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.
I find the hypocrisy interesting that the media, the federal government and so many others are “outraged” at the recent events in Eastern Oregon involving the “Bundy Bunch” occupation of a wildlife refuge, while there is such limited “outrage” over President Obama’s absolute failure to enforce our immigration laws with equal vigor.
Let’s look at the facts. Did the Bundy Bunch break the letter of the law with their occupation? Yes. Did it result in costs to the public? Yes. Were any public innocents killed? No. What was the size of terror? Limited.
Let’s look at the Obama administration’s neglect to enforce our immigration laws in comparison. Was the letter of the law broken when Obama directed his agencies to not enforce existing immigration law? Yes. Did it result in costs to the public? Billions of dollars when you total up private as well as direct public costs. Were any public innocents killed? Thousands, when all the murders and vehicle accident casualties are counted, caused by the influx of illegal immigrants. This doesn’t even take into account the rapes and other criminal activity, nor does it include the casualties or costs caused by diseases brought into this country wholesale by the uncontrolled mass influx of illegals in recent years. Was terror created? Absolutely.
While I don’t approve of anarchy in any form, whether by citizens revolting against the law, or the government itself failing to enforce the law, I hope whoever sits on the jury trials for the Bundy Bunch will take a page from our pre-Revolutionary history and refuse to find the Bundy Bunch guilty, just as our forefathers refused to convict people charged with crimes against King George’s laws.
When government picks and chooses which laws to enforce, and against whom, we are no longer a free government of the people, but closer to the tyranny of King George.
In my opinion, our Congress and federal attorney general are derelict to their oath of office for not finding our president guilty of not performing his duties as chief law enforcement officer under the Constitution regarding protecting our country’s borders, causing death, facilitating the spread of disease, and costing individual citizens and the public generally billions of dollars.
I am writing this in regards to Dana Milbank's article on the bigoted Trump supporters (Opinion, April 5).
Dana, you sound like you are a fairly well-educated individual. When you make comments about his supporters as being uneducated older white people and mainly male and prefer the Confederate flag, you are delusional.
First of all, I am a white male with a degree and 68 years old. I thought I was a liberal in my younger years, with long hair and tilted views against my father who fought in World War II. As I gained real wisdom and knowledge, I now understand the real dangers we are facing again, as we faced back then.
This world, my friend, has true evil that will hurt us if we don't see them through the smoke. Yes, all Muslims are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim! And as for deporting illegal immigrants, illegal means, my friend, they are not here legally.
Please, wake up people, before it's too late.
Immigration policy:
After studying the immigration of illegal and legal migrants to the U.S., it is clear to me that some people south of the border pay up to $5,000 to a "coyote" for smuggling them into this country for economic and social reasons. I've been told by migrants that they leave because of corruption and filth. There continues to be a lack of respect in those societies because of corruption, drugs and other dangers. Paying up to $5,000 to migrate means that monies were earned somehow, some way. What those countries need is a living wage, such as that proposed in Oregon (about $15). A soft revolution is the only way that could happen. Also, a 10-year moratorium is needed for the U.S. to craft a sensible immigration policy; those who caused this need are the 11 million illegals who jumped ahead of the line.
Our economy is anemic. We’re told there’s 5 percent unemployment, but government statistics don’t count those out of work for [more] than a year. Actual unemployment is 15 to 20 percent — ask any college graduate who can’t find work.
We need to build a wall to restore our sovereignty along our southern border. We’re told there are 10 million to 15 million illegal immigrants in our country but it’s really closer to 30 million.
Those are two main issues on which Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz agree. If Trump were to drop out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination today, the anarchists, progressive socialist-herd-instinct college kids and illegal immigrants would switch to protesting at Cruz rallies, and call him a hatemonger and racist.
We’re a nation of citizens (not immigrants) who follow the rule of law established by the Constitution of a representative republic. Our country won’t bow to mob rule, something illegals immigrants don’t understand.
I want my country back, and I want illegal immigrants to leave.
Somehow the progressive socialists/Democratic Party believe controlling our southern border is mean-spirited, that it’s wrong to round up illegal immigrants who are bleeding us dry, living in Section 8 housing and receiving food stamps, welfare, emergency room health care and a once-great education.
Are those immigrants and their diversity more noble and important to the elite politicians than the sovereignty of America and its citizens? Why do we have to become a Third World hellhole just to make things fair?
