Arizona crackdown driving out illegal immigrants
Associated Press | AMANDA LEE MYERS

PHOENIX — Illegal immigrants in Arizona, frustrated with a flagging economy and tough new legislation cracking down on their employers, are returning to their home countries or trying their luck in other states.

For months, illegal immigrants have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the state’s new employer-sanctions law, which takes effect Jan. 1. The voter-approved legislation is an attempt to lessen the economic incentive for illegal immigrants in Arizona, the busiest crossing point along the U.S.-Mexico border.

And by all appearances, it’s starting to work.

“People are calling me telling me about their friend, their cousin, their neighbors — they’re moving back to Mexico,” said Magdalena Schwartz, an illegal immigrant-rights activist and pastor at a Mesa church. “They don’t want to live in fear, in terror.”

Martin Herrera, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant and masonry worker who lives in Camp Verde, 70 miles north of Phoenix, said he is planning to return to Mexico as soon as he ties up loose ends after living here for four years.

“I don’t want to live here because of the new law and the oppressive environment,” he said. “I’ll be better in my country.”

He called the employer-sanctions law “absurd.”

“Everybody here, legally or illegally, we are part of a motor that makes this country run,” Herrera said. “Once we leave, the motor is going to start to slow down.”

There’s no way to know how many illegal immigrants are leaving Arizona, especially now with many returning home for normal holidays visits. But economists, immigration lawyers and people who work in the immigrant community agree it’s happening.

State Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, the author of the employer sanctions law, said his intent was to drive illegal immigrants out of Arizona.

“I’m hoping they will self-deport,” Pearce said. “They broke the law. They’re criminals.”

Under the employer sanctions law, businesses found to have knowingly hired illegal workers will be subject to sanctions from probation to a 10-day suspension of their business licenses. A second violation would bring permanent revocation of the license.

Nancy-Jo Merritt, an immigration lawyer who primarily represents employers, said her clients already have started to fire workers who can’t prove they are in the country legally.

“Workers are being fired, of course,” she said. “Nobody wants to find out later on that they’ve got somebody working for them who’s not here legally.”

When illegal immigrants don’t have jobs, they don’t stick around, said Dawn McLaren, a research economist at Arizona State University who specializes in illegal immigration.

She said the flagging economy, particularly in the construction industry, also is contributing to an illegal immigrant exodus.

“As the jobs dwindle and the environment becomes more unpleasant in more ways than one, you then decide what to do, and perhaps leaving looks like a good idea,” she said. “And certainly that creates a problem, because as people leave, they take the jobs they created with them.”

Pearce disagreed that the Arizona economy will suffer after illegal immigrants leave, saying there will be less crime, lower taxes, less congestion, smaller classroom sizes and shorter lines in emergency rooms.

“We have a free market. It’ll adjust,” he said. “Americans will be much better off.”

He said he’s not surprised illegal immigrants are leaving the state and predicts that more will go once the employer-sanctions law takes effect next month.

“It’s attrition by enforcement,” he said. “As you make this an unfriendly state for lawbreakers, I’m hoping they will pick up and leave.”

From:
Washington Minuteman Detachment
Minuteman Civil Defense Corps
P.O. Box 3290
Ferndale, WA. 98248-9998
August 2, 2007

To:
Washington State Human Rights Commission
Marc Brenman, Director
Idolina Reta , Deputy Director
Kathy Baros Friedt, Chair
Ellis Casson
Deborah Sioux Cano-Lee
Jerry Hebert
Shawn Murinko

711 S. Capitol Way, #402
P.O. Box 42490
Olympia, WA 98504-2490

Commissioners,

This letter of protest is written on behalf of the one hundred and ninety-six current members of the Washington State Chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. We are addressing this letter of protest to all of the Commissioners on the Washington State Human Rights Commission, as well as to Governor Christine Gregoire, because we are not confident that writing directly to the Commission’s Executive Director, Marc Brenman alone will be either acknowledged or responded to, even though we are all American citizens and residents of Washington State and help pay the taxes which provides for his income.

