Loads of Letters
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD rowSpan=3> </TD><TD class=t1fromdatetext>From: Dave Gorak </TD></TR><TR><TD class=t1fromdatetext>Date: August 9, 2008 12:44 p.m. </TD></TR><TR><TD class=t1fromdatetext> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=t1redunderbigheader>LETTER SUCCESSES – Period ended Aug. 2 </TD></TR><TR><TD class=t1thinwhitespace> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=t1letterblock vAlign=top align=left>DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL. PLEASE SEND ALL PUBLISHED LETTERS AND QUESTIONS RELATED TO THE LETTER-WRITING PROGRAM TO:
Dave Gorak
Everyone,
--Following is the published letters report for the two-week period July 20 - Aug. 2
--BUT FIRST: Californian Mark Mendlovitz says we don't need a "referee" in the immigration debate; Mark Cromer, also in California, writes that the American people continue to pay a price for "sanctuary cities"; D.A. King in Georgia notes some significant changes in Cobb County; New Yorker Yvonne M. Wohlers straightens out a columnist on the use of the term "illegal alien"; and Jill Gershen in Maryland lauds the tenacity of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona. Finally, let's hear it Al Eisner in Maryland, who has been pretty busy knocking out those letters!
--As always, this memo is intended for participants in this program,plus a few friends, and not for wide distribution. Editors tend not to publish letters they suspect are part of an organized letter-writing campaign. So, please refrain from cc:ing us on your letters-to-the-editor and from talking about the program in public forums.
--And please remember to include the full name of the paper that ran your letter and the date.
-- NumbersUSA forwards these letters to you so you can share in the success of the program and see the published efforts of our writers. As a reminder, however, the letters are personal and do not necessarily represent NumbersUSA positions.
RECOMMENDED WRITING STYLE: We recognize that each of you has the ability to make your own decisions about how to write your letters. NumbersUSA's opinion is that letters are more likely to be published and more likely to help our cause of dramatic immigration reductions if they are written in a temperate, self-controlled way that avoids name-calling and arguments based on race, religion or national origin. A strong use of a few facts, voting records, concise analysis and sometimes humor seems the best way to advance our arguments. We encourage specific criticism of open-border politicians and others, but caution against "in your face" rhetoric. Firm but civil argument tends to get the best results. You, of course, are free to disagree. We applaud all published letters that advocate for our immigration-reduction goals, but we may not disseminate those that move outside the tone that we encourage, a tone that many newspapers include in their own letters to the editor guidelines.
--Thanks so much!
Dave Gorak
Index:
The Washington (D.C.) Times -7/20
(1) Mark A. Mendlovitz
Wisconsin State Journal - 7/21
(2) Dave Gorak
Frederick (Md.) News-Post – 7/21
(3) Al Eisner
Orange County (Calif.) Register – 7/23
(4) Haydee Pavia
Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal – 7/23
(5) D.A. King
Honolulu Star-Bulletin – 7/27
(6) Al Eisner
The Washington (D.C.) Times – 7/29
(7) Al Eisner
The Washington (D.C.) Times – 7/30
(8) Mark Cromer
The Washington Post - 8/2
(9) Yvonne M. Wohlers
(10) Jill Gershen
LETTERS WE’VE JUST RECEIVED
Hutchinson (Kan.) News – 6/30
(11) Sheila Young
(1)
The Washington (D.C.) Times – 7/20
Everyone's policy
National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia has proclaimed that her group is eager to "take back the debate" on immigration ("Hispanic leaders offer to 'referee debate,' " Politics, Wednesday). This is a prime example of how the issue has been completely hijacked by special interests, like the Hispanic lobby and big business.
Her implication is that Hispanics alone are entitled to "referee" this matter. The fact that she is able to call the views of those who disagree with NCLR's militantly open-borders, pro-illegal immigration stance "hate speech" should alarm every citizen of this country.
Immigration policy is public policy. That means that Americans have the one-and-only voice in deciding what the admission rules should be. We don't need a referee, Ms. Murguia. We just need some politicians who will stand up for an immigration system that actually benefits the entire country.
