Congressman Walter Jones calls for secure borders
http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2006/08/ ... news03.txt
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Local News
Jones calls for secure borders
By NIKIE MAYO Staff Writer
ENGELHARD — The nation “must first secure its borders,” Congressman Walter Jones, R- N.C., said Tuesday, weighing in on illegal immigration when he addressed a Hyde County crowd.
Once the borders are secure, only then should there be a “debate about what to do next,” he said during his annual Issues Luncheon speech for the Hyde County Chamber of Commerce in Engelhard.
“There are eight to 10 (thousand) illegal immigrants coming across the border every week. I’m more concerned about terrorism south of the border than I am in Iraq,” he said.
Jones said he had no qualms with people who immigrate legally, because they “know, respect and honor the Constitution of America and our laws.
“If you want to be an American citizen, we want to help you. But we can’t just grant amnesty. There are lots of good, solid people who are here illegally. But when you lose the rule of law, then you have no society,” he said.
State Rep. Tim Spear, D-Washington asked Jones on Tuesday to back legislative efforts to get a federal immigration court based in Charlotte, and to support a move that would make driving while impaired an “offense for deportation.”
Jones said the country is putting “a burden on the backs of its children,” as he fretted over the increasing national deficit and more jobs going overseas.
“We have a moral obligation to a higher authority not to put a burden on those children that — in 20 or 30 years — they will not be able to pay their taxes,” he said.
Jones said the national debt stands at $8.4 trillion, and is increasing by $1.61 billion each day. He said 27 percent of that debt is “foreign owned.”
The number of American jobs going to foreign workers has to be an issue on the radar of every voter.
“I think I know how Nero felt as he saw Rome burning. ... I don’t care if you’re liberal or conservative ... if you don’t take a look at jobs, your children could be borrowing money from a Chinese banker in America,” he said.
On the local level, Jones said the bill transferring ownership of the Mattamuskeet Lodge from the federal to the state level should be signed into law no later than January.
“I’m hopeful it will be on the floor of the House by the first week of September,” he said.
He said renovations to the Swan Quarter Post Office, housed in a former drugstore on Main Street, should be finished in the next 90 days. The building is set up to allow 24-hour access, he said.
Jones praised the progress on the county courthouse and on Rose Acre Farms egg facility in Ponzer.
“Hyde County just needed a little love and help to move forward,” he said.