On Sunday July 15th 2007, the Everett HeraldNet online news publication published a viciously insulting and derogatory opinion piece written by Marc Brenman in which he maligned all members of “The Minutemen” with the following paragraph:

“The Minutemen rely on the use of hateful speech, the Big Lie, and fear of people who are different to corrupt and coarsen political dialogue, just as their Nazi forebears did. The so-called Minutemen, like their former fellow traveler Tim McVey, are precursors to domestic terrorism and vigilantism.”

In a single paragraph, given without any qualification or example to buttress his accusations, he branded us all as liars, as spreaders of hate and fear, linked us all directly to genocidal Nazism, directly associated us with a mass-murdering domestic terrorist, and said flatly that we are the precursors to terrorism and vigilantism.

Although the piece was published as opinion, Mr. Brenman was identified at the bottom of the article as the “Executive Director of the Washington State Human Rights Commission” which added the implication of “fact” to his opinion as that offered by an officer of the State of Washington. Indeed, why would an officer of the State of Washington, speaking with far-reaching impact, lie to readers by saying things which are not true and cannot be factually substantiated on a point by point basis?

Why would Mr. Brenman openly fabricate such slanderous allegations about people he does not know and could not name and would not recognize in person?

People reading Mr. Brenman’s words could easily believe that he was speaking factually about “Minutemen” organizations in Washington State, rather than simply being vindictively insulting and facetious as he painted all “Minutemen” with the same brush. Indeed, officers of the State are expected to be honest when communicating with the public and at least marginally fair and unbiased when commenting on controversial issues of broad community concern.

But Mr. Brenman was neither honest nor impartial, and he was not fair, and that is why we are so deeply offended by his statements.

It is Mr. Brenman who is relying on the use of hateful speech, the Big Lie, and fear of people who are different to corrupt and coarsen political dialogue.

Mr. Brenman, every member of the Washington State Chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is a good, decent, law abiding citizen of both the United States and Washington State. Our ranks include highly decorated veterans of the United States military, police officers, Democrats and Republicans, working class and professionals, Christians and Jews, and people of many races. We do not discriminate on the basis of race or religion or sexual orientation or country of origin.

In fact when a candidate applies to join the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a national organization headquartered in Arizona, they are required to undergo legal background checks. Once their background is cleared of any criminal activity, they must then take a pledge to uphold the Constitution of the United States. This pledge includes the line:

“There is no tolerance among Minutemen for racism or bigotry – E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.”

And they must promise to abide by our standard operating procedures, rule number one of which specifies:

“1. Minutemen are courteous to everyone with whom they come into contact, and never discriminate against anyone for any reason.”

Furthermore, our rules clearly and aggressively forbid any hint of vigilantism:

“6. Minutemen follow all federal, state and local laws, understanding that we are being held to a higher standard by all.”

We do not, therefore, understand on what grounds Mr. Brenman could possibly link our membership to Nazis and the mindset of genocide. The Nazis gassed and shot and starved millions of people to death! To compare a group of law abiding American citizens actively advocating for the enforcement of our laws against illegal immigration–to Nazis, is not only patently ridiculous and belittling of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, it is also outrageously false and slanderous to the men and women of the Washington State Chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps! There is simply no logical comparison between us and the Nazis!

NONE!

We do not, therefore, understand on what grounds Mr. Brenman claims to link us to a domestic terrorist like Timothy McVeigh who killed 186 innocent people at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma, including wiping out an entire day care center filled with children!

We defend our Constitution, Mr. Brenman, and the likes of Timothy McVeigh would be instantly driven from our ranks!

We do not, therefore, understand why or how Mr. Brenman could possibly state that we are “precursors to domestic terrorism and vigilantism”! We in the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps uphold our nation’s laws, sir! We do not stand above them! And you cannot show otherwise! And that must be why you do not substantiate your claims in your opinion piece—because you CANNOT!

Your slanders are WITHOUT ANY BASIS IN FACT!

