Loads of Letters
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD rowSpan=3> </TD><TD class=t1fromdatetext>From: Dave Gorak </TD></TR><TR><TD class=t1fromdatetext>Date: Aug. 2, 2009 6:19 p.m. CST </TD></TR><TR><TD class=t1fromdatetext> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=t1redunderbigheader>NumbersUSA Letter Successes: July 5-18 </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 period July 5-18
--BUT FIRST: When you send along your published letters to me, please include any others that ran the same day if they also are on our side. They may be written by other NumbersUSA members; if not, then we can attempt to contact them and invite them to join us.
Thanks to those Utah writers who succeeded in getting exposure for our position in the Salt Lake Tribune, especially in rebutting the nonsense from Chief Chris Burbank. “Law enforcement” officers like Burbank are one of the reasons illegals will risk their lives to enter this country.
--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 to you all
Dave Gorak
Index:
The Salt Lake Tribune – 7/7
(1) Gaylan Stewart
The Salt Lake Tribune – 7/10
(2) Mark C. Ferguson
The Capital Times (Wis.) – 7/9
(3) Dave Gorak
Los Angeles Times – 7/15
(4) Haydee Pavia
Gwinnett (Ga.) Daily Post – 7/16
(5) D.A. King
Daily Record (N.J.) – 7/16
(6) Joanne Meusel
Orange County (Calif.) Register – 7/16
(7) Randle C. Sink
The Salt Lake Tribune – 7/18
(8) Vicki Martin
LETTERS WE’VE JUST RECEIVED
The Salt Lake Tribune – 6/25
(9) Robert Wren
Reedsburg (Wis.) Independent – 7/9
(10) Dave Gorak
(1)
The Salt Lake Tribune – 7/7
Chief has it wrong
Public Forum Letter
I don't know where to begin when discussing Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank's "New immigration law sets dangerous precedent" (Opinion, July 4) -- the hyperbole of comparing those who disagree with his opinion as being Nazis, or the misrepresentation of Senate Bill 81, Utah's new immigration law, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 287(g) program.
Under SB81, whether police units become 287(g) certified is voluntary, and Burbank knows this. Since this option has been available to Utah police units for years, there is no change with SB81. Those two county units in Utah that are certified to enforce immigration laws certainly do not practice Gestapo techniques. I am sure that the main problem Chief Burbank has is that under SB81 police units may not hide information or be uncooperative with ICE.
I hope the people of Salt Lake City don't mind being a "sanctuary city," because, if the opinions expressed by Chief Burbank are policy, that will happen. His opinions don't improve the illegal immigration problem in Utah or Salt Lake City; they enable it.
Gaylan Stewart
Spanish Fork, Utah
(2)
The Salt Lake Tribune – 7/10
Incendiary language
Labeling those Utahns who support legislation that fortifies federal immigration law "hotheads" who indulge their "baser instincts" only infuriates those who want the state to fill a void the feds have created ("Immigration law: Not a nice reflection on Utah," Opinion, July 2). Such incendiary statements are barriers to an amicable immigration solution.
The editorial calls Utah's new immigration law, SB81, "misguided." Who would you have the Legislature "pander" to, illegal residents or citizens and legal residents? Immigration and guest-worker programs exist to supplement labor shortfalls that businesses encounter. But to enhance their profits, many businesses circumvent these programs by hiring illegal laborers who choose to ignore those legal guidelines.
A discussion about immigration must be frank and honest, but injecting discrimination and the emotional aspects of immigration is not warranted. The discussion does not involve ethnicity or demographics. It is about U.S. labor requirements, immigration for a sustainable population level, a society governed by laws, and restoring integrity to the workplace and our immigration system.
July 1, 2009 -- "not a day to be proud of"? I respectfully take exception. SB81 was long in coming and far past due.
Mark C. Ferguson
Salt Lake City
(3)
The Capital Times (Wis.) – 7/9
Dave Gorak: McNally is out of touch on immigration
Dear Editor: Columnist Joel McNally proves once again ("Anti-immigration policies boil down to prejudice," online June 27) that whenever the subject of race is linked to coverage of immigration, it is injected by those using Joe McCarthy tactics to silence their opponents and a mainstream media unfamiliar with the practice of critical thinking.
Since moving to Wisconsin nearly four years ago, I don't recall any McNally immigration column that didn't use racism to make his point. He continues to think that his audience really believes that those who support enforcement of our immigration laws are "anti-immigrant" and that there is no difference between immigrants and illegal aliens. All he -- and other journalists who cover this issue -- has to do is take the time to read the online comments posted in response to their sob-sister journalism to see they are out of step with a majority of Americans.
