Letters page

Welcome to the OFIR Letters and Op-Eds section.  Here you can read Letters to the Editor and Op-Eds that have been published in various newspapers and news sources.

Letter author:
Letter publisher:
The World
Date of letter:
Monday, July 14, 2014
Letter body:

I’d like to respond to our elected officials back in Washington, D.C., who have been telling us for years that our Immigration system is broken. The only thing I can see that is “broken” is their oath of office!

If our elected officials had the intestinal fortitude to enforce our current laws, we would not have an illegal immigration problem.

They have taken an oath to uphold our Constitution and laws. They have “broken” that oath. When something is broken we replace it. I say it’s time they were all replaced.

Fritz Thomas

Bandon

 

Letter author:
Victor Davis Hanson
Letter publisher:
The Bulletin
Date of letter:
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Letter body:

No one knows just how many tens of thousands of Central American nationals — most of them desperate, unescorted children and teens — are streaming across America’s southern border. Yet this phenomenon offers us a proverbial teachable moment about the paradoxes and hypocrisies of Latin American immigration to the U.S.

For all the pop romance in Latin America associated with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, few Latinos prefer to immigrate to such communist utopias or to socialist spins-offs like Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador or Peru.

Instead, hundreds of thousands of poor people continue to risk danger to enter democratic, free-market America, which they have often been taught back home is the source of their misery. They either believe that America’s supposedly inadequate social safety net is far better than the one back home, or that its purportedly cruel free market gives them more opportunities than anywhere in Latin America — or both.

Mexico strictly enforces some of the harshest immigration laws in the world that either summarily deport or jail most who dare to cross Mexican borders illegally, much less attempt to work inside Mexico or become politically active. If America were to emulate Mexico’s immigration policies, millions of Mexican nationals living in the U.S. immediately would be sent home.

How, then, are tens of thousands of Central American children crossing with impunity hundreds of miles of Mexican territory, often sitting atop Mexican trains? Does Mexico believe that the massive influxes will serve to render U.S. immigration law meaningless, and thereby completely shred an already porous border? Is Mexico simply ensuring that the surge of poorer Central Americans doesn’t dare stop in Mexico on its way north?

The media talks of a moral crisis on the border. It is certainly that, but not entirely in the way we are told. What sort of callous parents simply send their children as pawns northward without escort, in selfish hopes of soon winning for themselves either remittances or eventual passage to the U.S? What sort of government allows its vulnerable youth to pack up and leave, without taking any responsibility for such mass flight?

Here in the U.S., how can our government simply choose not to enforce existing laws? In reaction, could U.S. citizens emulate Washington’s ethics and decide not to pay their taxes, or to disregard traffic laws, or to build homes without permits? Who in the pen-and-phone era of Obama gets to decide which law to follow and which to ignore?

Who are the bigots — the rude and unruly protestors who scream and swarm drop-off points and angrily block immigration authority buses to prevent the release of children into their communities, or the shrill counterprotestors who chant back “Viva La Raza” (“Long Live The Race”)? For that matter, how does the racialist term “La Raza” survive as an acceptable title of a national lobby group in this politically correct age of anger at the Washington Redskins football brand?

How can American immigration authorities simply send immigrant kids all over the United States and drop them into communities without firm guarantees of waiting sponsors or family? If private charities did that, would the operators be jailed? Would American parents be arrested for putting their unescorted kids on buses headed out of state?

Liberal elites talk down to the cash-strapped middle class about their illiberal anger over the current immigration crisis. But most sermonizers are hypocritical. Take Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House. She lectures about the need for near-instant amnesty for thousands streaming across the border. But Pelosi is a multimillionaire and thus rich enough not to worry about the increased costs and higher taxes needed to offer instant social services to the new arrivals.

Progressives and ethnic activists see in open borders extralegal ways to gain future constituents dependent on an ever-growing government, with instilled grudges against any who might not welcome their flouting of U.S. laws. How moral is that?

Likewise, the CEOs of Silicon Valley and Wall Street who want cheap labor from south of the border assume that their offspring’s private academies will not be affected by thousands of undocumented immigrants, that their neighborhoods will remain nonintegrated, and that their medical services and specialists’ waiting rooms will not be made available to the poor arrivals.