As an appointed officer of the State of Washington, Mr. Brenman must be held accountable for his vicious public accusations and publicly retract them in WRITTEN form. HE WORKS FOR ALL THE *CITIZENS* OF THIS STATE AND NOT JUST THOSE WHO HOLD HIS POLITICAL VIEWS!

We have been deeply and unjustly maligned by Mr. Brenman and deserve a public apology from him printed in the very publication in which he made such unjust and outrageously false accusations about our Organization or we will pursue every legal option available to us to secure our satisfaction in this matter!

Will you issue a written public apology to our organization to be published on the HeraldNet online news service, Mr. Brenman, or do you refuse?

Please respond immediately.

With greatest concern,

Signed the men and women of the Washington State Chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

National MMCDC
Washington State MMCDC
Minuteman CDC pledge
Minuteman SOP

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Immigration Reform Caucus Chairman Brian Bilbray (R-CA) joined Congressman Peter T. King (R-NY), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, to unveil two new border security and immigration initiatives—a comprehensive border security and immigration reform bill as well as a resolution calling for full enforcement of all current immigration laws. The two new measures represent a strong ‘Security First-No Amnesty’ alternative to the Kennedy-Bush Senate Amnesty bill.

“We decided to take action today rather than wait for the Senate to pass an amnesty bill the American people clearly do not want,” Bilbray said. “There is no reason why Congress shouldn’t take immediate action to secure our borders, strengthen our immigration laws, implement true interior enforcement and establish a working employer verification system.”

Brian Bilbray

Peter T. King

Lamar Smith

The Secure Borders FIRST (For Integrity, Reform, Safety and anti-Terrorism) Act of 2007 will mandate operational control of all our borders and ensure better enforcement of current U.S. immigration laws.

“First and foremost, we must gain control of our borders, and the Senate bill fails to do this,” King said. “Furthermore, against the wishes of the American people, the Senate bill would provide almost immediate amnesty for an estimated 12 million illegal aliens here in the United States. These are serious issues that would only serve to weaken the security of our country.”

“The immigration status quo is intolerable. Not because our immigration laws are broken, but because they are not vigorously enforced,” Smith said. “Immigration enforcement has failed primarily because Administrations for 20 years have not enforced sanctions on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Our resolution calls on the Administration to enforce employer sanctions systematically, not just sporadically.”

The bill also reforms the H-2A Visa program to allow for a market-based number of temporary agricultural workers each year. The legislation does not provide amnesty, or the legalization of aliens illegally residing in the United States, and would make English our nation’s official language.

“By reforming the H-2A program we already have in place, we can better enforce our immigration laws while ensuring American farmers have the workforce they need,” King said.

Furthermore, House Republican leaders have introduced a resolution calling for the enforcement of all immigration laws points out a number of current laws that are not fully enforced. This includes implementing both the entry and exit portions of the U.S. VISIT program, enforcing the employer sanctions that were enacted as part of the “Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986,” and increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, detention beds, and immigration investigators.

Bilbray added, “The practice of rewarding illegal behavior and ignoring current immigration laws must come to an end. No one believes that you can grant an amnesty first and enforce the law second. What part of illegal is hard to understand?”

“The Administration claims we have a de facto amnesty now,” said Smith. “That’s true and it’s the result of the Administration’s own lack of determination to enforce the law. We don’t need amnesty to enforce current law; we need to enforce the law to eliminate the need for amnesty.”

“If Congress is serious about border security and immigration control, then this is the solution,” King said.

Thanks to the bill’s Z-visa provision, any illegal entrant who can ‘prove’ that they were in the United States before January 1st, 2007 will be given permanent residence after paying $2,500.00 in fees and fines and cannot be deported, regardless of whether they pursue citizenship or not.

Organized by Washingtonians for Immigration Reform (WFIR) and the Washington State Chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MMCDC), the marchers all carried American flags to show their support for our nation and a handmade sign or a banner to show their anger at the efforts of President Bush and corrupt members of Congress to intentionally misrepresent the mass amnesty as a form of ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ when in fact no Z-visas are needed to end the mass illegal population migration crisis created and officially encouraged by Mexico and American big business, and tough immigration laws already on the books are not being enforced. President Bush has actually stated bluntly that the tens of millions of illegals already in the country are not going to be deported and that, for some strange reason, no enforcement of our immigration laws can be assured by him unless all illegals currently in the United States are granted permanent legal residence through the Z-visa program.

