Response to Paul Tonko’s Letter on Illegal Immigration

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At the bottom is the pdf file for Paul Tonko’s Letter to me in response to a letter I wrote him about illegal immigration.  Feel free to download it or read it online.  Below is my response to Paul Tonko’s letter to me.

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Tonko said, “I support a comprehensive immigration reform strategy that will seek to end unauthorized entry and effectively address the reality that 11 million undocumented immigrants are currently living in the United States, many of whom hold jobs, make significant contributions to our economy, and have children who are American citizens.

 

My Response: Tonko says he seeks to end unauthorized entry.  In 2016, Tonko cosponsored legislation to drastically increase immigration without any measures to curb illegal immigration.  In 2018 he voted in favor of the Omnibus Spending Bill to increase H-2B visas.  In 2017 he voted in favor of increasing foreign worker visas.  In 2016 he cosponsored legislation to drastically increase foreign worker numbers.  In 2015 he voted for the FY2016 Omnibus Spending bill to increase foreign guest workers.  In 2015 he voted for the FY2016 Omnibus Spending bill to increase refugee resettlement without any measures for refugee fraud.  In 2017 he cosponsored the Dream Act, introduced by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard to grant amnesty to young illegal aliens.  In 2017 he was Cosponsoring legislation to reward certain illegal aliens with amnesty in exchange for military service in (Denham).  In 2016 he Cosponsored legislation to amnesty illegal aliens.  In 2015 he voted in FAVOR OF funding Executive Amnesties by opposing clean DHS Appropriations bill, H.R. 240.  In 2017 he Cosponsored legislation to prevent border fence completion (Lujan Grisham).  In 2017 he cosponsored the Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act, introduced by Rep. Beto O'Rourke, to weaken interior enforcement.  Tonko acted negatively to: Reduce Chain Migration, Reduce Unnecessary Worker Visas, Reduce Refugee and Asylum Fraud, Reduce Amnesty Enticements, Reduce Anchor Baby Citizenship, Reduce Illegal Immigration at Borders, and to Reduce Illegal Jobs and Presence. 

 

My Response: “11 million undocumented immigrants.”  The estimate is now more like 12.5 to 13 million.  How did this get so out of control?  Citizens have been complaining about this for over 25 years.  Citizens end up paying for this with increased taxes to support them.  To add insult to injury, Congress keeps giving more handouts to illegal immigrants.  Notice that Tonko calls them “undocumented.”  Who’s responsibility is it to document them?  It is their own responsibility to document themselves.  Federal law gives each entrant 30 days to report at an immigration office and register themselves.  There is no excuse for them to fail registrate  and no reason to blame citizens for their “undocumented” status.

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My Response: “Whom hold jobs.”  How do they pay employment taxes if they are “undocumented?”  What happens to citizens when they fail to pay employment taxes?  Should citizens be treated worse than people that enter the country illegally and refuse to pay employment taxes?  This is a crime and should be treated as a crime. Employment visas are displacing our STEM graduates (https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-h1-b-visas-dont-help-american-stem-graduates-letters-to-the-editor-1430507004).  Only 14% of 2015 grads have real jobs, thanks to employment visas (http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/15/just-14-percent-of-this-years-college-grads-have-real-jobs-waiting/).  The original H-1 visa program never had the words “temporary worker” in it (https://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/cbreiter2/october-16-2009/history-h-1b-legislation-shows-more-employer-abuses.html).  These programs just get abused, and the temporary workers get abused too as companies do not sponsor them beyond the visa expiration.  Temporary employment visas are not needed.

 

My Response: “Whom make significant contributions to our economy.”  The cost that citizens are paying for these “undocumented” immigrants is 134 Billion every year (http://www.fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burden-illegal-immigration-united-states-taxpayers).  In order to pay for this themselves, every single “undocumented” immigrant would have to be earning $48 K per year & paying taxes – that is every single one of them including the children.  We know that you can’t pay taxes when you are “undocumented,” so please document this Representative Tonko: How are they making significant contributions to our economy?

 

My Response: “Whom have children who are American citizens.”  This is one of the reasons that people come here illegally.  This is a gimmie.  The United States is the only country that allows babies to become citizens when their parents are not citizens.  If people had to be citizens for their children to be citizens, they would come here legally instead of illegally.

 

Tonko said, “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must be reformed to eliminate the unacceptable backlog of immigration applications for immigrants and to track immigrants granted legal entry more effectively.

 

My Response:  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offers Citizenship and green card applications online.  Their web site never goes slowly.  Currently, there is a backlog in naturalizing new citizens, but not in taking applications (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-jayapal-pastor-citizenship-backlog-20180907-story.html).  Citizenship and Immigration Services is funded entirely from application fees.  So, the only thing that is needed is to help people with the fees.  Pro-Immigration lobbyists can solve this problem by spending their money on helping people with these fees instead of donating to politicians.

