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
The 14th Amendment is pretty clear--
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the U.S. and of the State wherein they reside.
The Supreme Court would have to decide the "subject to the jurisdiction" does not include people who are actually citizens of a foreign country and are not born to American citizens. I know there is some history here dealing with the American Indians who were denied citizenship due to allegiance to their tribes, not sure if the illegal alien issue has ever made it through the legal system.
Anyone know more?
You are so right about the disconnect. The Senate seems to be in their ivory tower once again. The House is more attuned to the street, probably because they have to run for re-election every two years.
To a person, every person of Hispanic descent I know is against the illegal invasion. If they are recent immigrants, they are angry that they followed the rules and these people are not. If they are native-born they still have no tolerance for this invasion. No one thinks that just because a person has successfully broken the law, he or she should be rewarded for that lawbreaking. It's like not chasing bank robbers unless they happen to be caught red-handed.
Until our unemployment rate is absolute zero and no one is on welfare, we do not need to import workers. Houses can be cleaned just fine by Americans, lawns can be mowed, houses can be built. It's ridiculous to think our country would shut down without them. Only the farmwork might suffer, there is where I'd go along with guest workers, if it was done in a controlled and rational manner and not as an automatic road to citizenship because once these people get to be citizens, they won't want to be in the fields either.
The debate has been hijacked by liberals, framing the issue not as "illegal aliens" but as "undocumented workers" or just plain "immigrants". They are painting anti-illegal immigration forces are racist or hatemongers. Typical liberal tactics. Enough is enough!
If they already are legal age, then they can stay. We just have to cut off that provision/interpretation now.
It would seem to me that "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,", might give an out for those person born of illegal aliens who are subject to the jursidiction of their own country. However it is diced, it needs to be changed. I believe adminstrative rullings and an executive order could kick it off, followed by the states passing their own legislation, and the congress, and then an amendment if necessary.
Whaooo... what a letter! Good job. If we all did the same thing, they would know we are not the idiots they think we are.. :) - Well, some of us can't help it :)
I have a strange situation. One of my senators is Jon Kyl (who has a good, sound plan he co-sponsored with Cornyn). The other is the manica John (bring in all the lawbreakers and let's give them everything) McCain.
I certainly agree with your thinking here, although I think one unintended consequence is that the illegal alien lobby would use the fact that they paid taxes (under the FairTax provision) to legitimize their call for social services. It would be a politically challenging to deny them services if indeed they pay taxes.
For me, it's a no brainer. I don't care if they pay taxes or not, illegal means illegal, but the jellyfish in Congress would probably be put under more pressure to give in.
The last thing I'd want to see is the illegal lobby working in solidarity with the democrats in DC decrying "Taxation without Representation". We all know the MSM would jump on that in a microsecond.
I don't completely agree with either of you's guys, but this statement is just. plain. wrong!
"Illegal" is "illegal" until the next law is passed. It was illegal two years ago for me to deduct my state sales taxes from my federal income tax. Now it is legal.
The Congress is making law EXACTLY like the founding fathers intended, for better or worse. The House is supposed to act rapidly according to the wishes of the majority, and the Senate is supposed to put the brakes on that populism and have a lengthy debate.
And the closed loop works, too. Senate proposed something that was unacceptable to the House, and the idea fizzled. For now.
If Congress, together, decides to grant these mexican criminals amnesty, for example, they will, overnight, be LEGAL IMMIGRANTS----and you will have no argument to undo that.
Sad to say, but that is what could happen tomorrow or next year. So I think your arguments to congresscritters would have more weight if you'd consider that from THEIR perspective, "ILLEGAL" is up to "them."
Congresscritters are thinking about what happens 1 and 2 years out after they act, at most. There is no sense of urgency to close the border because, with much less shooting and concrete pouring and real decision making that a wall requires, they think they've got an easier way to fix it with a stroke of the pen.
The "enforce current laws" argument simply does not comprehend the transient reality of what is, or is not, "illegal."
Thanks Jeff, for your strong resistance to the weaseling and posturing of your senator. I only wish that my senators were even salvageable (Boxer, Finestein), but I know that they see the criminals as guaranteed democrat votes.
Perhaps we need to make a stronger case to the weak republicans that these illegals will never be republican votes, thus they weaken their own reelection chances in the future by keeping them here.
I don't think it's about pandering to the illegals for votes to the Republicans who seem to be doing so; I think it's pandering to big business who hire the illegals.
You never disappoint us sink, you remain at the core of the problem, rather than supporting the only possible solution. It must be hell to be you.
And you ask the owners of either of those businesses if they would be willing to replace those workers tomorrow with LEGAL immigrants from Mexico who have been waiting patiently for their papers, if those LEGAL workers could be at the job tomorrow, would they exchange them, and you'd see how quickly this whole situation could be solved. Law breakers should not be rewarded and those who are willing to do it right should be rewarded.
I agree, and I was only suggesting that we point out the greater reality to our short sighted Republicans.
Basically, it's the taxpayer subsidizing the employers of illegals.
Nope. The only possible solution is going to have to be a blending of the House and Senate bills.
Those who think otherwise are refusing to acknowledge reality.
I oppose amnesty programs and am committed to ensuring that a person should not gain an advantage or benefit toward citizenship or legal permanent resident status as a result of illegal entry into the U.S."
I would have written back and called him a lying piece of sh$t!
Larry Craig was a co-Sponsor of the AgJobs Amnesty so his words above are a complete lie!
And apparently you fail to understand the undeniable reality that selling out your principles destroyes your credibility. All of our laws are destined under your standards to irrelevance, so why obey any of them? Let's all just do as we wish without fear of punishment, for the rule of law is only a "transient reality" now.
And the solution to that, if it happens will be active vigilantism in the streets. Can you say Anarchy?
If you'd like to address my actual point, or make your own for me to respond to, then fine.
But don't attribute a bunch of garbage to me and then tell me I'm wrong. That's called a strawman.
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