This is, of course, an outrage and Americans all over the country are waking up to the fact that President Bush and a bevy of corrupt members of Congress are doing their damndest to betray our sovereignty by rewarding tens of millions of illegal entrants for breaking our laws. Who benefits from such an AMNESTY!? Not our country! Our population is already exploding thanks exclusively to mass illegal population migration from Mexico. Our schools are being overwhelmed our social services are being crushed. Our national identity is being split. Our culture and heritage are being overwritten in areas where the illegal population is in the majority. Americans are having to COMPETE with the political activism of illegal entrants and their lobby organizations like La Raza for the attentions of our own politicians! We are losing our sovereignty! The value of American citizenship is being diminished! And every time non-citizens who are here illegally hold massive rallies or practice political power through the showing of their numbers, our DEMOCRACY is also DIMINISHED because non citizens who have broken our laws to get here are actually forcing their will on Americans! Think about it. They violated our law, laws which were put in place through the Democratic process to prevent this very thing from happening! And our own President and his advocates like Kennedy and McCain actually actively do what they can to prevent the enforcement of our immigration laws and encourage this kind of behavior by rewarding these invaders with permanent residence! Senator Reid of (D) Nevada has gone so far as to actually refer to anyone who crosses our borders illegally as an “undocumented American.”

You don’t believe us, watch the video below!

This is OUTRAGEOUS!

Call your Senators now at 202-224-3121 (Capitol switchboard) and demand that they put a STOP to this AMNESTY!

NO DAMNED AMNESTY!

AMNESTY = SURRENDER!

By KEN HERMAN AND EUNICE MOSCOSO
COX NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — President Bush urged Hispanics on Friday to lobby hard for a major immigration bill, a day after it was revived in the Senate.

“Each day our nation fails to act, the problem only grows worse,” he said, at the annual National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast. “I will continue to work closely with members of both parties, to get past our differences, and pass a bill I can sign this year.”

Bush’s comments came after Senate leaders announced on Thursday a deal that would allow the legislation to come back to the Senate floor as early as next week.

But the fate of the measure is uncertain.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday that he “insisted on a process to prevent endless debate and get the bill through the Senate,” but he added that he hoped congressional Republicans would not “stall” the legislation.

Reid also endorsed an amendment that would provide more than $4 billion for immediate security improvements as part of the immigration package. Bush backed the amendment Thursday, hoping to assuage conservatives who are skeptical of the overall bill.

The legislation would give illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, create a large guest-worker program, and increase border security and workplace enforcement. Many conservatives oppose it, saying that it amounts to amnesty for lawbreakers.

The main Democratic sponsor of the bill, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, expressed optimism at the prayer breakfast.

“We have to come together to try and find common ground. The idea of failure is not an option,” he said.

Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican and the only immigrant in the Senate, said that the bill still faces a tough road.

“We’ve made great progress. We’re at the cusp. We’ve almost got it out of the Senate, and then it will have to go to the House. The battle is long and the battle is hard,” he said. “But I know that with your spirit and your faith that we will continue and we will prevail and persevere.”

Perhaps in a preview of what the immigration bill could face in the House, that chamber passed an amendment Friday that would ban cities with so called “sanctuary” policies designed to welcome legal and illegal immigrants from receiving certain homeland security money.

The amendment targets policies that discourage local police from sharing information with the federal government about illegal immigrants.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who sponsored the amendment, said the 234-189 vote on the amendment to a homeland security bill should serve as “a warning sign” to the White House and supporters of the immigration measure.

“If that legislation makes it to the House, it is in serious trouble,” said Tancredo, who is running for president in 2008.

At the breakfast, Bush was introduced by the Rev. Luis Cortes Jr., president of Esperanza USA, a network of Hispanic religious organizations that work on social and economic issues.

