Letters page

Letter author:
Dianna Allison
Letter publisher:
Register Guard
Date of letter:
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Letter body:

While I realize that The Register-Guard does not accept Donald Trump as our president, I ask that it please stop disrespecting him in the news stories. It is disgusting to pick up the newspaper and see stories like “State may sue over Trump order.” I realize there’s only so much room for splashy headlines, but as far as I know, The Register-Guard never disrespected our former president that way.

By the way, our former president signed travel bans on those same seven countries 19 times in his time in office, and no one said anything. Why is it that all of a sudden it is something to trash this country over because President Trump has banned travel from those countries once?


 

Letter author:
John Thomas Jr.
Letter publisher:
Statesman Journal
Date of letter:
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Letter body:

The avowed Oregon Democratic response to the Trump Administration is to fight it at every juncture. You can be killed fighting, you know. Metaphorically. So what does that accomplish except being “Democrat martyrs”? Strapping the political bomb to your waist and blowing up ideologues and yourself? You change nothing. You don’t have the votes and only delay progress.

Trump is the president and Oregon needs federal assistance in many areas because we have the tick-tock of the PERS bomb, always, and more state and local government than our resources can support. Tax revenue rises faster than inflation and we get further behind on the bills.

Unfettered blather and posturing by the elected will solve what? Oregon needs help; not another election campaign from its politicians.

Oregon is best represented by a governor and Congressional members who are sitting at the table negotiating for the citizens they represent. Enough of the juvenile temper tantrums and consequent useless behaviors. Be a part of the solution and not the impediment to Oregon’s future that you are becoming.

Democrats: Grow up!

Letter author:
Scott McGraw
Letter publisher:
Statesman Journal
Date of letter:
Monday, February 6, 2017
Letter body:

Article 1, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution is the source of our laws on immigration being reserved to the federal legislature. Amendment 10 of the Constitution also establishes that the powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and the people.

Since the power over foreign immigration was delegated to the federal government under our Constitution, it is beyond the control of the states — or even the courts — to set or meddle with immigration law.

Using its authority over immigration, the U.S. Congress also gave the president the plenary power to limit and even halt (for so long as he decides is proper) immigration from any other country. That is U.S. Code Title 8, Section 1182 (f). The president is not given any power to make immigration law more lax than that enacted into law through the federal legislature.

The uneducated public may be forgiven; not so our elected officials. They took an oath to uphold and defend the federal and state constitutions. Upon declaring active resistance to the lawful use of powers expressly granted the president, they are in violation of their oath of office and not fit to have such authority.

   


 

Letter author:
Dennis Ortega
Letter publisher:
The Oregonian
Date of letter:
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Letter body:

Liberals and the liberal main-stream media are once again distorting the facts concerning actions taken by the Trump administration. The immigration ban for the seven war-torn terrorist countries (the same countries listed by Obama) is temporary and was done to allow time to develop proper vetting procedures to ensure that those terrorists and anti-America immigrants bent on attacking us are barred from entering our country. And remember, Obama barred Iraqi refugees for 6 months in 2011. Where was the outrage then?

The temporary ban on refugees from these specific countries is being done for the same reason - to correct the lax vetting standards of the Obama Administration. Obama was the cause of the Syrian refugee crisis and now he is decrying Trump while President Trump is simply trying to rectify refugee problems caused by Obama.

The liberal media spews out that this is a ban on Muslims and is un-American. Not so! There are 50 Muslim-majority countries in the world and only seven countries fall within the temporary ban, thus a ban on all Muslims is erroneously proclaimed.  Quit with the moral outrage and understand that President Trump has issued this temporary immigration ban within the supreme responsibility of the executive office - protecting all citizens of the USA.


 

Letter author:
Daniel Crowe
Letter publisher:
Date of letter:
Saturday, February 4, 2017
Letter body:

My opponent in last year’s Oregon attorney general’s race, Ellen Rosenblum, has joined 14 other extreme left-wing attorneys general in denouncing President Trump’s executive order titled “Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States.” Rosenblum calls Trump’s order “unconstitutional, un-American and unlawful.”

As it turns out, the president is merely exercising his authority under the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, as amended. This Democrat-passed law gives the president discretion to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or non-immigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.”

So much for “unconstitutional and unlawful.” Is the president’s order “un-American?”

We are told by Rosenblum that “religious freedom” is under assault, and that America believes in tolerating different beliefs. That’s ironic: Rosenblum joined those same attorneys general in declaring that “climate change deniers” should be prosecuted for daring to disagree with liberal orthodoxy. Similarly, this is the same attorney general who enabled Oregon government to persecute a Christian baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. For the extreme left, tolerance can be a one-way street.

A little perspective is in order.

From noon Friday to noon Saturday, approximately 325,000 foreigners arrived in the United States. About 325 of them were detained for further questioning — 0.1 percent. All but about two dozen were released within 24 hours.

President Trump is actually following precedent laid down by President Carter (banned Iranians) and President Obama (banned Iraqis). Trump has restricted entry from seven of the world’s 50 majority-Muslim countries, including Iran and Iraq, all of which experience violent Islamic extremism most Americans don’t want here. Rosenblum and her allies didn’t explode in indignation when Carter and Obama exercised their authority — but then, those presidents weren’t Republicans.