It seems that the editor of the Statesman Journal is waging Jihad against Donald Trump (March 20 op-ed and earlier columns).
He is not alone in his efforts. A kind of fatwa against Trump prevails throughout big media today. Generals of the Jihad Army — New York Times, Washington Post, etc., are assisted by their hired help – Gail Collins, George Will, Kathleen Parker, etc., foot soldiers who slog away shooting their blogs out.
Regiments in Oregon include also The Oregonian, Eugene’s Register-Guard and others. True to the saying that “politics makes strange bedfellows,” the entire liberal media have joined establishment Republicans who continuously deride their own leading presidential candidate.
What has Donald Trump done to stir this holy war? He advocates enforcement of the immigration laws! He advocates putting the physical safety of U.S. citizens first in government’s obligations! He is sincerely proud of the United States, its history and its heritage and wants it to continue to be a stable, prosperous, peaceful nation — nation, not just a geographical area. For this, he is condemned and vilified.
I and millions of others say thank you, Donald Trump!
Here’s hoping you’ll be our next president.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was a leading member of the “Gang of Eight” which worked and voted for the passage of Senate Bill 744 (S.744) in 2013, a bill they termed “comprehensive immigration reform,” but which was actually a wide-sweeping amnesty to illegal immigrants that contained only weak promises for future law enforcement of the country’s immigration laws. The bill all but ignored the past and present illicit activities and criminal conduct of illegal immigrants currently in the country.
Just three years ago, Sen. Rubio showed he was willing to overlook the criminal activities of 11.3 million illegal immigrants who may have committed crimes and misdemeanors like identity theft, social security fraud, over staying visas and illegal employment.
Fortunately for national security and the public safety of all Americans the Gang of Eight’s amnesty attempt went no further than the U.S. Senate because citizens across the country pressured the U.S. House of Representatives not to consider the bill.
This year, on Jan. 17, presidential candidate Rubio reminded Americans of his support for amnesty for criminal immigrants while being interviewed by Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press.
A politician to the core, Sen. Rubio said in the interview with Todd that illegal immigrants who were felons would not be granted amnesty while those immigrants who had committed only “immigration crimes” would not be excluded from receiving amnesty.
What might be said of Rubio’s Meet the Press interview is that he purposely didn’t reveal there are some “immigration crimes” like repeat illegal entry into the country and document fraud that do constitute felony crimes.
Recent U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate statistics’ indicate there are 17,354 federal prisoners incarcerated for immigration offenses, 9.4 percent of the federal prison population.
The federal prison system incarcerates at least 34,806 foreign national inmates; they are at a minimum 17.7 percent of the federal government's prison inmates.
As 2016 presidential primary elections occur across our nation, American voters who rejected Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2013 amnesty bill for illegal immigrants should reject his bid to become the Republican candidate for President of the United States.
David Olen Cross of Salem writes on immigration issues and foreign national crime. He is a weekly guest on the “Lars Larson Northwest Show.” He can be reached atdocfnc@yahoo.com or at http://docfnc.wordpress.com/.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was a leading member of the “Gang of Eight,” which worked and voted for the passage of Senate Bill 744 (S.744) in 2013, a bill they termed “comprehensive immigration reform,” but which was actually a wide-sweeping amnesty to illegal immigrants that contained only weak promises for future law enforcement of the country’s immigration laws. The bill all but ignored the past and present illicit activities and criminal conduct of illegal immigrants currently in the country.
Just three years ago, Sen. Rubio showed he was willing to overlook the criminal activities of 11.3 million illegal immigrants who may have committed crimes and misdemeanors like identity theft, Social Security fraud, overstaying visas and illegal employment.
Fortunately for national security and the public safety of all Americans, the Gang of Eight’s amnesty attempt went no further than the U.S. Senate because citizens across the country pressured the U.S. House of Representatives not to consider the bill.
Last month, on January 17, presidential candidate Rubio reminded Americans of his support for amnesty for criminal immigrants while being interviewed by Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
A politician to the core, Sen. Rubio said in the interview with Todd that illegal immigrants who were felons would not be granted amnesty while those immigrants who had committed only “immigration crimes” would not be excluded from receiving amnesty.
What might be said of Rubio’s “Meet the Press” interview is that he purposely didn’t reveal there are some “immigration crimes,” like repeat illegal entry into the country and document fraud, that do constitute felony crimes.