McNally writes passionately about the need to treat "immigrants," i.e., illegal aliens, "with respect and fairness" because, he will argue, our economy would sputter and collapse without them. But don't expect a column from him anytime soon about the 14.5 million unemployed American workers worried about their families, including the 46 members of an Indiana National Guard unit who just returned from Iraq to find that their jobs have disappeared into today's economic sinkhole. Ask McNally if it's "fair" that so many of his fellow citizens should have to endure the loss of their livelihoods while 8 million illegals are allowed to remain in their jobs and then have the added gall to demand driving privileges and reduced tuition rates for their children also here illegally.
Dave Gorak
Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration
LaValle, Wis.
(4)
Los Angeles Times – 7/15
Broken government
Re “Fixing immigration,” Opinion, July 13
The authors write: "Our immigration system has been broken for too long, and the costs of that failure are growing."
Our immigration system is not broken, and we don't need immigration reform. It is our government that is broken, and we need government reform.
We have politicians who pander to greedy merchants who want taxpayer-subsidized cheap foreign labor from poor countries.
Haydee Pavia
Laguna Woods, Calif.
(5)
Gwinnett (Ga.) Daily Post – 7/16
Immigration enforcement a priority for public safety
By D.A. King
The importance of the recently approved application for the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department to help identify and deport illegal aliens captured for additional crimes should not be underestimated - by anyone.
Citizens and lawfully present residents in Gwinnett - and all of Georgia - should be very concerned about the fact that after nearly two years of work, the recently approved 287(g) authority could fall victim to budgetary cuts and not be implemented.
The 287(g) program is a crime deterrent. Everyone concerned should remember that nationwide, without exception, in every community where 287(g) is used, people in the United States illegally leave for less risky areas in which to live.
The reality is that Gwinnett - and therefore Georgia - is now a North American center of operation for dangerous gangs and Mexican drug cartels. The news of huge drug busts, each seemingly bigger than the last, come nearly every week. Not many Gwinnett residents are unaware of the rising crime and gang activity in the once safe and secure Gwinnett community.
The 287(g) program will have an immediate effect of driving much of the already illegally present criminal element out of Gwinnett, and in the process save tax dollars that are now going to finance their law enforcement, incarceration and translation services, and the medical care and education costs of dependents.
This is not only a start on the return to the rule of law - it is a net tax dollar saver.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot handle the job of enforcement alone, which is why Congress created the 287(g) program in 1996. It was and is intended as a force multiplier and a way for local law enforcement to protect and serve their communities, much the same way illegal immigration is handled in Mexico.
For proof positive of the effectiveness of the 287(g) program, one has only to listen to the loud, outrageous opposition from the well-financed, anti-enforcement, open borders industry.
The radical ACLU has formed an entire organization - the Georgia Detention Watch - to fight existing and future use of the federally authorized and monitored local enforcement program - its stated mission. The far left's false talking points are always the same: Immigration is a federal responsibility, even when they are simultaneously opposing federal enforcement on the federal level.
Using ridiculous howls of "racial profiling" and "xenophobia," enemies of immigration enforcement are shameless in their willingness to smear anyone with the courage to stand up and demand that American law be equally applied.
Even Immigration laws. Even for Hispanics.
What they are hoping you won't stop and think about is the fact that the nation of Mexico uses its military to defend its borders, severely punishes illegal employment and deports nearly as many illegal aliens each year as does the United States. Most of these people are Hispanics looking for a better life.
The race-baiting subversive left tries hard to convince citizens, the media and our elected officials that 287(g) will somehow "make the community less safe." The response should always be to note the 900 illegals that were discovered in the Gwinnett jail in just 26 days earlier this year.
More than half of them had a previous criminal history. New charges included murder, rape, kidnapping, child molestation and felony drug dealing. But the sole reason for deportation is violation of our immigration laws.
No reasonable citizen can accept that removing this element from Gwinnett has made it less safe, or that any crime is too "minor" for an illegal alien to be apprehended.
The 287(g) program in Gwinnett should be implemented at any cost. The tax dollars it will save are uncountable. The lives it will surely save could be anyone's family member.
Gwinnett residents should speak up loudly for 287(g) implementation.
D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which is opposed to open borders and illegal immigration.