Mark A. Mendlovitz
Beverly Hills, Calif.
(2)
Wisconsin State Journal - 7/21
Mexican ID cards circumvent system
The media's eagerness to lend credibility to illegal aliens remains a mystery to me. The State Journal's latest effort is the July 11 story, "More Mexican immigrants get ID cards," which refers to Mexico's issuance of its matricula consular card to illegals, which the FBI has called an "unreliable" form of identification.
Equally troubling is the willingness to accept at face value the statements of those bent on circumventing our immigration laws and mocking our sovereignty. For example, this statement from Cesar De Leon, coordinator of the Mexican Mobile Consulate that is issuing the matriculas:
"It's our duty ... to serve the Mexicans that are here," De Leon said, adding that the work is done with the permission of the U.S. government and that American diplomats have the same obligation to help their fellow citizens abroad.
If one takes literally De Leon's statement, are we to believe that U.S. diplomats help American citizens abroad to break the laws of the countries they are living in?
Dave Gorak
Executive director
Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration
LaValle, Wis.
(3)
Frederick (Md.) News-Post – 7/21
Cooperation needed with ICE
It is sad and disappointing that Montgomery County leadership has elected not to support ICE in routine immigration raids to rid this county of the illegal immigrants. Since Montgomery County is the only jurisdiction in this area that will not cooperate with federal agents when routine immigration raid are performed, thus Montgomery County is becoming a mecca for illegal immigrants who moved here from other jurisdictions.
The taxpayers of Montgomery County are thus forced to support illegal immigrants. The consequences of this policy are overcrowded residential homes, a drain on the health and public school system and a decline of the quality of life that used to attract citizens to this county. Such policies makes one want to pack up and move out of the county for good.
The choice made on this problem by Montgomery County leadership
only continues to hurt their legal and law-abiding citizens here.
Al Eisner
Wheaton, Md.
(4)
Orange County (Calif.) Register – 7/23
RE: Immigration Vortex.
Editor:
Those who work in the politicians' offices and candidates' campaigns like to call illegal immigration a "one-issue" cause.
Illegal immigration impacts every aspect of American society. It affects the Economy, Homeland Security, Health, Crime, Education, Housing, Energy, Ecology, etc. How can these narrow minded politicians think that illegal immigration is only one issue?
Moreover, these politicians pander to a small group of so-called Hispanics who represent a segment of the special interests that benefit from illegal immigration and eventually from amnesty (aka Comprehensive Immigration Reform).
American citizens of Hispanic heritage suffer just as much, perhaps even more than their fellow Americans because of illegal immigration.
Haydee Pavia
Laguna Woods, Calif.
(5)
Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal – 7/23
D.A. King: Change comes to Cobb: It's 'Adios' to 'business license'
By D.A. King
Guest Columnist
"Any individual, partnership, corporation or entity which engages in any activity with the object of gain, profit, benefit, or advantage in the unincorporated area of Cobb County is considered to be engaged in business and must obtain a Cobb County Business License or Business Registration Certificate for each location in Cobb County prior to engaging in these activities."
- Opening paragraph from information booklet distributed by Cobb County Government in the Cobb County Business License office.
Few of us have missed the vague message of "change" from Barack Obama's presidential campaign, but the most liberal Senator in the United States isn't the only political candidate for "change."
Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens - while not nearly as openly - is working very hard for change right here in Cobb County. Some of the changes he is making may not be easily seen unless you know where to look, but they are worthy of our interest and inspection.
For a shining example of Chairman Olens' recent changes, look no further than the official Cobb County Business License office Web site. For decades, obtaining a Cobb County Business License involved going to the Business License office, completing a business license application, paying the proper license fee and waiting a few days for your business license to arrive in the mail.
