Thread: Area activist works to curb illegal immigration

Area activist works to curb illegal immigration

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THELMA GUERRERO
Statesman Journal

October 30, 2006

Jim Ludwick just might be the busiest man in the Willamette Valley.

Most days, Ludwick, the president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, is up at 6 a.m. checking on his horses, placing calls to politicians in the nation's Capitol, sending e-mail alerts and connecting via the Internet with other organized and budding groups opposed to illegal immigration.

His 800-member group is one of an ever-growing base of organizations that have become a powerful voice at the grass- roots level in towns and cities throughout the nation.

Their critics have called them racists, a label that Ludwick rejects.

However, there's no disputing that their strong anti-illegal-immigration stance has connected with people who say they are frustrated about the federal government's failure to enforce immigration laws.

Recently, Ludwick took a break to talk about himself and his group.

Q: Did you launch Oregonians for Immigration Reform?

A: Yes, in January 2000.

Q: Why did you start the group?

A: It was clear that immigration was absolutely out of control. At that point, no one knew exactly how many illegal aliens were in the country. But I did know that the previous decade, ending the 1990s, according to the Census Bureau, we had an increase of 30 million people in the United States, and 69 percent of that was due to immigration. Now, up to 90 percent of our population growth is due to immigration.

Q: So is your group against immigration, period?

A: No, we're against illegal immigration.

Q: Why?

A: I, and most Americans, believe that this huge population increase, fueled primarily by immigration, has terrible negative effects on us, environmentally, socially, fiscally and politically. For me, it's a terrible legacy to leave my children and grandchildren.

Q: What prompted you to act on the issue?

A: I believed the federal government was doing absolutely nothing about illegal immigration. It would be hard for anyone to refute that the primary job of our government is to protect our borders and sovereignty. Everything else they do is secondary to that. And they have failed miserably. They've not done their job.

Q: What is your group's goal?

A: What we want is to get back to legal immigration at our traditional levels of 200,000 to 300,000 a year. We feel legal immigration is important. It renews us as a nation, it gives us new ideas and we should have that type of freedom to allow new people to come here, but at traditional levels.

Q: Are you saying the nation should have a quota as to the number of people allowed into the United States?

A: Yes. We should set a limit.

Q: Is your group in favor of barring immigration by people from particular nations?

A: Immigration policy should be based upon what's in the best interest of the United States, not what's in the best interest of Mexico or Russia or China. The government should consider how immigration benefits us as a nation.

Q: Do you believe in an open border system?

A: There are people who want that, but it would be terrible. A nation is defined, in a sense, by its borders. If you don't have borders, then you don't have a nation.

Q: It's been said we need to secure our borders so as to deter terrorists. Do you really believe terrorists will cross through the U.S.-Mexico border?

A: I think the potential is there.

Q: What should be done about employers who hire undocumented workers?

A: They should be fined heavily.

Q: Should they face criminal charges?

A: Like any law, there should be stages. If somebody does it and it's inadvertent, maybe there's a small fine. If somebody does it purposely, there's a larger fine. If they commit repeated offenses, there should be a huge fine and maybe jail time. Also, if when an employer files a tax return for business expenses, if one of his employees has a mismatched Social Security number, the employer should not be able to claim that as a tax deduction. If he can't do that, it would reduce the desirability of hiring people who are in the country illegally.

Q: Do people who are opposed to illegal immigration feel threatened by illegal immigrants?

A: I think both sides feel threatened. A lot of people that call me say they see the country being changed into a third-world country, where their values and language are no longer the norm. The cultural things that they felt were real important are now in the past. And I think the other side feels threatened because groups like us are speaking out and are going to deprive them of the ability to live in the United States.

Q: In your opinion, do illegal immigrants pose a threat?

A: Well, sure. I mean, threat in the sense that, you double our population, the threat is a debased natural environment, social order is going to be not like it is now, schools are going to be overcrowded, the criminal-justice system is overwhelmed, methamphetamine, all those things are tied to immigration as we see it right now. I think those are legitimate threats to people.

Q: Are you opposed to people speaking a foreign language, like Spanish?

A: No. I just don't believe it should be forced on people in the school system. I think everyone should learn English because if you don't, you're going to not be successful. Right now, across the United States, 60 percent of ESL students don't even graduate from high school. What future do they have? I think we have created a permanent underclass of people in the United States who don't speak English very well.

Q: What is your ancestry?

A: My mom came from Wales, and my dad's parents from Germany.

Q: When did they come here?

A: My dad was born here. My mother was born in Wales and came in the 1930s.

Q: Did she come here legally?

A: Actually, they almost all had to then. They really checked you. Not only did you have to be approved, you also had to prove that you would not be a public charge. It was very stringent back then.

Q: Do you speak a foreign language?

A: No. When I was a small boy, my grandmother used to take me to Welsh classes.

Q: How do you respond to critics who say your group is racist?

A: I ignore them because I know what it is. It's a tactic designed to stifle discussion. I know in my heart what I am. I know what our organization is about, and we're not that way.

Q: What do you say to critics who liken your group to the Ku Klux Klan?

A: The only people who say that to me are white guys and socialists.

Q: Do you support military policies that allow illegal immigrants who have become legal residents a quick path to citizenship?

A: No. While I have great respect for anybody who serves in the military, I think that's a breakdown of the rule of law.

Q: Are you in favor of a policy that would include a guest-worker program?

A: I think the guest-worker program is a misnomer, particularly the way that it's framed. I'm not so sure we even need a guest-worker program because we can mechanize.

Q: What type of security system would you like to see at the border?

A: Because of the situation that we have, 10 to 20 million people illegally in the country, we need to have a fence along the whole border.

Q: Have you ever thought about running for political office?

A: I don't think I could ever be elected. I'm too opinionated and I don't have money to run for office. I think what I'm doing right now is very important. I'm part of a group that's bringing the issue of illegal immigration to the forefront.

A: I don't think I could ever be elected. I'm too opinionated and I don't have money to run for office.

It's a shame that running for political office requires that an individual have a very fat bank account, but unfortunately that's the way it is.

Excellent interview.

I'd vote for him. Very well spoken.

THELMA GUERRERO didn't call him "anti-immigration"? Did she learn her lesson? Do letters to the editor really work? I saw that she took a beating in the comment section of the paper, for her "anti-immigrant" lable, in a previous article.

Dixie