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.
The Statesman Journal’s June 23 PolitiFact, “What do ‘illegal aliens’ cost Ore.?” is very misleading.
It claims that fiscal costs incurred for the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens should not be counted a cost of illegal immigration, and on that basis wrongly tags the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s estimate “Mostly False.”
PolitiFact’s position is illogical. If the illegal immigrant couple had not entered the U.S., any children born to them would not be in the U.S. either. The presence of children born to illegal aliens in the U.S. is costly to taxpayers and should be included in any estimate of the fiscal cost of illegal immigration.
In addition, the education of U.S.-born children of illegal aliens is a service to the illegal-alien parents and thus a cost of illegal immigration.
FAIR’s study, “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Aliens on Oregonians,” is actually conservative in its estimates.
Note that the study deals only with the fiscal costs of illegal immigration. There are also social costs: Toleration of illegality threatens the rule of law and downgrades the value of citizenship. There are numerous other ill effects of illegal immigration on this country, too many to list here.
Six years have passed since Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy Kelly Fredinburg was killed by a negligent driver, but authorities have not given up the international search for justice.
The driver of the other vehicle, Alfredo De Jesus Ascencio, was last thought to be in Mexico, having fled there after being treated at a Portland-area hospital for severe injuries, according to Oregon State Police.
De Jesus Ascencio was indicted on two counts of criminally negligent homicide. His passenger, Oscar Ascencio-Amaya, and Fredinburg were killed in the head-on collision the night of June 16, 2007, on Highway 99E north of Gervais.
There are multiple reasons for not letting this case fade away. The most important are holding the driver responsible and achieving justice for the families of Fredinburg and of Ascencio-Amaya. But it also is society’s duty to stand up for its law enforcement personnel and to be resolute in pursuing those who would harm them.
If justice is to be achieved in this case, it likely will occur in Mexico. That country could prosecute the case, because the charges against De Jesus Ascencio are not covered by the U.S. extradition treaty.
Last year, Fredinburg’s family launched the Oregon Officer Reward Fund to help locate suspects in cases involving law enforcement officers injured or killed in the line of duty in Oregon. Up to a $20,000 reward is available for information leading to the arrest of De Jesus Ascencio, and Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward.
That money might motivate someone to provide the crucial information that resolves this case.
How to help
Contributions to the Oregon Officer Reward Fund can be made:
• At any US Bank branch;
• Via PayPal on the fund website, www.oorf.info;
• By check made out to “Oregon Officer Reward Fund” and mailed to OORF, c/o Oregon State Sheriff’s Association, PO Box 7468, Salem, OR 97303.
Anyone with information to help authorities find Alfredo De Jesus Ascencio can report tips:
• In Oregon, call 800-452-7888;
• From anywhere in the United States for English and Spanish speakers to the Crime Stoppers Tip Line, refer to case No. 07-28 (bilingual call-takers), call 1-503-823-HELP (4357) or 1-800-222-TIPS (8477);
• Residents within Mexico can call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line, refer to case No. 07-28 (bilingual call-takers), at +011-503-823-4357;
• Email tips to crimetips2OSP@state.or.us.
Source: Oregon State Police
It is well-known that everything runs downhill. Well, here in the puddle at the bottom, it’s not gun control or airport delays that concern us.
As regular citizens, we have to show picture ID for practically everything we do. If we do something illegal, we are going to be prosecuted for it. If our birth records were destroyed, we are undocumented. They are not the same and never will be.
We are encouraged to vote. Why? Nationally, the elections are decided before our polls even close. Even though a majority of our state votes for one political party, only a few counties in the valley have the final say.
To contact our elected officials and get a response is like mission impossible. What good does it do to vote on an issue such as temporary driver’s licenses when the Legislature will have their way? We are required to insure our vehicles, but for some reason that includes uninsured motorist coverage.
I guess granting temporary driver’s licenses could mean that the license will have picture ID that can be used for food stamp programs since it is too expensive to do it otherwise. It might also prove that more fraud exists in those programs than realized.
Without enforcement, nothing else will change. If you have lived in this country for 20 years and haven’t really learned the language or customs or bothered to become a citizen, there is a good chance nothing will change. Why should it when you can march and be heard even if you aren’t legal? And only in America can you claim you have rights and get away with it.
So the problem is that those who respond to the squeaky wheel and make the changes are too far above the hustle and bustle of everyday life. These are the concerns on the street. Walk a mile in our shoes and you would see what I mean.
Bill Stacey is a longtime resident of Salem, having served in the military and worked with the public in various occupations. He can be reached at staceybr@comcast.net.
In response to the May 5 editorial regarding SB 833 and driver cards, why does our Legislature continue to pass laws that reward bad behavior by providing driver cards to people who are in our state illegally?
I wonder if they know the difference between legal and illegal.
Does the driver card law provide a pathway to citizenship or voting rights? What is the point of passing laws at all if people don’t obey them?
In some cases, there are virtually no consequences for failure to obey the laws.
I don’t recall any of my state representatives contacting me and asking my opinion about this issue.
The editorial states that if the citizens of this state are concerned about the law, “we should insist that Oregon closely track its implementation, measuring its impact on public safety. If the law is ineffective, or even counter-productive, a future Legislature or the electorate can repeal it.” Isn’t it part of our representatives’ responsibility to monitor the laws they pass?
