Letters page
Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joining the Gang of Eight in the passage of Senate Bill 744 (S.744), termed comprehensive immigration reform by some, amnesty by others, is unconscionable legislation considering the United States’ June seasonally adjusted number of 12.2 million unemployed citizens; 7.6 percent of the country’s civilian labor force.
According the “February 1, 2011 Pew Hispanic Center, Unauthorized Immigrant Population: National and State Trends, 2010” there are 8.0 million unauthorized workers in the U.S.
With so many unemployed American citizens looking for jobs and 8.0 million unauthorized workers currently holding the jobs many citizens will do, the U.S. Senate’s legislation at best seems oblivious to the plight of the unemployed in this country.
Two of the negative consequences of S. 744 are revealed in a June 2013 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report which indicates the legislation will cause unemployment to increase through 2020 and average wages to decline through 2025.
An evaluation of the seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, News Release from July 18, 2013 titled “Regional and State Employment and Unemployment — June” reveals unemployment rates in the states represented by the Gang of Eight plus their two Oregonian senatorial sidekicks: Oregon 7.9 percent; Arizona 8.0 percent; Colorado 7.0 percent; Florida 7.1 percent; Illinois 9.2 percent; New Jersey 8.7 percent; New York 7.5 percent; and South Carolina 8.1 percent. Five of the preceding eight states had higher unemployment numbers than the national average.
During the five week summer congressional recess, as Senators Merkley and Wyden return to Oregon, the Senators should take a look at the number of unemployed in the state and unemployment numbers of the individual counties they choose visit across the state.
In Oregon there were 158,147 citizens unemployed in June; the state ranked 16th in fifty states for the percentage of unemployed.
Locally, Marion County’s 13,504 unemployed in June equated to 8.5 percent of the county’s work force; 8.5 percent of the state’s unemployed.
Including Marion, twenty-four of thirty-six Oregon counties (66.7 percent of the states counties) in June had a higher unemployment rate than the national average of 7.6 percent: Baker 9.1 percent; Columbia 8.2 percent; Coos 10.2 percent; Crook 12.6 percent; Curry 10.6 percent; Deschutes 10.0 percent; Douglas 10.9 percent; Grant 12.1 percent; Harney 13.0 percent; Jackson 9.6 percent; Jefferson 10.6 percent; Josephine 11.3 percent; Klamath 10.8 percent; Lake 11.5 percent; Lane 7.9 percent; Lincoln 8.4 percent; Linn 9.9 percent; Malheur 9.0 percent; Morrow 9.1 percent; Polk 7.9 percent; Umatilla 8.2 percent; Union 8.2 percent; and Wallowa 9.7 percent. Eleven of the preceding counties had double-digit unemployment.
Back to the Pew Hispanic Center report, according to the Pew report in Oregon there are an estimated 110,000 unauthorized workers in the state.
If S. 744 is passed by both sides of congress and signed into law by the president, the addition of 110,000 unauthorized workers into state’s civilian labor force, if the CBO report is right, will likely increase unemployment in Oregon; a setback for a state still mired and struggling to come out of a severe recession.
Hopefully for the unemployed of this state and across the country, the U.S. House of Representatives, they face the nation’s voters every two years, will take a more incremental approach to any type of immigration reform and first pass standalone legislation requiring a federally mandated national employment verification system like E-Verify which the federal government currently uses on all its new hires.
Oregon’s 158,147 unemployed U.S. citizens should contact during the congressional recess Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, along with Congressman Kurt Schrader, and tell the Senators and Congressman, Oregonians should never have to compete for scarce jobs now or in the future with persons illegal present in the country; furthermore, the U.S. Congress passing a standalone federally mandated E-Verify system is best way to get those unemployed in the state and across the country back to fulltime work.
David Olen Cross of Salem writes on immigration issues and foreign national crime. Contact him at docfnc@yahoo.com.
Should Oregon give official driving privileges to illegal aliens? In passing SB 833 last May, the Legislature said yes, but many concerned citizens said then and still say, no way.
A referendum effort could put the question on the ballot in November 2014, enabling voters to overturn SB 833. To learn more, download a single-signature sheet or request forms for collecting signatures at www.protectoregondl.org.
Sponsors of the petition are Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer), Rep. Sal Esquivel (R-Medford) and Richard LaMountain of Portland, vice president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform.
As Rep. Thatcher has said, "Issuing these Oregon driver’s licenses is basically giving people who aren’t here legally state-sanctioned permission to be on our roads and, therefore, in our country For a free society, citizens need to respect and obey the law. If we adopt government policies condoning unlawful behavior, aren’t we jeopardizing the rule of law?"
