who he said contribute to communities and Social Security and pay taxes. He referred to a growing number of bills that would grant residency to some of those living here illegally. He said one of these, which would require all illegal immigrants to leave the country before applying for residency, is 'not workable.' "
Ridge went on to say:
"I'm not saying make them citizens, because they violated the law to get here. So you don't reward that type of conduct by turning over a citizenship certificate. You determine how you can legalize their presence, then, as a country, you make a decision that from this day forward, from this day forward, this is the process of entry, and if you violate that process of entry we have the resources to cope with it."
======================================================
YOUR PHONE MESSAGE
======================================================
You won't get much time to talk. Have one or two things that you absolutely want to convey and say them. Be prepared to say more if given the chance.
I'm sure that from reading Ridge's statement, you already have thought of a number of things you want to say. I'm going to offer several points for you to choose from if you don't have your own. These are not in any particular order.
1. This talk of legalization of lawbreakers from the top security man in the nation is an insult and a threat to safety of every federal official charged with protecting our borders. It gives illegals the incentive to do ANYTHING to get across and claim this prize. And it may insight millions of new people to storm the borders.
2. Ridge has thrown in the towel on law enforcement and says nothing can be done about illegal aliens. In fact, Congress has passed a major law each of the last two years to deal with this problem. These laws have not yet been implemented. When they are, they will make it far more difficult for illegal aliens to live in this country and begin to force many to move back home. Why is Ridge pre-emptorily undermining the very laws he is charged with carrying out.
3. Ridge's solution seems to be that you give all illegal aliens now amnesty but change our enforcement so that any person who comes illegally in the future will be dealt with. If you can deal with future illegals, why not just start dealing with the ones already here? In fact, the 1986 amnesty of 3 million illegals was said to be a one-time-only amnesty under the exact idea that Ridge is suggesting. There was supposed to never be another million illegals living in this country. Instead, another 8-12 million have come in hopes of another amnesty.
4. Ridge's statement sounds like two different people were controlling his mouth. One person sounded like a top law enforcement official who said, "As a country (we have to) decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it." But somebody from the cheap-labor lobbyists or radical, leftist open-borders groups got Ridge's mouth to say that all the illegal aliens here right now should become LEGAL. The fact is that 80% of the people in this country and the majority of the U.S. Congress knows what immigration policy is -- if you don't have a legal right to be here, you should leave -- and they want the head of the Department of Homeland Security to enforce that policy.
5. Unless Sec. Ridge backs away from these statements immediately, there is no reason for Americans not to lose full faith and confidence that he has their security at heart. He is supposed to be the man above all others who will enforce our laws to protect our borders and protect us from terrorists, criminals and masses of uninvited labor that steals from the wages and jobs of the American people. In this speech, he sounds like the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Insecurity. He is a chief law UNenforcement officer. He is saying that somebody ought to enforce immigration laws someday, but not now. He is saying that he believes he is incapable of enforcing those immigration laws entrusted to him and that the only solution is to reward all the lawbreakers with legal status.
6. Sec. Ridge seems to suggest that illegal aliens should be made legal but not have the right to citizenship. Is he proposing a new legal status that allows people to work and live permanently in the U.S. but with never a chance at citizenship? What is he suggesting?
7. Last week the Department of Homeland Security announced it was killing the NSEERS program that caused tens of thousands of illegal aliens from terrorist-sponsoring countries to leave our country voluntarily rather than appear at DHS offices to register. Now, Ridge says that he actually wants all illegal aliens to stay permanently and be welcomed as contributors to the Social Security system. Has the DHS decided that it no longer will enforce immigration laws.
8. 18 million Americans cannot find a full-time job, yet Sec. Ridge wants to keep 8-12 million illegal-alien workers and their families in this country working. What does he have against unemployed and underemployed American workers. Why does he seem to be waging a war against American workers instead of against foreigners who illegally enter our country and threaten our livelihoods?
How about Tom Tancredo for president?
No. The Houston Chronicrap has been filled with them lately. Always some sob story over their treacherous journey over the border and how they struggle to survive once they get here. I don't feel sorry for these lawbreakers in the least. If there weren't that many, than maybe I would feel sorry for them but when there are millions of them, no way. It's an invasion and I've hadenuf.