Cortes thanked Bush for his “humanitarian approach to the plight of millions of people” who he said are guilty of nothing more than wanting the opportunities that America has provided others through the last two centuries.

According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll released this week, 51 percent of Hispanics identify themselves as Democrats and 21 percent identify themselves as Republicans.

The poll also found that 27 percent of Hispanics approve of Bush’s handling of the economy, compared with 41 percent of whites. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Well, we were wrong!

Senator Reid DID refer to all illegals as “undocumented Americans” and here’s the full quote:

democrats.senate.gov

“This week, we will vote on cloture and final passage of a comprehensive bill that will strengthen border security, bring the 12 million undocumented Americans out of the shadows, and keep our economy strong. In the days ahead, we will work to improve the bill to protect and strengthen family ties while improving the structure of the temporary-worker program.”

See the video here

Well, Mister Reid—a man who holds no value or respect for American culture or heritage or identity or citizenship–your AMNESTY has failed for the moment. And hopefully your open admission that American citizenship means NOTHING to you because you would give it to anyone who can break our laws and enter our nation illegally, will help wake REAL American citizens up to the fact that you are going to push for selling citizenship to anyone who can cross our borders, legally or not! And hopefully we can gather enough American citizens together to STOP YOU! We in the Minuteman CDC certainly VOW to defend our nation from people like you who would sell citizenship in trade for whatever votes your political machine can garner from such treachery! And we will do it through the very Democratic process you are trying to hijack with votes gathered from illegals made ‘citizens’!

FOUR FAILURES OF S. 1348

These Failures in the Bill Ensure that Illegal Immigration Will Continue After the Amnesty

Failure #1: BUSH/KENNEDY BILL DOES NOT REQUIRE EXIT SYSTEM TO ENSURE AGAINST ‘OVERSTAYED’ ILLEGAL ALIENS IN FUTURE

An estimated 40 percent of all illegal aliens came to this country legally on temporary visas as students, tourists and workers.

S. 1348 leaves out a requirement that a computerized exit system be in place and working before any new immigration programs can begin. This ensures that if this bill passes, we will continue to have hundreds of thousands of legal visitors becoming illegal aliens each year.

Failure #2: NO MONEY FOR ENFORCEMENT

9/11 Families for Secure America noted that Congress has been passing all kinds of enforcement measures through the years that never got implemented because the White House refuses to ask for funding and because the Congress routinely short-changes them.

Without appropriations, none of the talk about increased enforcement means much – particularly when based on the track record of the last three administrations (including Bush 1) of ignoring immigration laws.

Failure #3: AMNESTY HAPPENS BEFORE ENFORCEMENT

Of course, the White House says this is not true. They point out that the part of the amnesty that puts illegal aliens on the path to green cards and citizenship doesn’t start until the enforcement triggers are met. The triggers must be met before the Z-visas are given out to illegal aliens.

But the big hole in that argument is that illegal aliens get their legal status long before the Z-visas. They get their “probationary” legal status, including a work permit and social security number, at the very beginning after the bill passes. If the Z-visas are never offered (because the enforcement triggers aren’t met), the bill would allow the now-legal aliens to work and live in the U.S. the rest of their lives under the probationary status.

Failure #4: ENFORCEMENT TRIGGERS ARE ABOUT PROCEDURE BUT NOT ABOUT RESULTS

The triggers can be met without any reduction in future illegal immigration at all.

The triggers do NOT require that DHS has operational control of the border;

….. they do NOT require that DHS comply with the law and build all of the fence;

….. they do NOT require that DHS implement the exit system that would allow us to know if “guest workers” actually leave, even though it has been in the law since 1996;

….. they do NOT require work site enforcement;

….. and they do NOT require that DHS increase its apprehension rate or its alien absconder removal rate.

May 24, 2007

Honorable Jon Kyl
United States Senate
730 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0304
VIA FACSIMILE @ (202) 224-2207

Dear Senator Kyl,

I am writing to inform you that we are extremely surprised and disappointed at your decision to support the latest Senate bill regarding illegal immigration. No matter how it is presented to the American people, and no matter how our elected representatives try to spin it and avoid the word “amnesty”, the sad fact remains that this bill will provide amnesty to the millions of illegal aliens who have succeeded in avoiding arrest. Simply put, the bill would forgive illegal aliens for breaking our laws and it would make the vast majority of them “legal” residents.