(6)
Daily Record (N.J.) – 7/16
Immigration crackdown should start now
To the Editor:
The arrest and deportation of people who have entered this country illegally and commit crimes against citizens here, regardless of the nature of the crime, should have been allowed without the forced implementation of 287(g). Obviously, the need for such a law to allow police to simply do their jobs speaks volumes on the current state of federal immigration enforcement in this country. The feds cannot enforce the law, so someone has to.
My mom was one of the first Hispanic people to settle here more than 60 years ago. Living and working in and around Morristown my entire life has afforded me the opportunity to experience any and all changes which have taken place.
Over the past 20 years, however, there has been an entirely different scene in this town. Stacking, day laborers, crime, public urination and drunkenness are things I never thought I would witness in my own neighborhood.
Now, on my street, men, young to old, walk and ride bikes up and down, backpacks over their shoulders, cell phones in hand.
This is in a pretty good neighborhood, but too close to "vibrant" Speedwell Avenue. 287(g) should have been incorporated into our law a long time ago. Now we have a chance to enforce it, and we should. My trips along Speedwell and Morris Street, however, does not indicate any change in day laborers walking to and waiting for jobs. Maybe the police haven't been sworn in yet.
Joanne Meusel
Morristown, N.J.
(7)
Orange County (Calif.) Register – 7/16
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. It was never intended to reward illegal aliens and their offspring with CalWORKS and American citizenship. The real "vermin coming out of the woodwork" are people like Amin David, who work ceaselessly to destroy our country by flooding it with illegals. My only question is: Where can I sign this petition?
Randle C. Sink
Huntington Beach, Calif.
(8)
The Salt Lake Tribune – 7/18
Sustain the law
In not using Utah's new immigration law, Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank is concerned for the civil rights of illegal aliens, but he ignores the dictum that to punish lesser crimes is to prevent larger crimes ("New immigration law sets dangerous precedent," Opinion, July 4).
For example, if the illegal alien who killed three members of the Gary Ceran family had been deported after an earlier driving under the influence charge, he wouldn't have committed vehicular homicide and Utah taxpayers wouldn't be paying $35,000 a year to incarcerate him. Families of Utahns killed by illegal aliens -- such as Noemi Rodriguez, Joseph Crummy, Dan Johnson, VerLee Hunt and Aniceto Armendaiz -- might differ with Burbank's allegation that "the costs of participating in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 287(g) program outweigh the benefits."
Burbank is surprised that since Mormons immigrated to Utah to escape persecution and find freedom, today many choose to "assume a negative and biased position toward immigrants." However, Mormons believe in "obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." As former Texas Rep. Barbara Jordan testified: "It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest."
Vicki Martin
Clearfield, Utah
LETTERS WE’VE JUST RECEIVED
(9)
The Salt Lake Tribune – 6/25
Waylaying SB81
Public Forum Letter
It is interesting that attorneys who oppose Senate Bill 81 waited until 10 days before implementation of the immigration bill, which has already been delayed a year, to attempt further delaying action. Was the date a surprise?
Even more interesting is their challenging "the legality of forcing only companies that contract with public agencies to use the federal E-Verify system while private businesses do not" ("Lawsuit looms over SB81," Tribune , June 22).
There is an easy solution to that -- pass a law soon to require all businesses to use E-Verify. Now, that actually might remove some illegal immigrants from the state.
Robert Wren
Heber, Utah
(10)
Reedsburg (Wis.) Independent – 7/9
Many thanks to Assemblyman Ed Brooks (R-50th) for voting against the recently passed state budget. We're sure that he had several objections to this package in addition to the provision that now puts Wisconsin in the company of 10 other states stupid enough to grant in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
We hope that Wisconsinites remember Gov. Doyle's "generosity" with their tax dollars and disregard for the rule of law the next time they line the streets to say good-bye to members of their National Guard units as they prepare to defend American principles and values on foreign soil.
Dave Gorak
Executive director
Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration
LaValle, Wis.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#000000 width=1></TD><TD bgColor=#ffffff width=34></TD><TD bgColor=#ffffff vAlign=top width=552 align=middle><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=552><TBODY><TR><TD height=10></TD></TR><TR><TD>[FONT=arial, helvetica]Alert! Health Care plan would provide coverage for illegal aliens![/FONT]</TD></TR><TR><TD height=10></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Everyone, from President Obama on down, says the national health care proposal, HR 3200, does not cover illegal aliens, but the devil is in the details and implementation.
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