Di-Fi and Sam Farr's snail mail to me re: immigration

[cloudbasket]

(COPY OF A SNAIL MAIL SENT TO ME BY DIANE FEINSTEIN, OR FROM HER OFFICE MINIONS)

(dated June 16, 2009)

Dear (my last name only):
Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns about immigration reform in the United States. I very much appreciate hearing your perspective and would like to offer you my thoughts on this important issue.

I support comprehensive immigration reform that provides effective enforcement and security at the border and in the workplace, protects U. S. workers, and helps American businesses maintain a stable and legal workforce. Protecting national security and knowing who is entering and leaving the United States is a critical component of comprehensive immigration reform. I introduced the "Strengthening the Visa Waiver Program to Secure America Act" (S. 203) on January 12, 2009, which would help to do just this. The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to more accurately track foreign travelers entering and exiting the United States and provide greater oversight of the Visa Waiver Program, which currently allows visitors from 35 participating countries to enter the United States for up to 90 days without a visa. I am committed to working with the Obama Administration to increase the security of the program.

I believe the United States needs a tough and smart approach to immigration, including protections to ensure that qualified U. S. Workers are hired first and are not displaced by foreign workers. For example, during debate of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, I voted for an amendment that prohibits all recipients of Federal funds from hiring H-1B guest workers (temporary foreign workiers in specialized occupations), unless they first demonstrate that American workers could not be hired. This provision was included in the final version of the Act and is now law.

Again, I appreciate hearing your views*. Regaining control of the U. S. immigration system and reducing the impact of illegal immigration must be a priority for the Federal government. I invite you to contact my Washington, D. C. office at (202) 224-3841 as this debate continues or if you have any additional comments. Best regards,

Sincerely,


Dianne Feinstein.
* I sincerely doubt she really appreciates hearing my views, since I opined that she and any other "representatives" who support any immigration, and especially anybody who supports amnesty for illegal aliens is a traitor to all the citizens of this country who DIDN'T gain their citizenship thru their illegal mother giving birth on our soil. I also opined that all further immigration, including amnestying in the millions of illegals currently in the USA is nothing more than an invasion of foreign nationals perpetrated on us by our own government.

Sam Farr's snail mail to me:

Dated: July 17, 2009

Dear (my first name only).

Thank you for contacting me regarding immigration enforcement and employment eligibility verification.

Under the U. S. Constitution, the power to dictate who may enter our country and under what conditions a person may be removed or leave the country reside solely with the federal government. Because of this, state and local law enforcement agencies have very limited authority to conduct and enforce immigration policy. Rather than focus on what would largely become a practice in racial profiling by rounding people up based upon their perceived nationality, including American citizens, we should dedicate our resources toward removing convicted criminals from our prisons and jails that present a real danger to our communities.

That is why in the FY 09 House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, on which I sit, funding was included to expand a program to ensure that Immigration and Customs Enforcement works with all our jails and prisons to identify and remove undocumented criminals. In addition, funding was also included to expand fences and barriers at our borders, hire and train additional Customs and Border Patrol Officers, and to expand detention facilities to prevent the policy of "catch and release".

One of the most misunderstood aspects of the immigration debate is employment eligibility verification. Most people think that it is easy to prove they're a legal U. S. citizen and that they're eligible for work in the U. S. Surprisingly, this is not the case. Social Security Cards used to verify a person's employment eligibility were never meant to be used as a means of personal identification and citizenship. However, under our country's most advanced employment verification system, E-Verify (formerly known as Basic Pilot), document fraud remains rampant, unscrupulous employers side-step its use, and millions of eligible employees have been incorrectly rejected. Many of the employees arrested in the "Swift Meatpacking" raids were found to be eligible for employment under Basic Pilot.

Some have argued for a national identification card to address the problem of employment eligibility. In my opinion, this is overkill and presents more problems than it solves. The real solution to addressing this problem relies upon a sharing of responsibilites between employers, employees and government to enforce fair labor standards and wages, provide a fast, and reliable system to verify a (sic) individual's employment eligibility and rigorously punish employers who systematically try to game the system. Which brings me back to the larger immigration debate, any solution must involve a comprehensive approach.