Ah, the good old days. There have been very recent changes to the old way of getting a business license from the Business License Department. First - and remember this one - for the most part, it is not a business license anymore. That has been changed. If you get it online, the "business license" application you file in the Cobb Business License office is now an "Occupation Tax Certificate" application. (The county has not had time to change the printed version yet - or the general information booklet quoted above.) To better accept the change, try to ignore the fact that there are business licenses - I mean "occupation tax certificates" - hanging in businesses all over Cobb that read "Regular License," like my own does.
Which brings up another change: Until July 16, the Business License Department Web site displayed a paragraph explaining that there are "31,000 Cobb Business Licenses." As part of Olens' change campaign, that paragraph disappeared last week. So did the term "business license" in more than 20 places on the county Web site.
Another change: Cobb spokesman Robert Quigley tells us that there are now only 1,098 Cobb Business Licenses.
Quite a change, eh?
By now, the reader may be asking "Why the changes" - and, "Did the Spanish language version of the Business License page change too?"
Here is why - and no, the Spanish version of the Cobb Business License page did not change. Because of a 2006 state law - the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act - local governments in Georgia are required to use a federal database called the SAVE program to verify the eligibility of any alien applicant who has signed a required affidavit saying he or she is living here lawfully and is eligible for what the feds and the state of Georgia call "public benefits."
Like adult education, housing assistance, homestead exemptions, small business loans and eighty other benefits, commercial licenses are "public benefits."
The term "business license" sounds far too much like it is a commercial license (because it is). And because Cobb is issuing business licenses - I mean occupation tax certificates - to nearly anyone who has the license fee (i.e. occupation tax), that in order to successfully avoid compliance with the law, the term "business license" had to go.
The reader might be thinking right about here that we should not need another law to tell us not to encourage an illegal alien to open a business in our community, that we could just use common sense and not let that happen.
Me too.
The law also requires local governments in Georgia to verify that newly hired employees are legal residents. How long before we see the word "employee" changed in Cobb to avoid compliance? Such as calling employees "reimbursed task assistants"?
I also find myself wondering how long it may be until it is either more profitable or politically expedient to redefine the downtown Marietta area. I can imagine the new signs now: "Welcome to Marietta Circle."
D.A. King is president of the Cobb-based Dustin Inman Society, which is opposed to illegal employment and illegal immigration.
(6)
Honolulu Star-Bulletin – 7/27
Immigrants should do it the legal way
Kudos to law enforcement and federal agents in Waipahu for enforcing the laws on illegal immigration and arresting 43 suspected illegal aliens in Waipahu on Sunday (Star-Bulletin, July 22). This is a step in the right direction, and I hope it will be followed through until they all get deported back to Mexico.
Illegal immigrants have invaded not only Hawaii but all of the other 49 states, too, and have become a great burden on our economy, infrastructure and quality of life. They abuse our welfare system and overcrowd our schools and residential areas. They don't pay their taxes and they send the money they earn to Mexico.
I have nothing against legal immigrants, as I am one myself from Europe (Czechoslovakia), as well as my wife from Japan. If you want to come to this great country, come here legally like you are supposed to. Enough is enough. Such raids are for the good of the state of Hawaii as well as the country.
Al Eisner
Wheaton, Silver Spring, Md.
Frequent Hawaii visitor
(7)
The Washington (D.C.) Times – 7/29
No funds for sanctuary cities
Sanctuary-city policies defy guidelines from the 911 Commission Report, which called on state and local authorities to help federal agencies crack down on illegal immigration ("San Francisco's sanctuary nightmare," Editorials, Monday).
There is a growing role for state and local law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of immigration law. They need more training and work with federal agencies so that they can co-operate more effectively with those agencies in identifying terrorist suspects.
Instead, a host of cities across the United States classify themselves as havens for illegal aliens despite the fact that such policies result in creating safe havens for illegal aliens who are criminals and potential terrorists. They enable criminal aliens to avoid deportation because they prevent local police from reporting them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
President Bush should issue an executive order denying any federal funds to those cities that either officially or unofficially provide sanctuaries enabling illegal aliens who commit crimes to escape deportation.