"SB 833 was rammed through the Legislature so quickly," said Rep. Esquivel, that "most Oregonians barely got the chance to scrutinize it and weigh in with their opinions."
Large-scale illegal immigration in recent decades has been very costly to taxpayers. Careful estimates by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., put the price to Oregon taxpayers at $1 billion a year for education, health care, social assistance, justice and law enforcement, and general public services. Taxes paid by illegal aliens amount to only about 7 percent of their cost.
Besides monetary costs to taxpayers, other ill effects of illegal immigration are too numerous to list here.
Illegal immigration should not be encouraged or accommodated by measures such as SB 833. Sign the petition for the referendum and help stop this harmful bill.
You can help repeal Senate Bill 833 — the new state law granting driver licenses to illegal immigrants.
The best part: you can do so right from your home computer.
Oregonians operating as “Protect Oregon Driver Licenses” — with which I serve as a chief sponsor — has been circulating referendum petitions to put Senate Bill 833 to a statewide vote. If we collect the signatures of 58,142 registered voters this summer, a measure to overturn illegal-immigrant driver licenses will appear on Oregon’s November 2014 ballot.
Thousands of Oregonians have already signed our petition. And we need your signature as well.
Why? Because if allowed to stand, illegal-immigrant driver licenses will:
Reward the lawbreaking of those who have violated our nation’s immigration statutes.
Better enable illegal immigrants to take and keep jobs from our fellow citizens.
Aid and abet the drug cartels that rely heavily on illegal immigrants to transport their products and cultivate marijuana plantations on southern Oregon’s public lands.
As well, consider how Senate Bill 833 was passed: It “was rammed through the Legislature so quickly,” notes Oregon Rep. Sal Esquivel, one of my fellow chief sponsors, “that most Oregonians barely got the chance to scrutinize it and weigh in with their opinions.”
Our referendum, he says, aims to “provide for a sustained and informative public debate, and include rank-and-file Oregonians directly in the decision-making process.”
It’s easy to get a petition. Go to ProtectOregonDL.org, print a single-signature petition sheet, sign it, and mail it to the listed address.
Your signature can help repeal driver cards for illegal immigrants.
Richard F. LaMountain
Portland
The U.S. Senate bill that Washington County Commissioner Bob Terry is pushing is a fraud and a fake. It does not secure the border now or in the future. It only promises to do so, or have a commission look into the matter and make recommendations to be forgotten immediately.
S.744 would grant 33 million new green cards in the first 10 years, while 20 million Americans can't find a full-time job. It repeats the mistakes of the 1986 amnesty -- legalization before enforcement.
Read the entire letter online.
Oregon senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joining the Gang of Eight in the passage of Senate Bill 744 (S.744) -- termed comprehensive immigration reform by some, amnesty by others -- is unconscionable, considering the United States' June seasonally adjusted number of 12.2 million unemployed citizens; 7.6 percent of the country's civilian labor force.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center Unauthorized Immigrant Population National and State Trends, 2010.pdf there are 8 million unauthorized workers in the U.S.
With so many unemployed American citizens looking for jobs and 8 million unauthorized workers currently holding the jobs many citizens will do, the U.S. Senate's legislation at best seems oblivious to the plight of the unemployed in this country.
Two of the negative consequences of S. 744 are revealed in a June 2013 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report.pdf which indicates the legislation will cause unemployment to increase through 2020 and average wages to decline through 2025.
An evaluation of the seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, News Release from July 18, 2013.pdf , titled "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment -- June" reveals unemployment rates in the states represented by the Gang of Eight plus their two Oregonian senatorial sidekicks: Oregon 7.9 percent; Arizona 8.0 percent; Colorado 7.0 percent; Florida 7.1 percent; Illinois 9.2 percent; New Jersey 8.7 percent; New York 7.5 percent; and South Carolina 8.1 percent. Five of the preceding eight states had higher unemployment numbers than the national average.
During the five-week summer congressional recess, if Senators Merkley and Wyden choose to return to Oregon, the senators should take a look at the number of unemployed in the state and unemployment numbers of the individual counties they choose visit across the state.
In Oregon there were 158,147 citizens unemployed in June, according to the Oregon Employment Department.pdf; the state ranked 16th among the 50 states for the percentage of unemployed.
Locally, Washington County had 19,715 unemployed in June; 12.5 percent of the state's unemployed.