 

Tonko said, “We must also be sure that the current laws on the books, which require employers to verify immigration papers, are enforced.

 

My Response:  Require eVerify, then enforce.  Simple solution.  End all employment Visas.  Employers just abandon workers after the visa expires so they can hire new immigrants getting a new employment visa for less.

 

Tonko said, “While some farmers can find sufficient labor locally, many cannot find the workers who allow them to keep their family farms in business.  I do not support cutting off the labor supply to upstate farmers who depend on seasonal workers to run their businesses.”

 

My Response:  Immigration reform won’t help farmers get more workers (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/01/29/the-u-s-is-running-out-of-farm-workers-immigration-reform-may-not-help/?utm_term=.899393710c36).  Immigrants tend to get other jobs more.  The solution for farmers is to embrace new technologies such as robotics. 

 

Tonko said, “Former President Obama consistently took steps to address our country’s immigration issue throughout his presidency.  First and foremost, President Obama's executive actions were about enforcement prioritization.”

 

My Response:  George W. Bush already started the effort to concentrate on deporting criminals.  Obama ordered Border patrol agents to release detained border violators (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/border-agent-we-might-as-well-abolish-our-immigration-laws-altogether). This resulted in a surge of MS-13 foot soldiers set on settling new criminal territories (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-ms-13-foot-soldiers-use-surge-to-cross-border-colonize-new-criminal-territory). 

 

Tonko said, “We have limited resources, and no one reasonably thinks that we can remove 11 million people from this country.”

 

My Response:  Why are 11 million people here illegally?  They get free food, free rent, free college, free health care, and freely more benefits than normal citizens get.  Take away the benefits and there will no longer be so many illegal immigrants.  They will remove themselves. 

 

Tonko said, “President Obama directed immigration enforcement to place anyone suspected of terrorism, violent crimes, gang activity, or of recently crossing the border at the top of the deportation priority list.”

 

My Response:  This was already being done by George W. Bush.  President Obama also started the catch and release program that countered all the immigration enforcement efforts.

 

Tonko said, “President Trump has begun his presidency with a disturbing series of executive orders that have raised serious constitutional questions and has caused dismay both domestically and abroad. One such executive order directs Customs and Border Patrol to build a wall that is projected to cost taxpayers $15 billion and deemed unlikely to fix the faults with our border security by experts on both sides of the aisle.”

 

My Response:  The border wall was authorized by Congress in 2006 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Fence_Act_of_2006).  MS-13 members have been simply walking into the United States.  Border wall tests find heights should keep out crossers (https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/19/mexico-border-wall-prototype-testing/).  El Paso, Texas proved that a good wall helps to keep out illegal immigrants, crime and drugs (https://nypost.com/2018/01/13/we-already-have-a-border-wall-and-it-works/).  Most Citizens disagree with the experts you refer to and so do the facts.  A one-time $15 Billion investment will go a long way in reducing the $134 Billion we spend every year because of illegal immigrants.

 

Tonko said, “Another unprecedented executive order has suspended the U.S. refugee program for 120 days and halted all travel from non-U.S. citizens from seven majority Muslim countries for 90 days.”

 

My Response: This order was upheld by the Supreme Court.  This is not unprecedented.  Carter banned travel from Iran in 1979.On Nov. 27, 1979, with Executive Order 12172, Carter directed that:

 

“By virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, 8 USC 1185 and 3 USC 301, it is hereby ordered as follows:

 

SECTION 1-101. Delegation of Authority. The Secretary of State and the Attorney General are hereby designated and empowered to exercise in respect of Iranians holding nonimmigrant visas, the authority conferred upon the President by section 215(a) (1) of the Act of June 27, 1952 (8 USC 1185), to prescribe limitations and exceptions on the rules and regulations governing the entry of aliens into the United States.

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SEC. 1—102. Effective Date. This order is effective immediately.

 

JIMMY CARTER
The White House,
November 26, 1979.”

 

In no way did Trump exclusively ban people from coming to the United States on the basis that they were Muslims.  That was a false claim.

 

Tonko said, “These actions, along with several other directives from the Trump Administration, flout the American tradition of opening its arms to those fleeing terrorism and persecution through our refugee system.”

 

My Response:  We can’t house every refugee in the world.  It is just impossible.  When we have a system of open borders, all we accomplish is to make our country more like the places and governments the refugees are fleeing from, because the system as it is, the way that you promoted it should be, also lets in terrorists, crime organizations, drug cartels, identity theft opportunists, rapists, and murderers.  We need to spend our efforts in securing our country for our law abiding citizens first.  Secondly, we need to take action to help solve the problems in the world that causes people to become refugees.  We must realize that we cannot change the whole world by ourselves, and the best thing we can do is be a good example of what a good country should be like.

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