They need to learn there is a price to be paid for exposing their residents to criminal activities by illegal aliens. We need to clamp down on these sanctuary cities and the illegal aliens whom they harbor and protect from the law.
Al Eisner
Wheaton, Md.
(8)
The Washington (D.C.) Times – 7/30
CROMER: The cost of sanctuary cities
By Mark Cromer
OP-ED:
If Americans needed another horrifically bloody testament to the absolute chaos the federal government has allowed our immigration system to collapse into, the "sanctuary city" of San Francisco has delivered it again in spades. The outrage over San Francisco's policy of hiding illegal-immigrant drug dealers by sending them to a safe-house in Southern California (where many of them simply walked away) had just settled to a low boil when the story of Edwin Ramos came to light earlier last week.
Mr. Ramos was arrested on three counts of murder in June following the shooting deaths of Anthony Bologna and his two sons, Michael and Matthew. The three died in a hail of gunfire as they returned home from a family picnic.
As details of the story have emerged this week, it's hard to imagine a more damning indictment of President Bush, the commander-in-chief who has absolutely refused to secure the nation's borders and assert federal jurisdiction over immigration enforcement in our cities and towns during a time of war.
While it might be difficult to envision Mr. Bush working hand-in-hand with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, in fact both executives are directly responsible for the conditions that led to the murder of the Bolognas - and God knows how many other Americans.
On Mr. Newsom's end of this Faustian bargain we have the alleged killer Mr. Ramos, an illegal immigrant gang member with multiple felony busts under his belt in the Bay, including being taken into custody for attempting to rob a pregnant woman and savagely attacking a bus passenger. As a hardcore member of the MS-13 street gang, Mr. Ramos benefited from San Francisco's policy of shielding illegal-immigrant criminals who claim to be juveniles - even though there is no way of independently determining the actual age of the criminals. But since Mr. Ramos told authorities he was 17 years old at the time, he was protected from deportation.
The nadir came in June, when a clearly adult Mr. Ramos was yet again released back on to the streets after being arrested instead of being held for deportation. That arrest came as a result of a traffic stop in which police recovered a gun traced to a double-homicide. Free to roam the streets of San Francisco, police say Mr. Ramos opened fire and slaughtered Mr. Bologna and his two sons after the car they were in had briefly blocked Mr. Ramos' car on a narrow street.
While Mr. Newsom didn't create the sanctuary policies in San Francisco, he championed them with a righteous zeal, ridiculing those who opposed them as dangerous and wrongheaded. The fate of the Bologna family is the direct result. But the blood is even more indelible on Mr. Bush's hands.
San Francisco's policy lays bare the president's willful surrendering of federal jurisdiction over this crisis; which is a cold-blooded abrogation of Mr. Bush's sacred responsibility to defend Americans.
Mr. Bush's dereliction of duty in the face of mass illegal immigration into the United States comes as we face an enemy that crosses our borders not with armored divisions, but individual by individual, where violent criminals blend in with economic refugees, just as al Qaeda seeks the cover of civilians. Just what is the difference in the blood spilled by al Qaeda on Sept. 11 and the slaughter perpetuated by illegal immigrant gang members like MS-13? In the not-so-distant past, a defiant challenge to federal authority like San Francisco's sanctuary policy had swift and certain consequences - occasionally delivered at bayonet point - as Southern governors George Wallace and Orval Faubus discovered the hard way.
But strange bedfellows as they may be, it is clear that Mr. Bush and Mr. Newsom share a common goal: the subversion of immigration laws at the behest of a coalition that includes big-business interests and ethnic lobbying groups.
The price of such subterfuge and betrayal is to be paid by the American people.
The depth of the tragedy that has befallen the surviving members of the Bologna family almost defies comprehension, and one need only listen to the absolute agony of Danielle Bologna as she describes taking her 16-year-old off life support to understand that part of her has been killed as well. But the spilled blood of the Bologna family is little more than cheap wine to officials like Messrs. Newsom and Bush.