Local 2544, now representing about 2,600 Border Patrol agents in Arizona, endorsed your Senate bid last year with the clear understanding that you would not support amnesty for illegal aliens. We feel we have been sold out.

As we all learned from the 1986 amnesty debacle, the simple fact of the matter is that amnesty does not work. It simply rewards lawlessness, which naturally encourages more lawlessness. In this case, it will encourage continued massive illegal immigration. History proves this. We legalized approximately 3 million illegal aliens pursuant to the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, and now, 20 years later, we’re looking at legalizing 12 to 20 million more? This is disgraceful. Further, I can tell you from first-hand experience that corruption was absolutely rampant with the previous amnesty program, and there is no doubt that corruption will be rampant again if a bill with amnesty attached to it becomes law. Why is it that some politicians naively think that telling a class of people it is acceptable to ignore our current laws will encourage that same class of people to obey future laws? Border Patrol agents successfully exposing corruption after the implementation of the 1986 amnesty program were admonished and ordered to “stand down” (I was one of those so ordered). We were told that anyone who had applied for, or indicated that they were going to apply for amnesty, was not to be questioned. The result was that the border became more chaotic. When illegal aliens were encountered and subsequently released without questioning it emboldened them, and many were engaged in smuggling operations using their “amnesty” status as a cover for their smuggling activities. The 1986 amnesty program, from a law enforcement perspective, was nothing short of disastrous. You were a freshman congressman in 1986, and you should know this. The border is only under marginally better control now than it was then. In fact, there are areas of the border in which we have less control now because we aren’t allowed to do our jobs effectively. For example, we have burdensome restrictions such as our ridiculous “vehicle pursuit” policy, whereby we have to back off just about any smuggler in a vehicle who “exceeds the posted speed limit” (regardless of whether he or she is smuggling illegal aliens, drugs, weapons, or anything else imaginable). We have geographic areas within this country that we are ordered to stay away from, for instance, Phoenix, Arizona is full of illegal aliens, and we aren’t allowed to patrol there because our presence may offend someone. These restrictions, and others, make it nearly impossible to be effective at times. Anyone who claims the border currently resembles anything “under control” should explain how it is that millions of illegal aliens are still managing to sneak in every year. It doesn’t add up, no matter how many public relations ploys some of our top managers dream up to fool the American people. It’s a very simple equation – if the border was “secure” people wouldn’t be able to get in unless they presented themselves legally at a designated port of entry. We are arresting more than 1 million per year, and we lose more than we arrest. Do the math.

Aside from this bill being bad public policy, astronomically expensive for the taxpayers, and bad for this country’s security, I want to assure you that amnesty is a tremendous morale breaker for frontline Border Patrol agents who are trying to secure this nation’s borders against all odds, and at an ever-increasing risk of personal harm. We would like any politician, just once, to explain to us why we risk our lives to keep people out of this country, when the same people we are trying to keep out will be legalized anyway after they get by us. And again, let’s be clear, most of them do get by us. We are basically destined to fail before we ever get started.

