Letter to President Bush

Letters

December 23, 2003

"We need to have an immigration policy that matches
any willing employer with any willing employee."

Dear Mr. President:

Not even close Mr. President. Your above statement is inimical to the interests of the United States because it’s repudiated by our people and by the facts.

The fundamental goal of any U. S. immigration policy should be to maximize its benefit to American citizens. Such policies ought to be designed to attract those newcomers with the most educational & professional potential to contribute to their new nation. By the same token, we should be discouraging low-skilled immigrants who would merely add to the competition faced by our less-skilled citizens, since these Americans can least afford additional wage competition.

The United States is probably the only country on this planet that places more emphasis upon rewarding illegal immigrants who manage to slip across our borders illegally, than upon enforcing those laws that would keep them out. The President of the United States seems to be directing an incredulous inertia movement that insures the lackluster enforcement of our immigration laws, (laws he’d sworn to uphold) while perpetuating the continuation of an equally bizarre set of programs that reward illegal aliens with education, medical benefits, and eventual citizenship once they’ve successfully violated our borders.

Why are you pulling these Houdini stunts on this nation Mr. President? Without a national discussion? Without America's consent? Wouldn't it make sense to have a national debate on immigration? Wouldn't it make sense to hear the pros and cons without mumbling oxy-morons like “earned legalization” and “regularization”? Immigration, above all other issues, has the biggest disconnect between the American people and our government, and yet you stumble-on in some ill-conceived notion that this will somehow gain you more votes than you’ll lose. Unbelievable! What about the good of your country? What about your oath of office?

What does it take for your lights to get switched-on Mr. President? What is it about the phrase, “immigrant rights don’t belong to those who have no right to be here”, that you don’t understand?

According to the April 2003 Roper poll, 85% of Americans consider illegal immigration to be a serious problem. Two-thirds stated that the U.S. should completely halt illegal immigration. Seventy-nine percent want job applicants’ eligibility to legally work in the U.S. verified before they’re hired. Eighty-two percent oppose driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, and 75% oppose Matricula Consulars. And you want to sneak-in an abomination called “regularization”?

Here in California, if we add-up the expenses of just the basic components of illegal immigration for a single year, - - K-12 education for 430,000 kids, pre-natal & delivery costs in county hospitals for 96,000 illegal moms, monthly subsidies to these same illegal moms for their new U.S. citizens, emergency health care costs borne by the State’s major counties, and the costs to incarcerate about 24,000 illegal alien felons in state/county prisons, we’re at $5.7 billion, year after year after year.

What’s your guess Mr. President about how Californians will react to Governor Schwarzenegger’s $15 billion bond issue next March; - with the realization that we’re being forced by our failed federal immigration programs; which are your direct responsibility, to subsidize illegal aliens in this state to the tune of $5.7 billion, year after year after year? How long before most Americans wake-up to the ugly realities of your ignoring the enforcement of our immigration statutes?

Los Angeles County's underground cash economy is a fiscal disaster, with an estimated 28% of the workforce (mostly illegal immigrants) paid in cash, thus depriving the safety net of an estimated $1.1 billion annually. L.A. County has recently voted to close 16 community clinics, and reduced by 25% funding for its network of private clinics partnering with the County. In addition to this, within the last decade, 50 emergency rooms and 17 trauma centers throughout Southern California have closed their doors, all because they couldn’t afford to keep them open because of the exponentially increasing numbers of uninsured patients that include critical-masses of illegal aliens. The County’s population has grown 7.4 percent and 27 hospitals have closed since 1990. Additionally, 81 hospitals no longer have emergency rooms. Los Angeles County spent about $340 million last year providing health care to illegal immigrants, according to a report from the Department of Health Services. Some patients must wait 4 days for a hospital bed, and some even die while waiting for these beds.

I’ve attached some details of the Beltway’s malfeasant lights & mirrors show. Perhaps you’ll want to share this with the Republican Party’s national leadership? Perhaps even lay-it-out for your fellow Americans during a forthcoming press conference? Or maybe make TV campaign ads for next fall?

How many Americans with street smarts seriously believe that some sanitized & euphemized PC version of “regularization” or “earned legalization” will prevent another mega-million-onslaught of unskilled immigrants to storm our borders and swamp our resources; this time far worse than the 1986 IRCA amnesty?

An enfeebled federal government that won’t enforce its own immigration laws, while forcing its unwilling and hostile citizens to pay most of the social costs of those who violate these laws is outrageous. This only acts as a catalyst for millions more illegals to storm our borders. Why not uphold your oath of office by sealing our borders, prosecuting those firms who employ illegal immigrants, and deport those who’re here illegally? Why all this energized fu fu about “willing workers”? Why not bring the American people into this discussion, and seek their input, instead of these litanies of kaleidoscoped good feeling?

You’re not going to get away with this window-dressed amnesty sleight-of-hand Mr. President, because “consent of the governed” means more to the American people than you do. Enough of these shams of rewarding those who’ve broken our laws. Enough of saddling the American people with more crushing immigration debts. Enough of this mindless malfeasance and pandering.

Victor Hugo nailed it when he said, "There is one thing stronger than all the kings and queens, and all the armies of the world combined, and that is the power of an idea whose time has come". And that idea is that in the final analysis, no democratic society can indefinitely allow a relentless flood of illegal immigrants to contravene its laws, violate its borders, overwhelm its infrastructures and social systems, diminish employment possibilities for its indigenous uneducated and poor, and degrade its way of life, as is happening here in California.

Sincerely,
Michael

B.T.W. It’s definitely in American interests to assist Mexico in solving its northward migration problems, but not on American soil. This must happen in Mexico. A first step in this regard is for the U.S. to seal its borders. This would force Mexico to face tough decisions and stop exporting their problems into our back yard.

After World War 11, the U.S. poured $ billions into the shattered countries of Europe, with phenomenal success. We should do something similar with Mexico, but on Mexican soil, not ours. The Marshall Plan succeeded because it provided the economic impetus for Europeans to rebuild their countries in Europe, and not move to the U.S. looking to become guest workers and U.S. citizens.