No member of Congress, myself included, supports having millions of individuals willfully violate our immigration laws and live in the shadows of our society. While we must maintain an orderly system of legal immigration to protect public safety, our current immigration system is broken and does not respond to the root causes of immigration: poverty and disenfranchisement. If persons had ample economic opportunity in their own country, they would not feel compelled to migrate elsewhere. Many people try to portray U. S. immigration issues as a simple matter of law enforcement. In the past, immigration reform was almost exclusively focused on enforcement and border security. However, it has become clear that despite the enhanced enforcement and security measures, illegal border crossings continue. By themselves, enforcement and security measures do not provide the ultimate solution to our country's immigration woes.

I have worked hard to find solutions to our immigration system, and a broad bipartisan coalition of lawmakers have expressed support for a proposal to allow people to come out of the shadows and to fully participate in our society. While immigration politics in the House of Representatives remains a hot-button issue, I am hopeful we will be able to reach an agreement on comprehensive immigration reform that can improve the lives of everyone in our country.

These issues are too important to remain unsolved, and I deeply share your frustration with the lack of progress.

Sincerely,

Sam Farr
Member of Congress.

While I'm composing an answer to these elected weasels, I hope the members of this board will join in with thoughts of your own on the points these alleged representatives made.

[Calamagrostis]

It is very difficult to respond to the letters from these politicians because they are carefully crafted to not take any position that might be used against them and cost them votes. So they want a solution, but their solution means that there will be an Amnesty and that business criminals will continue to hire illegals with no penalty. As soon as an Amnesty is granted the people granted Amnesty will begin to compete with U.S. citizens. These newly legal workers be less desirable to hire by the businesses who prefer desperately poor illegal employees with no worker's rights. Many of these businesses oppose a guest worker program because that would mean the workers would have rights. So the cycle will continue until the next Amnesty 10 or 20 years down the road.
The one question that every citizen and every journalist should be asking our so called leaders is what should be the peak population of our nation? Should it be 400 million, or 500 or 600 or a billion like India? No one talks about this, just like everyone is afraid of talking about how global warming is going to force us to talk about inequality. Like why should I conserve energy when the ultra-wealthy are cruising around in their yachts and private jets. No one will talk about the gross waste of the rich and no one will talk about the excess of having large families. People who have no children should be praised as environmental heroes. Unless we can talk about these taboo subjects we are doomed.

[cloudbasket]

Calamagrostis:
Tyvm for your input. I will be sure to include much of it.

Personally, the Sam Farr letter, with it's whine about "bringing people out of the shadows" is the most offensive to me. It would be horrible to be one of the people who are actually swayed by nonsense such as that.

To any others who leave comments, I will be checking back periodically for your input which I hope to include in my reply.

[Calamagrostis]

Cloudbasket, it is strange how both parties are making a mock fight of it while basically doing the same thing. In the recent health care reform debate I have not seen any discussion of one of the main reasons that illegal employers love illegal immigrants. It is because the employers don't have to provide health care, when their workers get sick they either get their medical costs paid by the taxpayers or the people who can afford to pay insurance premiums, or they just don't get health care at all and either get better on their own or just die. And remember that these are the same people that provide much of the labor resturaunts. I believe that one of the factors that make people in California so resistant to taking some responsibility for the general welfare is the massive influx of immigrants. We need a sense of community, but that is hard to build when we are so overpopulated and growing all the time.

[cloudbasket]

Calamagrostis, et al.,
Right. Dems and repubs may as well be the same team. They aren't playing for us, and it's time we all realized it. Loyalty to "your" team--whether repubs, or dems is a waste of time. I've decided to place all my team loyalty where it belongs--in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. The players aren't from my area, but at least they're still playing real games showcasing extraordinary abilities.