This bad habit of rewarding those who successfully break our laws for the sake of political “compromise” makes no sense. As a Border Patrol agent who has already seen this fiasco played out once, I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating it is to try and do the job you were sworn to do when your entire mission has been sold out on the back end. I am extremely proud to be a 21-year veteran Border Patrol agent and I’m proud of the rank-and-file agents I work with. However, I’m not so proud of some of our politicians and “leaders” within the Border Patrol who seem to have lost touch with reality. Is there any wonder that we can no longer recruit a sufficient number of agents to meet hiring goals? We’re not even close. Our managers in Washington have become so desperate that they are now sponsoring a NASCAR team to improve our image, and they are offering rewards of $1,500 to current employees who recruit new agents. They will call this “thinking outside the box”. We call it desperation. It is not happenstance that prospective young law enforcement officers are refusing to join the Border Patrol in the numbers we need. They are heading elsewhere because they see that we have been sold out. This is not surprising when we work for an Administration more concerned with appeasing the corrupt Mexican government than supporting the rank-and-file agents it hires to secure our borders. Our “immigration system” is not necessarily “broken”. That’s just a convenient excuse (the oft repeated line “our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed”). The real problem is that our leaders’ willpower is broken. We aren’t allowed to enforce our laws properly. The country of Mexico is broken. It needs to be fixed by the citizens it victimizes. Rather than fix the corrupt system they live in, the Mexican government chooses to export their poverty problems to the United States. It’s simple, and they should be held accountable instead of being coddled, rewarded, and empowered to continue the abuse of their own citizens.

We hope that you will re-evaluate your position on this disastrous bill and that you will stand up for this country. We are sorely lacking leadership at multiple levels within our government. Is there anybody in Washington representing the interests of the American people anymore? How is it that the will of the vast majority of Americans is continuously ignored? Elected representatives are supposed to perform the business of the American people.

This new amnesty scheme simply will not work. We have already seen the chest thumping and the empty promises of “tough enforcement” that is supposed to make amnesty more palatable to Americans. Unfortunately, reality and history dictate that these measures are long on amnesty, short on enforcement, and ultimately, bad for the American people.

Sincerely,

Edward Tuffly II
President
Local 2544
National Border Patrol Council

Murray’s Office Acknowledges Reaction Tally May Be Inaccurate

By ROD ANTONE
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

The chief of staff for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., acknowledged Wednesday that her offices may not have an accurate tally of phone calls from constituents voicing support and opposition on a controversial immigration reform bill.

So many people called Murray’s office in recent days about the immigration issue — as well as the war in Iraq — that some phone calls may have gone uncounted because voice mail systems were full, said her chief of staff, Jeff Bjornstad, in Washington, D.C.

He was responding to some local supporters of a proposed immigration reform bill who questioned Murray’s phone call statistics showing that far more people are against the proposal than for it.

On Monday, the day the Senate began debating the immigration bill, Murray’s staff released numbers showing that between May 17 and May 21, her office in D.C. and six field offices in the state received 1,363 phone calls expressing opposition.

The senator’s staff said that during the same four-day period, Murray had received only 36 phone calls supporting the bill — and that there were no calls registering support in Yakima or Seattle.

The numbers were challenged by some listeners of KDNA radio, a Spanish-language station in Granger. Production Manager Jesus Sosa said he took about 40 calls Tuesday and Wednesday from people who insist they either called or know someone who called the senator’s offices in support of the bill.

“Some of them were saying, ‘Is it even worth it to call? Are they listening to what we’re saying?’ ” Sosa said. “One of the strongest comments was from someone who asked if maybe someone from the senator’s office might have been deleting calls (supporting the bill).

“Mainly people are saying, ‘What’s going on, what happened to the numbers?’ ”

Another group, the D.C.-based Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, also disputed the numbers, saying it had confirmed 172 calls made to Murray’s offices — both in D.C. and in Washington state — in support of the bill. Coalition oaid they were able to verify their number through a toll-free number their organization set up for people to use if they wanted to call their congressional representatives in support of the immigration reform bill.

“In all fairness, the numbers being reported by Murray’s office are for whatever reasons inaccurate. Because if they’re reporting just 36 calls for the bill, that can’t be right,” said Marisa McNee, the coalition’s communications director.

Bjornstad said that even he thought the phone call count earlier this week was “odd” because of the absence of even one phone call of support from Seattle, as well as Yakima. But even after the staff double-checked, he said, the numbers did not change.

He said the lopsided results are likely due to voicemail systems being full.

Bjornstad said that though office workers are answering phones and checking voicemail hourly, the mailboxes get full, so some calls would not have gone through to be counted.

“Our voicemail boxes get full over people calling about this issue and Iraq. We are sorry that people feel like their messages are not being heard,” Bjornstad said. “Sen. Murray does not dispute that people called to express their support for the immigration bill; we take them on good faith that they did.”