Beyond Washington, 24 of 36 Oregon counties (66.7 percent of the states counties) in June had a higher unemployment rate than the national average of 7.6 percent: Eleven of the counties had double-digit unemployment, with Crook County topping the list at 12.6 percent.
Back to the Pew Hispanic Center report: according to the report, there are an estimated 110,000 unauthorized workers in Oregon.
If S. 744 is passed by both sides of Congress and signed into law by the president, the addition of 110,000 unauthorized workers into the state's civilian labor force, if the CBO report is right, will likely increase unemployment in Oregon. This would be a setback for a state still mired and struggling to come out of a severe recession.
Hopefully, the U.S. House of Representatives will take a more incremental approach to any type of immigration reform and first pass standalone legislation requiring a federally mandated national employment verification system like E-Verify, which the federal government currently uses on all its new hires.
During the congressional recess, Oregon's 158,147 unemployed U.S. citizens should contact Sens. Merkley and Wyden, along with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, and tell them Oregonians should never have to compete for scarce jobs now or in the future with persons illegally in the country; and furthermore, the U.S. Congress passing a standalone federally mandated E-Verify system is the best way to get those unemployed in the state and across the country back to fulltime work.
S. 744, the US Senate bill that Bob Terry is pushing (“Pass immigration reform now”, 8/1/13), is a fraud and a fake. It does not secure the border now or in the future. It only promises to do so, or have a commission look into the matter and make recommendations to be forgotten immediately.
If ever there was doubt about Mexican cartels' danger to our state, it was dispelled by the recent series "Drug cartels in Oregon" (published in The Oregonian June 23 to 27).
"Cartels and their allies control nearly every ounce of heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine flowing into the region," reported Les Zaitz. "At last count, authorities were aware of no fewer than 69 drug trafficking organizations selling drugs in the state, nearly all supplied by cartels." In 2011 and 2012, Zaitz noted, cartel-supplied heroin killed almost 300 Oregonians; "meth and cocaine claimed dozens more."
The series, however, neglected to examine illegal immigrants' role in cartel operations. And it ignored how Senate Bill 833, the new state law granting illegal immigrants "driver cards" will enable cartels to operate here more easily.
Read the entire letter here.
You can help repeal Senate Bill 833 — the new state law granting driver cards to illegal immigrants.
Since May, a group of Oregonians operating as “Protect Oregon Driver Licenses” — which I serve as a chief sponsor — has been circulating referendum petitions to put Senate Bill 833 to a statewide vote. If we collect the signatures of 58,142 registered voters this summer, a measure to overturn illegal-immigrant driver cards will appear on Oregon's November 2014 ballot.
It's easy to get a petition. Go to www.ProtectOregonDL.org, print a single-signature petition sheet, sign it, and mail it to the listed address.
Your signature can help repeal driver cards for illegal immigrants.
Read the entire letter here.
Richard F. LaMountain
Portland
Richard F. LaMountain is vice president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform.
Most of the illicit drugs smuggled into Marion County come from Mexican drug-trafficking organizations, according to the Oregon High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, 2013 Threat Assessment and Counter-Drug Strategy.
On June 4, the Oregon Medical Examiner reported that illegal drugs caused 223 deaths in 2012, the third-highest number since 2002. Of those, 147 were from heroin, 19 from cocaine, 93 from methamphetamine and 33 from a combination of drugs.
Marion County was tied for second with Jackson County with 19 illicit drug-related deaths, the third-highest number since 2006. Putting these numbers into perspective, the county experienced 8.52 percent of the state’s illicit drug deaths.
Looking at the annual state medical examiner reports, here are the statewide and Marion County drug deaths in recent years:
• 213 deaths from illegal drugs statewide in 2006; the county had 20 drug deaths.
• 212 deaths in 2007; the county had 15 drug deaths.
• 229 deaths in 2008; the county had 22 drug deaths.
• 213 deaths in 2009; the county had 13 drug deaths.
• 200 deaths in 2010; the county had 12 drug deaths.
• 240 deaths in 2011; the county had 10 drug deaths.
During the past seven years, Marion County had 111 of the 1,530 illicit drug-related deaths recorded in the state — 7.25 percent of the state’s drug deaths.
A look at the state prison population gives a picture of who is most likely dealing the drugs. On June 1 in the prison system there were 162 foreign nationals (prisoners with immigration detainers) incarcerated for drug crimes; 148 of those prisoners declared their country of origin as Mexico.