Have immigration-reform advocates such as Mark Zuckerberg or Michael Bloomberg offered one of their mansions as a temporary shelter for needy Central American immigrants? Couldn’t Yale or Stanford welcome homeless immigrants into their now underoccupied summertime dorms? Why aren’t elite academies such as Sidwell Friends or the Menlo School offering their gymnasia as places of refuge for tens of thousands of school-age Central Americans?

What a strange, selfish and callous alliance of rich corporate grandees, cynical left-wing politicians and ethnic chauvinists who have conspired to erode U.S. law for their own narrow interests, all the while smearing those who object as xenophobes, racists and nativists.

How did such immoral special interests hijack U.S. immigration law and arbitrarily decide for 300 million Americans who earns entry into America, under what conditions, and from where?

— Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution and Stanford University.

 

Letter author:
Rich Lowry
Letter publisher:
OregonLive.com
Date of letter:
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Letter body:

As a defender of the nation's borders, President Barack Obama is a hell of a pool player.

The president enjoyed a game at a bar in Denver with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper the other day...

....as one would expect of a president who didn't have any depressing visits to frightened ranchers, overwhelmed border agents or desperate migrants on his future itinerary...

The White House brushes off criticism that Obama is avoiding the border as mere "optics," in contrast to its highly substantive focus. But it is still not taking the crisis seriously.

Republicans in Congress should crumple up the president's border request in a ball and start over...

The nearly $4 billion the president is requesting for the border is not fundamentally about enforcement that will reverse and end the tide, but about managing the influx.

A devastating critique of the request by the Center for Immigration Studies notes that about half of the money goes to the Department of Health and Human Services "for acquisition, construction, improvement, repair, operation, and maintenance of real property and facilities." The enforcement portion of the request, according to CIS, "is not truly geared toward removal," but instead to "recouping costs for temporary detention and subsequent transporting of aliens."...

Of course, even if such a bill were to pass and to be signed into law, that'd be no guarantee that the president of the United States would enforce it. That speaks to an entirely different man-caused disaster.

 

Letter author:
Jim Elvin
Letter publisher:
Statesman Journal
Date of letter:
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Letter body:

Have we become the dumping grounds for the poor children of the world?

With a debt of $17 trillion and a policy with the illegal immigrants that is completely out of control, it makes a person wonder if saving our country is possible.

Illegal aliens are costing us billions on welfare, food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC and free school lunches, Medicaid, education, incarceration and the loss of suppressed American wages.

Our politicians claim the illegal immigrants are good for our economy. Do you think we should buy them some new calculators?

we need to demand that English be established as our official language and the thought of amnesty be eliminated. And we need to stop employing illegal immigrants for our home labor.

Demonstrators from opposing sides confront each other while being separated by Murrieta police officers, Friday, July 4, 2014, outside a U.S. Border Patrol station in Murrieta, Calif.(Photo: AP/Mark J. Terrill )

Jim Elvin

Salem
 

Letter author:
Rosemary Scott
Letter publisher:
Statesman Journal
Date of letter:
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Letter body:

Where is my compassion? Truthfully, while children are again being used as pawns in a political battle, they should not be allowed in this country but returned to their country of origin.

Our citizens are exposed to medical maladies these children bring.

Those who claim we are cruel and inhumane should think about the impact of reintroducing such illnesses on our children and elderly, especially. Financial burden to already over-burdened taxpayers is not the only issue. Preventing U.S. citizens being exposed to illnesses because they lack immunity is wrong, just as the Indians of so long ago suffered and died when pilgrims brought illnesses with them.

Think of our children and elderly first. Return the children and let leaders of those native countries accept responsibility for the safety and well-being of their citizens. That is the right thing to do.

If we provide aid of any form to that government, we should deduct all costs expended for each child from that country’s aid. Surely that is reasonable.

Rosemary Scott

Salem

 

Letter author:
Charles Krauthammer
Letter publisher:
OregonLive.com
Date of letter:
Friday, July 11, 2014
Letter body:

WASHINGTON -- As is his wont, President Obama is treating the border crisis -- more than 50,000 unaccompanied children crossing illegally -- as a public relations problem. Where to photo op and where not. He still hasn't enunciated a policy. He may not even have one.

Will these immigrants be allowed to stay? Seven times was Obama's homeland security secretary asked this on "Meet the Press." Seven times he danced around the question.

Presidential press secretary Josh Earnest was ostensibly more forthcoming: "It's unlikely that most of those kids will qualify for humanitarian relief. ... They will be sent back." ...

