Saturday, January 19, 2019

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Mr. Tonko,

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I am writing in response to your letter to me on 1-18-2019.

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You lied again – 8 times.

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You said, “Trump failed to support a bipartisan agreement that received unanimous support in the Senate that included significant funding for border security priorities.”  Which bill was that?  It is important to be specific. There were bills passed by the Senate that the House did not support.  There were bills that passed by the House that would have passed a simple majority in the Senate, but did not because Democrats were opposed to it.  It may also be debatable whether the bill included significant funding for border security.  It may have significant funding, but not enough funding to get the job done. 

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You said, “President Trump needs to show leadership and commit to ending this damaging shutdown immediately.”  He has.  He has hosted bargaining sessions and offered bargains and compromises.  The Democrats have done nothing.  They (you included) don’t even show up to negotiate. 

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You said, “I support strong borders, oppose illegal immigration, and continue to believe we should upgrade security at our ports of entry and make significant investments in 21st century technologies to deal with unauthorized crossings.”  However, I have proven that your voting record supports weak enforcement and encouragement of maintaining illegal immigrants through increased welfare benefits (http://baumgarp.wixsite.com/paulsworld/response-to-tonko-on-immigration). 

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You said, “I do not support forcing taxpayers to pay $5 billion for an ineffective wall that the President promised repeatedly that Mexico would pay for.”  However, you allowed this shutdown to cost more than $5 billion.  Also, when the wall is completed, we will be able to ensure that Mexican criminals that keep coming back will no longer be able to come back and thus Mexico will pay to house them saving us the cost of the wall many times over.  

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You said, “The data show that most illegal drugs come in through our ports of entry.”  You need to read the official DEA report.  Most illegal drugs come across unprotected points in the Southwest border (https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/DIR-040-17_2017-NDTA.pdf). 

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You said, “Most undocumented people in the U.S. overstayed a visa and never crossed a border illegally, neither of which would be addressed by a bigger border wall.”  The point of a border wall is to keep out criminals and criminal activities, which is the most important part of border security.  This issue here is border security, not illegal immigration as a whole.

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You said, “The House of Representatives has already passed bipartisan appropriations bills that would reopen the government and allow for negotiations to continue on border security funding without holding federal workers and the American people hostage. The Senate should act on this legislation without delay so that we can end this manufactured crisis and get back to work on issues of importance to the American people.”   How is it bipartisan when the Republican Senate turns it down?  The appropriations bills you refer to are clearly not bipartisan.

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You said, “I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to end this shutdown.”  However, you didn’t even show up to negotiation meetings.

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Sincerely,

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Paul W. Baumgartner