No country in the world has open borders, because control of the border is a definitional aspect of being a nation. The American government — like all governments — writes the rules of entry that are in the best interests of its own people. On Nov. 8, Americans voted to put someone in the White House who would put America, and Americans, first.

As a Republican who happens to work in the Metro Public Defender’s Office in Portland and a career military lawyer, I am committed to the rule of law and to protecting Americans. Rosenblum has as much right to disagree with our president as you and I do, and it is a proud tradition of our state attorneys general to push back against federal overreach.

But that tradition is usually reserved for an area in which states have authority. Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government exclusive authority to regulate immigration. Perhaps the attorney general would like to borrow my dog-eared copy of the Constitution and ask herself: Have I solved all of Oregon’s legal problems already?
 

Letter author:
James Hoffman
Letter publisher:
Register Guard
Date of letter:
Friday, February 3, 2017
Letter body:

Has anyone seriously considered the financial ramifications for every taxpayer in Lane County if Eugene becomes a sanctuary city? It will not be the immigrants who come here illegally who will pay. They will arrive with their hands out and immediately get welfare benefits. Where is this money going to come from? Are we not already taxed to the hilt?

With the new administration vowing to strip federal funding to sanctuary cities, what sort of financial crisis will be created for Lane County and the city of Eugene? Can we really afford that? Does our local government really want to create this confrontational disaster for us?

Yes, lawsuits could be filed against it, but who pays for those legal fees? We do. The new administration can, and will, deny those much-needed dollars. More than 300 sanctuary cities are costing state and local taxpayers a minimum of $7 billion and as much as $14 billion annually. This is the bottom line, literally and figuratively.

It is unaffordable both in terms of dollars and the toll it will take on public health and crime. Those federal funds are needed for our local law enforcement. We must pray for those poor souls caught up in the turmoil.

Letter author:
Lawana Gray
Letter publisher:
The Register Guard
Date of letter:
Friday, February 3, 2017
Letter body:

Taking the devil’s advocate position, I’d like to offer a response to the Feb. 2 letter from Rosa Nunez (“Building walls is building hate”). A familiar adage that immediately came to mind in response is, “Better fences make better neighbors.”

I challenge anyone reading this to ask two simple questions: First, is your property fenced? Second, why?

I agree that there more than likely is an extreme amount of corruption in immigrant lines and the more money you have, the better the system works. That’s true of everything in any country. Money talks. But facilitating illegal entry into our country so people with less money can also immigrate — that’s not right.

We urgently need to fix our immigration system so all hard-working, honest people have the same opportunities to come to our country if they so desire. But criminals and drugs — no.

Build the wall.
 

Letter author:
James S. Levings
Letter publisher:
The Register Guard
Date of letter:
Friday, February 3, 2017
Letter body:

President Donald Trump has every right to enact the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. The act states, “Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by the president, whenever the president finds that the entry of aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. The president may, by proclamation, and for such a period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or non-immigrants or impose any restrictions on the entry of aliens he may deem to be appropriate.”

President Carter used this act to keep Iranians out of the U.S. He made all Iranian students already in the U.S. check in with the government. And then he deported a bunch of them. Seven thousand were found in violation of the visas, and a total of 15,000 Iranians were forced to leave the U.S. in 1979.

The Quran forbids Muslims to swear allegiance to the U.S. Constitution. Technically, all Muslims should be refused immigration to our country.

The act also requires that an “applicant for immigration must be of good moral character and in agreement with the principles of our Constitution.”

Donald Trump is our president, elected by the people of the United States, so live with it and stop whining.
 

Letter author:
Arvid Freiberg
Letter publisher:
The Register Guard
Date of letter:
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Letter body:

Having read the far-left Register-Guard this morning, one would get the impression that everyone in the subscription area is opposed to Donald Trump. That’s far from the truth, and it would be appropriate if The Register-Guard would at least try to tell the full truth concerning Trump’s policies and attempt to represent those who support Trump.

Trump was (is) a very successful, moral businessman until he entered politics and now has been unfairly trashed by every far-left liberal progressive in the U.S. The total panic over Trump’s order for stronger vetting of immigrants from seven — seven — terrorist-infested countries is totally uncalled for. (By the way, his order is not a travel ban.)

President Obama himself ordered immigration from Iraq to be stopped for a period of time. One gets the impression that immigration and being supported by the American taxpayer is a right. There is no longer a need for immigrants to be properly vetted, no need for immigrants to profess loyalty to the U.S., no longer a need for immigrants to have a sponsor and support themselves, etc.

The main purpose of the federal government is to protect the citizens of America, and we now have a president who takes that purpose seriously. This is America, and citizens are to be considered first.
 

Letter author:
Barry C. Smith
Letter publisher:
The Register Guard
Date of letter:
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Letter body:

There’s quite a bit of talk around town these days about Eugene becoming a sanctuary city for various illegal aliens. To gain a protected status here, all the aliens have to do is break the law and show up. Then they’re home free, with the blessings of our newly elected mayor, among many others.

This is a great insult to my wife, both my grandparents and all other naturalized citizens who came to the U.S. from faraway lands. These people did it the right way. They were legal. They applied. They studied American history, took tests, were interviewed, filled out paperwork and learned English. They were honorable. Eugene a sanctuary city? Shame on you, Eugene.
 

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