He disputed any suggestion that the staff would purposely alter the statistics. He pointed out that Murray voted in favor of last year’s immigration reform bill and is working with this year’s proposal, although he added that she would have “grave concerns if we had to vote on the final bill today.”

Bjornstad urged constituents to keep calling and said Murray’s D.C. office has expanded its voicemail capacity in light of the situation.

Murray’s toll-free number is 1-866-481-9186, and she can receive e-mail via her Web site, www.murray.senate.gov.

* Rod Antone can be reached at 577-7628 or rantone@yakimaherald.com

Letter written to the reporter, Rod Antone, by a Minuteman CDC member asking why certain important questions were not asked during the research for this report:

“From: L(full name withheld from posting at minuteman-wa.com)
Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 16:58:31 -0700
To:
Subject: Amnesty reaction tally may be inaccurate story

Your report on the dismay that pro amnesty officials are having at the lack of phone calls supporting the amnesty bill http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/288957748380521 intrigued me as it brings up a PROFOUNDLY IMPORTANT subject that is never covered by your paper, or any other mainstream paper that I can think of for that matter–the necessity of Americans having to COMPETE with the political activism of non citizens who are here illegally for the ears and attention of our own elected representatives.

Those phone lines to the offices of Murray and Cantwell are not for use by people from other countries who have entered our nation illegally who wish to participate in our democratic process by voicing their support or lack of support for a particular bill. Such participation by non citizens who are here illegally is a direct attack on the value of American citizenship and our democracy because it dilutes and confuses the impact of the American citizen’s voice on our own politicians. True, you could say that the phone calls are less than ‘scientific’ anyway because there is no way to authenticate or verify–even if zip codes and SSN numbers are used, whether the caller is truly an American citizen and a Washington State resident or neither but that’s entirely beside the point. Per your own story a local Spanish language radio station took calls from listeners who said that they had called either Cantwell’s or Murray’s office and gave their support for the amnesty but you DID NOT ASK if the DJ had asked whether the callers were citizens or not. Why not? This begs the question, how many of those Spanish language callers were American citizens and how many were not? If any of them were not citizens, but, through omission, represented themselves as Americans, should they not be punished? Do they care that such calls are an act of robbery against American citizens because it dilutes the impact of our collective political voice with our own elected representatives? If such people don’t care about illegally participating in someone else’s democracy, do we really want such people to be given amnesty and then made into citizens after paying a little cash? Personally, I think admitting 12 million such people who already hold our nation’s sovereignty and laws with utter contempt, and then making them citizens after they pay a worthless fine, lays the foundation for national suicide.

In fact, this is a prime example of why illegal immigration is destroying our sovereignty–we don’t know whose expressed will is being listened to by our state or national representatives and this MONSTER PROBLEM won’t be touched by any newspaper for fear of…what, I don’t know. There must be a fear of ‘something’ at work here because any reporter worthy of his or her salt and with an ounce of spine would be all over this PROFOUNDLY IMPORTANT STORY story, especially when a massive foreign population which has entered our nation illegally is on the verge of forcing its will on the American people through the passage of an amnesty bill which would grant *ALL* illegals now in the country permanent residency–regardless of whether they pursue citizenship or not.

Again, when Cantwell and Murray count all the ANTI AMNESTY ‘votes’ from callers–how will we know whether those ‘votes’ came from Americans or not? Will anyone from your paper even ask?

Very cordially,

L”

By The Associated Press

About a dozen members of the Minuteman organization demonstrated outside the Federal building in downtown Seattle today.

They are carrying signs that say “No Amnesty” and “Enforce our laws.”

The group’s Hal Washburn says if Congress passes proposed immigration reform it would sell out the American people.

The White House is hoping the compromise measure makes its way through the Senate by Memorial Day. But some senators are planning on spending this afternoon outlining their concerns.

The bill would toughen border security and create strict work rules to prevent illegal immigrants from getting jobs. Illegal immigrants could get on track toward permanent residency after paying fees and fines.