If you don’t like this bill, my suggestion is to sign the referendum petition sponsored by Oregonians for Immigration Reform to put this bill up to the voters.
Christine Hill
In the early '90s I lived in Long Beach, Calif., during that state's attempt to financially eliminate illegal aliens' (primarily Mexicans') access to social services. It was called Proposition 187.
But it occurred to me one day that I knew what was really going on. Wealthy growers and other users of unskilled labor in this country desire illegal workers — those who can be stiffed since they lack legal recourse, and also lack Social Security accounts and other benefits requiring contributions.
Of course, these employers claim they aren't competitive if they use American workers. But the unanswered question remains: competitive with whom? The answer, I suspect: other users of illegal workers.
Now, watch the immigration debate in Congress. See if the wealthy, as represented by their lackeys (usually conservatives), don't manage to kill or at least seriously weaken it (though probably that will cost them the Hispanic vote).
What do the wealthy want with workers who have rights? They're too expensive. And it would be a significant reversal in their ongoing war on middle-class income.
— Hartley Anderson, Medford
Illegal is illegal
Kudos to Sal Esquivel and company for opposing drivers licenses for illegals.
Fact: An illegal foreigner is not an "immigrant." An immigrant is someone who respects the desired nation's sovereign rights, fills out the paperwork and waits in line.
Contrary to Paul Greenberg's support of calling an illegal an immigrant, an illegal foreigner is a criminal trespasser.
No one may illegally insert themselves into another country because it's on their wish list.
There are at least a billion starving foreigners existing in deplorable conditions within Africa, India, China and elsewhere who are desperate for a decent life. We cannot absorb them.
When illegals force entrance, they push the waiting legal applicants to the back of the line. It seems the illegals' version of justice is mob rule.
To reward any illegal foreigner is to slap the legal immigrant in the face. Our elected officials swear an oath of office to uphold our laws. Yet those who worship at the altar of re-election do not have the courage to do the right thing.
We must not grant privileges to illegal foreigners. We should protect and reward those legal immigrants respectfully waiting in line.
— D. Pestlin, Talent
How is it right to provide illegal aliens, regardless of how they got here, in-state tuition? How is it right to provide illegal aliens a driver’s card? How is it right to provide any service of any kind to anyone in this country illegally? How is it right to cut benefits to seniors who earned the benefits that are in question? How is it right to single out a public retirement system that is one of the best funded in the country as the sole cause of budget issues? How is it right to kick the can down the road by not funding a public retirement system by $350 million thus creating a bigger issue two years from now? How is it right to set up the public retirement system for failure? How is it right for the politicians to do damage to its own citizens and not go to jail? I need to understand.
Marv Brophy
Bend
State Rep. Dennis Richardson asked me about giving provisional driver’s licenses to illegal aliens as Oregon SB833 made its way through the process.
When I was collecting signatures for local measure 5-191 enforcing E-Verify as standard hiring practice back in 2008, a woman said she married an illegal and had a child. He went back to his country, went through the paperwork, and entered the country legally. She didn’t see why it should be so hard. I told her now that he was here legally, his green card was huge! Now it’s clear he certainly wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize his hard-fought legal status. I’d welcome them living next door. He did the right thing.
This provisional driver’s license requires a year in the state. During that yearlong wait they will be driving illegally, here illegally and unable to understand our laws, illegally.
We are now fostering this occupation. Illegals need to go home, get in line and come back legally like her husband.
Wayne Mayo
Scappoose
Several letters have been printed from persons bewailing difficulties in renewing their driver’s license because they lack certified copies of their birth certificate or other proof of citizenship.
I guess they haven’t been reading the papers for the past five years and didn’t know this is now a requirement for people obtaining driver’s licenses or renewing them.
The 9/11 Commission recommended more careful identification for citizens, based on abuses of driver’s licenses by terrorists in this country. Oregon followed through with a good law passed in February 2008, backing up an executive order by Gov. Ted Kulongoski in 2007.
Cooperation and good will on the part of citizens in honoring the law helps us all. Some months before the due date for renewing a driver’s license, it’s advisable to check one’s records and gather what is needed to meet the requirements. It’s unreasonable to expect a distant state to pop up a birth record of 70-80 years ago overnight.
My personal experience in renewing my Oregon driver license in 2009 and transferring ownership of a car at the DMV in 2012 was pleasant and not time consuming at all. The DMV people were efficient, polite and helpful.
Elizabeth Van Staaveren
McMinnville
In the May 13 edition of the Statesman Journal, I read two items related to the proposed legislation for granting licenses to persons who are here illegally. Both related to my personal experiences.
Charles Hazel wrote a letter to the editor about his trouble renewing his driver’s license. I read about the new licensing requirements and was further educated about them through news media accounts. I had plenty of time to secure an original, out-of-state birth certificate and produce the other documents needed to renew my license. For me the process was seamless and painless.
In response to Rep. Kim Thatcher’s guest opinion, as a police officer employed prior to implementation of the current law, I arrested a person for DUII who was here illegally. Through my investigation, I determined this person had three prior licenses issued under different names and all were suspended for DUII.
I also discovered another license that was eligible for reinstatement. This was accomplished by presenting out-of-country identification that would now again be accepted by DMV to secure an Oregon driver’s license.
This legislation is guaranteed to make us less safe on Oregon roads but less inconvenient for the likes of Mr. Hazel.
William W. Gill
Keizer