One thing is certain. When the first convoys begin rolling from town to town across Central America, the influx will stop....

The new variable is Obama's unilateral (and lawless) June 2012 order essentially legalizing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came here as children.

Message received in Central America...

Alternatively, Obama blames the crisis on Republicans for failing to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

More nonsense...

It happens that I support immigration reform. I support amnesty...

Which begins with completing the fencing along the Mexican frontier...

But a fence is for the long term. For the immediate crisis, the answer is equally, blindingly clear: Eliminate the Central American exception and enforce the law.

It must happen. The nightmare will continue until it does. The only question is: How long until Obama is forced to do the obvious?

 

Letter author:
Jerry Pappe
Letter publisher:
Herald and News
Date of letter:
Friday, July 11, 2014
Letter body:

The Supreme Court slapped down President Obama again — for the 13th time. One was a 9 to 0 decision on recess appointments. There is no doubt that Obama has violated the Constitution numerous times in his nearly six years as President.

Since the president claims to be a Constitutional “scholar,” why does he always get it wrong? If he isn’t intentionally violating the Constitution, he is so frequently at variance with SCOTUS, is he a dummy?

The argument that President Obama is making it clear: If Congress doesn’t act on what he wants done, whether it’s constitutional or not, he is going to do it, and anyone who questions him or stands in his way be damned. Can you say, “dictator”?

The hypocrisy of Obama drips from his statements. Consider: “The majority of the American people want to see immigration reform done.” False, the majority of Americans don’t want an influx of undocumented non-Americans to overwhelm our nation, burden already bankrupt tax-payer funded social services, flood the public school system, and then vote to change American ideals.

Obama on Monday, promising to use more executive orders like the one that launched this invasion, his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, who directed Immigration officials to grant work permits to at least 560,000 younger illegals between June 2012 and late 2013. Border officials expect roughly 200,000 Central Americans will cross the border between October 2013 and October 2014. And, wouldn’t you know it; Obama says that this influx of illegal children caught him by surprise!

Obama is a radical ideologue hell-bent on destroying America. It’s in his psyche. He’s been waiting for the day that he can turn the dreams of his father into our nightmare!

Jerry Pappe

Sprague River

 

Letter author:
Karen Heuberger
Letter publisher:
Statesman Journal
Date of letter:
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Letter body:

On Oct. 31, 2008, Barack Obama said, “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

The scandal of ignoring border enforcement, refusing to enforce immigration laws, using executive orders to circumvent the legislative process and signaling an amnesty for illegal immigrants who can arrive here is fundamentally transforming our republic. Illegal immigrants annually cost taxpayers $100 billion and the recent invasion of illegal children increases costs.

Obama is quickly dispersing these unknown, often ill children throughout our country. (Although since Obama takes years to ponder the Keystone XL pipeline with no decision – until after the 2014 election – at least he is capable of quick action.) Soon “family” will be found for these unaccompanied minors.

Suddenly we’ll have scores more of uneducated, illiterate, unskilled people lining up for welfare state benefits (also known as undocumented Democrats-in-waiting).

Obama deserves a “Mission Accomplished” banner photo-op. He has fundamentally transformed America.

Karen Heuberger

Salem

 

Letter author:
Jack Cox
Letter publisher:
democratherald.com
Date of letter:
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Letter body:

Crossing into the U.S. illegally is not immigration. You are then called an illegal alien. At this point you are violating federal laws. Then to apply for free stuff with false information is another law broken. Then to get a job using a false or stolen Social Security card is another broken law. It seems to me the IRS and SS do not care much, as long as the get their money. Do employers of illegals submit all taxes and SS? Who knows?

It just seems to me that the illegal alien problem would be easily solved by just making it too expensive to be caught employing one. No jobs for illegals, there would be no reason to come here.

Maybe if we stop making it easy to get free benefits in this country, the legal folks would be more willing to take a job. This country needs to stop rewarding people for bad behavior and help the people who want to improve their lot in life.

Jack Cox, Millersburg
 

Letter author:
Donna Stanley
Letter publisher:
OregonLive.com
Date of letter:
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Letter body:

Regarding "Obama asks Congress for $3.7 billion to deal with kids illegally crossing U.S. border" (OregonLive.com, July 8):...Whatever happened to taking care of our own first?

Donna Stanley

Southeast Portland

 

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