Locally, cases adjudicated in Marion County Circuit Court have sent 28 Mexican nationals to serve time in state prisons. The county was second among the 36 Oregon counties in the number of Mexican nationals locked up for drug crimes in the state prisons.
As recently as July 11, the Marion County jail incarcerated 32 prisoners with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers, a strong sign federal immigration officials believe those individuals may be in the country illegally. Eight of those individuals with ICE detainers were charged with drug crimes.
To deal with the Mexican drug-trafficking organizations, the county commissioners and Sheriff’s Office should seek any and all economic resources they can find from federal, state or local government sources to fight the drug traffickers.
One place to start would be for the Sheriff’s Office to open up jail beds and lease them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The stationing of ICE agents at the jail would send a strong message to foreign drug traffickers that the county is no sanctuary for them.
The county should put aside any concerns about increased enforcement of the state’s drug laws through a new, higher level of cooperation with ICE officials offending the county’s Hispanic community, including those who are undocumented residents, because the illicit drugs poisoning and killing the county’s residents don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, country of origin or immigration status.
The action by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and the state Legislature on Senate Bill 833, granting some form of Oregon driver’s license to foreign nationals illegally present in the state, passed in part under the pretense that the legislation was a matter of public safety.
But the new law is disconnected from reality, considering the previous dangers illegal alien drivers have posed to Oregonians.
In an annual report filed on Jan. 1 by Tom McClellan, administrator of the Department of Motor Vehicles, he says: “Four years after implementing a legal presence requirement in Oregon, changes in driver licensing requirements have not had a major impact on the rate of unlicensed and uninsured driving.”
Before the passage in 2008 of legislation requiring that drivers show legal presence, the state did issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. But that didn’t seem to motivate them, in the name of public safety, to obtain automobile insurance or in some cases even have a valid driver’s license. Here are seven victims whose lives were extinguished violently and prematurely by those illegal present that chose to drive their motor vehicles impaired and recklessly.
Judyth Anne Cox, a 66-year old wife and mother of two, was killed in Yamhill County on Dec. 3, 2007 by Mexican national Ignacio Merendon-Zerega. He had six prior DUIIs. Merendon-Zerega had no driver’s license or insurance.
Carma Colleen Smith, a 52-year old wife and mother of seven, was killed in Yamhill County on May 11, 2008, (Mothers Day) by Mexican national Leonel Zurita-Loeza. He was on a diversion for a previous DUII at the time he killed Smith. Zurita-Loeza had a driver’s license but no insurance.
Justin Daniel Dougherty, a 23-year old single father of one, was killed in Lane County on March 4, 2008, by Mexican national Eduardo Gutierrez-Duarte. He had a previous DUII in 2004. Gutierrez-Duarte had a driver’s license but no insurance.
Kay Blaser, a 26-year old mother of one, was killed in Clackamas County on Oct. 12, 2008 by Mexican national Fernando Deanda-Moreno. He had no driver’s license or insurance.
Barbara Jean Bier, a 52-year old wife and mother of seven, was killed in Polk County on Nov. 21, 2008, by Martin Martinez-Aguilar, who had a driver’s license but no insurance.
Albert Lloyd Rowland, a 53-year old homeless man, was killed in Multnomah County on May 13, 2010, by Mexican national Alvaro Lugos-Ponce, who had no driver’s license or insurance.
John Zupan (founder of Zupan’s Markets), a 66-year old father of two, was killed in Multnomah County on Aug. 30, 2011, by Mexican national Edy Porfirio Reynoso-Ramirez. He had no driver’s license or insurance.
The driver’s licenses of these illegal aliens who possessed them have been revoked or suspended. But their criminal driving history may not prevent them from driving again in the state.
Problematic with SB 833 is the law could allow some of these killers to use a Mexican matricula consular card to re-obtain a valid driver’s license or driver privilege card.
If past history is any indicator, SB 833 is a law that may once again open up Oregon’s highways and streets to the slaughter of its citizens by foreign nationals illegally present in the state.
Oregon registered voters concerned about the real public safety of the residents of the state have a chance through the referendum process to stop SB 833 from becoming state law. Voters wanting to decide for themselves on whether illegal aliens should be allowed to drive in the state should go to the “Protect Oregon Driver Licenses” website (http://www.protectoregondl.org/), download the signature sheet, sign it, and mail it to the referendum’s petitioners.
David Olen Cross of Salem writes on immigration issues and foreign national crime (docfnc@yahoo.com).