I would vote for him in a heartbeat. This week probably has determined another (4th time) 3rd party person. I had lunch with 2 of my friends that we get together every 6 weeks or so. Both of them are totally upset with GW. Although they voted for him last time I can see them sitting out next yrs election. And what did GW get by becoming a liberal? The libs hate him & he has pissed off true conservatives. Nice job, Rove.
It doesn't matter what the polls say today... Bush's father was at 90% approval a year before his re-election try and still lost. Supporting amnesties for illegal aliens will lose this Bush votes and possibly the election.
Might be an excellent opportunity for him to show he's not in favor of this idea and start cleaning house, beginning with Rove and Ridge.
The problem with that is you can push people only so far and they either tire from the effort to push back - or they just give up in despair.
Of course deporting illegals is workable. Instead of having our soldiers die overseas we should have them posted on our borders.
Illegal aliens are criminals. If the people in other countries choose to over-breed, this does not mean we have to take in their surplus and their deviants.
This is a bad situation as I see it. Any additions, deletions, or changes?
The Hispanic population will continue to grow faster than others.
Amnesty will not stop illegal immigration...
But amnesties and illegal immigration with both continue into the foreseeable future.
Also, illegal immigrants will not be deported won't happen.
Any atempt at mass deportation will invoke riots (fires/lootings/shootings/etc) in cities across the country.
And a two language nation (like Canada) may very well evolve here.
Meanwhile, the growing illegal population grows the underground economy...
And the underground economy is a drain on the national economy.
A massive subculture is the last thing we need.
Presently, most illegals live in poverty...
And people living in poverty tend to be a big Democrat constituancy.
Illegals, by definition, are fugitives...
And more fugitives will cause more problems as they prey on us to survive.
Therefore, they will be legalized (via amnesty) and they will become voters.
They will also become tax payers.
How many potential voters are we talking about?
No party can afford to concede that many votes. That's the political reality.
If we don't assimilate them under our terms, they will assimilate themselves under their own terms.
Without assimilation, all the problems you can think of will become more and more unmanageable and much more expensive to solve.
People like Trancredo can change what is happening, but not what has already happened.
This all represents the price we must pay for generations of open borders.
We can't let wishful thinking overshadow reality.
Oh? Well then, our republic is "not workable," except as a plaything for members of what Bob Novak called "the bipartisan political class" during the Clinton impeachment.
There is an unfathomable arrogance in remarks like these from government officials who allowed the immigration laws---passed don't forget by elected representatives of the people---to go unenforced for so long, and then proclaim that it's in effect "too late" to undo the damage their lack of enforcement did, or to enforce the law finally.
Not the way to preserve people's faith in their government, guys. And ultimately, not the way to keep civil peace, either.
Other countries have had the military on the border -- the former Soviet Union had KGB troops protecting its borders. Koreans have their army protecting their borders.
Sure some illegal aliens might work hard. And so do many of our own criminals -- Dr. Svango was a hard worker and a number other serial killers. This is no excuse to allow illegal aliens to break our laws.
That could be what's going on here, keep throwing up trial balloons until we get so tired of the issue we go away.
Give up our county to who? A bunch of impoverished peons? What a hoot!
These people pose no more a threat that did the Irish, Italian or German immigrants of times gone by. A bit of research will show that the same things being written and said about the Mexicans was said about these earlier groups. Were those disparaging comments made about the micks, wops and krauts wrong?
The biggest threat to this country does not come from overseas but from the infiltration of our communities by the enemy.
What is ironic is that our soldiers are protecting someone else's country. We have lots of tough talk about how we are going to do this from our leaders.
How do we look when we talk tough and presume to show others how to get the enemy out of their country while we wring our hands here at home and look helpless?
It does not make any sense.
The use of Drug dealer / RICO style asset forfeiture laws against any individual, business, or corporation hiring illegal aliens would solve the problem pronto. I venture less than 100 "examples" would be made public and the illegals would leave so fast that the Rio Grande would flow west.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.