Indeed, Mr. Newsom may be the poster boy for sanctuary policies, but he's hardly the only elected official engaged in promoting them. Mayors such as R.T. Rybak in Minneapolis, Richard Daley Jr. in Chicago and Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles, among others, have all publicly declared their desire to undermine federal enforcement of immigration laws to varying degrees.
These mayors of sanctuary cities sleep easy knowing that if Mr. Bush does anything, it will be to use a debacle like San Francisco's protection of illegal-immigrant, drug-dealing gang members as an excuse to again call for a mass amnesty under the guise of "comprehensive immigration reform." As the enforcement of immigration laws continues to evaporate, and with them the fundamental safety that Mr. Bush swore on a Bible to deliver, it's not hard to imagine the day when deporting virtually anyone for any criminal act will be considered by officials such as Mr. Newsom and soon John McCain or Barack Obama as passe, if not nonsensical.
After all, just where does a nation without borders deport someone?
Mark Cromer is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization.
(9) (10)
The Washington Post – 8/2
What's in a name?
Perhaps the most telling comment in Claude Marx's Op-Ed piece on Mark Krikorian is his criticism of the author for “occasionally using loaded phrases such as 'illegal aliens ... .'(”Immigration crack up,” Op-Ed, Tuesday).
Had Mr. Marx been better informed, he would have known that the term “illegal alien” is the U.S. government's official terminology for those who enter the country illegally. Mr. Marx was the one who was loaded.
Yvonne M. Wohlers
Mechanicville, N.Y.
Policing Immigration Locally
Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not trying to "make life miserable" for illegal immigrants [editorial, July 28>. He is trying to get them out of Maricopa County. He is serving the taxpaying citizens and enforcing the law of the land.
He's not perfect: Some legal residents get caught up in these efforts. But not enough to justify another class action lawsuit for something perceived as racism.
Sheriff Arpaio's efforts have been successful and have saved the taxpayers money; that is why he was reelected with 83 percent of the vote.
Frankly, I don't care if prisoners are humiliated by having to wear pink underwear. And while they're sweltering in their tent city prison, they can think about our soldiers in Iraq living in full battle gear in 120-degree heat, not having committed any crime.
A "travesty of justice in Arizona"? I call it "justice in Arizona."
Jill Gershen
Darnestown, Md.
LETTERS WE’VE JUST RECEIVED
(11)
Hutchinson (Kan.) News – 6/30
Remember two agents
On Feb. 17, 2005, near Fabens, Texas, Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were attempting to apprehend Mexican drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila. After ditching his van containing nearly 800 pounds of drugs, a foot chase began. Osvaldo wrestled Compean to the ground, then pointed what appeared to be a gun at the agents. Ramos then fired, thinking he had missed; the agents and two supervisors saw Osvaldo cross the Rio Grande and jump into a waiting vehicle, unaware that Osvaldo had been hit in the rump.
Word of the incident reached an investigator with Homeland Security, via Border Patrol agent Rene Sanchez, whose mother-in-law and Osvaldo's mother are lifelong friends. Department of Homeland Security agents tracked down Osvaldo, offering him complete immunity to testify against agents Ramos and Compean. In October of 2005, Osvaldo made another drug run to the border. The jury, not told of Osvaldo's repeated drug-smuggling activities, convicted the agents of violating Osvaldo's civil rights. The agents were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison, which they are spending in solitary confinement. Osvaldo filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Border Patrol.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the prosecution of Ramos and Compean was a great injustice, calling for a pardon. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., told the committee that the Ramos-Compean case was the worst miscarriage of justice he had seen in his 30 years in Washington. David Aguilar, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, stated that violence against border agents is increasing.
Joe Kasper, assistant for Rep. Hunter, said that the sentencing and incarceration of two experienced border agents is having a chilling effect on other agents, who fear they will also be railroaded for doing their jobs.
The families of Ramos and Compean ask Americans to please not forget Ignacio and Jose, and to write them letters to show support. Their addresses can be found on Firesociety.com and updates on their case can be found at agentramos.com.
Sheila Young
Hutchinson, Kan.
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