Recent U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate statistics indicate there are 17,354 federal prisoners incarcerated for immigration offenses, 9.4 percent of the federal prison population.
The federal prison system incarcerates at least 34,806 foreign national inmates; they are at a minimum 17.7 percent of the federal government’s prison inmates.
As 2016 presidential primary elections occur across our nation, American voters who rejected Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2013 amnesty bill for illegal immigrants should reject his bid to become the Republican candidate for President of the United States.
How does a country allow its own citizens to leave? Has it no pride in its own people? Perhaps, it has no pride in itself! Has it done anything to encourage the people to stay? Or, has it maintained the "status quo?"
Mexico is the country that comes to mind immediately. Corruption, drugs and the cartel, and a huge facade of "macho" are all I hear about Mexico. And much talk about immigration. Also, other countries have established factories to assemble products as a place of employment. But what industry has the government initiated on its own?
Have their sanitation and transportation problems been solved? Are they going to let the country be known as the drug capital of the world? When have they sent equipment, medical supplies or other necessities of life to a country that has had a disaster? Where else can their people be assisted, and often encouraged, and many times "scammed" into heading for the United States? Finally, why is our justice system, along with the incarcerated population, being increased by Mexican nationals?
This citizen's lament was written on Jan. 6, but never mailed. Then, on Feb. 14, the Catholic Pope asked basically the very
thing I am asking!
Did you know Oregon’s legislature routinely thwarts your right, enshrined in the state constitution, to seek to approve or reject newly-passed bills before they become law? You and I can take action to end this undemocratic practice right from our home computers.
The details:
Via a device called the "emergency clause" which declares, without explanation, a bill’s enactment to be an emergency legislators can stop Oregonians from seeking to refer a bill to a statewide ballot for an up-or-down vote by their fellow citizens. In 2015, legislators imposed this clause on more than half of newly-passed bills. Among them:
Senate Bill 932, which credentials illegal-immigrant college students to compete with U.S. citizens for taxpayer-funded Oregon Opportunity Grants;
Senate Bill 941, which imposes increased bureaucratic regulations on law-abiding gun owners; and
House Bill 2177, which automatically registers as voters all citizens holding Oregon driver licenses.
Would you like to have had a chance to approve or reject these bills? By saddling them with the emergency clause, Oregon lawmakers took that chance, indeed, that right, away from you.
What can you do? The No More Fake Emergencies campaign is seeking to qualify a measure for Oregon’s November 2016 ballot that would require a two-thirds vote (rather than the current bare majority) of the House and Senate to approve most bills containing an emergency clause. Such a threshold would help keep legislators, except in true emergencies, from denying Oregonians their right to refer and vote on newly-passed bills.
To help, go to nofakeemergencies.com. There, you’ll find a petition that you, the registered Oregon voter, can sign to help qualify the measure for the ballot. Your signature will help end bogus legislative "emergencies" and help restore the voice of you, the citizen, to its paramount place in Oregon’s representative democracy.
Richard F. LaMountain is a Cedar Mill resident.
There was a time, not so long ago, when immigrants to America had to demonstrate their ability to be self-sufficient. Some required sponsors who pledged to take care of the immigrant they were sponsoring so they wouldn’t become a public charge, a burden on the taxpayer.
They used to get stopped and checked for communicable diseases on Ellis Island in New York and Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, but…
Well, that was in a galaxy far, far away, apparently....
....You can now naturalize and become an American citizen even if you can’t afford the minimal $685 fee.
And, the fee waiver is not limited to those who want to naturalize.
U.S.C.I.S, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, now offers a fee waiver for those seeking Temporary Protected Status, TPS....
...So, Yemenis, or anybody who says they resided in Yemen, can now apply for TPS. As we say in the immigration reform movement, “Nothing in the world is as permanent as the term ‘temporary’ when applied to immigration status.”
“…people without nationality who last habitually resided in Yemen…” (emphasis added)
Now, some readers are probably searching their memory asking themselves, “Yemen? Isn’t that were Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is located?”
...So, we can now exercise appropriate sarcasm and modify the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your militants yearning to bring the jihad without paying a fee.”
Oh, yeah, if you can’t read English, then the helpful U.S. government has also provided the TPS fee waiver announcement in Arabic.
