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.
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SEND FAXES NOW
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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.
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CALL SEC. RIDGE AND THE WHITE HOUSE......NOW....and for a week
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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.
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THE PHONE NUMBERS
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*************************
Secretary Ridge, Secretary Tom
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC
20500
(202-282-8000)
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President Bush, President George W.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500
(202-456-1414)
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WHAT RIDGE SAID
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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."
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YOUR PHONE MESSAGE
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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?
The government is supposed to enforce laws, not give perks to criminals.
There is no reason to want to keep illegals in this country and encourage more to come. Those who support amnesty for illegals:
1. have vested interests in cheap labor
2. are bribed or blackmailed
3. hate this country
4. prefer a Third World lifestyle
5. are terrorists, drug dealers or other criminals
6. are mentally ill or delusional
Legalization doesn't make them middle class or educated. They don't learn English often even after 20 years of living in the USA ---- and that's because they refuse to learn and prefer to live in their own subculture.
Mass deportations don't have to happen if the illegals are left illegals. Often they chose to come here illegally because they intend to work a while and return home ---- returning home should be our goal for them --- and they're more likely to go back home if left illegal. Just because someone decides to ignore the laws here doesn't mean they have to be made legal.
JEEESE... was this dude trained by AL GORE!?...man..
Just subtracted a few points from George Bushs column...
Welfare continues to work its pernicious evil (thank you Mr. Bush). However I see no indication that its existance has completly halted the poor man's rise from poverty.
Welfare should not exist but since it does it should only exist for citizens. Both, I fear are pipe dreams. Welfare, in all its myriad forms, is here to stay for whoever makes it across the border.
Thanks, I worked on that.
To Amnesty the Illegals is to ignore the problem.
I disagree. It may not be your way of dealing with the problem, but it certainly is not ignoring the problem. Ignoring means taking no action. I know you know this.
To fail to enforce the law is to ignore the problem.
I completely agree. Past administrations have done just that. Which is why I see Ridge's remark as this administration considering what should be done, instead of just ignoring it.
Ignoring the problem is part of the problem.
Where do you get this? Considering options to deal with a problem is not ignoring it. Why, if you think all illegals should immediately be deported, did you not 'advise' all past administrations that they should immediately do so? Were you just ignoring the problem?
The "spirit of the American People" has not traditionally been to allow foreigners to invade and scoff at our sovereignty, thereby eroding the rule of law.
The spirit has been that America is an open border country, with an outstretched hand (statue of liberty) to the refugees from other countries. Give us your tired, your poor, etc.
ALL of THESE 'illegal' immigrants are HUMAN BEINGS who want the promise of America kept.
Many of these 'illegal' immigrants place the value of their future life above the risk of the illegal part and the risk of getting past border security (which for many means risking death).
We could devise a system where punishment for illegal immigration means a longer delay in becoming naturalized. If we do, we could get them to come forward, and register, which helps solves many problems. Surely we can find a way to get these people registered, and eventually naturalized, or are you saying that this country is so greedy and selfish, we must keep it all to ourselves?
If you do, you must tell me, just who are the real Americans who deserve to keep this whole country to themselves.
Many people in this country are immigrants. Many are legal immigrants, but there are just as many whose parents were illegals (and I don't mean just the Mexican imms.) and the children born are legal citizens, of course. And that is the reason the parents came in illegally. To have a child born as a US citizen.
Do we deport them too? The parents and the children?
How about, if we want to get selfish and greedy, that only the TRUE AMERICANS be allowed to stay? And who will define that?
The problem of illegal imms is a large problem, and must be dealt with.
Trying to deport them all will be a costly and stupid mistake. In case you are 'ignoring' this, we DEPORT them all the time. Know what happens? They just sneak back in.
You and others may not like Ridge's suggestion (and it is only that, so far), but it is a workable solution, whereas your solution has a track record of failure.
What a crock! We're overrun with illegals, millions of them and the Democrats are registering them as voters, ASAP. And El Republicante Presidente del Crawford doesn't say a thing about it.
By God, Sir, we'll defend America with Homeland Defense! (Any Muslim terrorist with half a donated brain could come in as an illegal Mexican and his wife could collect food stamps while he put together a suitcase bomb.)
We don't care, it's not our country anymore, we're worried about Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, we're all learning to speak Spanish at home, but we're defending America overseas from invasion....or something like that.
The worst bill is the 500,000 Amnesty - and Tancredo says he has enough votes to block it in the House Committees. You are right on one point though - if Bush and Rove could pass a big amnesty bill they would do it - but so far it looks like they don't have enough votes to get anything significant past the neccessary House Committees.
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Just curious, would this amnesty include the thousands of unaccounted for Islamists from terrorist countries who are here? I guess we should just give them all green cards since it would be too costly to deport them.
I disagree. It may not be your way of dealing with the problem, but it certainly is not ignoring the problem. Ignoring means taking no action. I know you know this. Why, if you think all illegals should immediately be deported, did you not 'advise' all past administrations that they should immediately do so? Were you just ignoring the problem? The spirit has been that America is an open border country, with an outstretched hand (statue of liberty) to the refugees from other countries. Give us your tired, your poor, etc. ALL of THESE 'illegal' immigrants are HUMAN BEINGS who want the promise of America kept. Many of these 'illegal' immigrants place the value of their future life above the risk of the illegal part and the risk of getting past border security (which for many means risking death). We could devise a system where punishment for illegal immigration means a longer delay in becoming naturalized. If we do, we could get them to come forward, and register, which helps solves many problems. Surely we can find a way to get these people registered, and eventually naturalized, or are you saying that this country is so greedy and selfish, we must keep it all to ourselves? If you do, you must tell me, just who are the real Americans who deserve to keep this whole country to themselves. Many people in this country are immigrants. Many are legal immigrants, but there are just as many whose parents were illegals (and I don't mean just the Mexican imms.) and the children born are legal citizens, of course. And that is the reason the parents came in illegally. To have a child born as a US citizen. Do we deport them too? The parents and the children? How about, if we want to get selfish and greedy, that only the TRUE AMERICANS be allowed to stay? And who will define that? Trying to deport them all will be a costly and stupid mistake. In case you are 'ignoring' this, we DEPORT them all the time. Know what happens? They just sneak back in. You and others may not like Ridge's suggestion (and it is only that, so far), but it is a workable solution, whereas your solution has a track record of failure.
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True....but it opens up the possibility and maybe they won't have to survive selling drugs to our kids...and maybe not.
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