Thread: Letter from Obama

Here is my most recent letter from Mr Obama. I am disappointed that he does not feel that it is important to stop illegal immigration. It infuriates me that he makes our President sound bad, when he himself isn't doing any better. The only thing that he has improved on lately is interior enforcement and I am sure that is only due to the upcoming election. Check out his report card at the bottom of my post.


Thank you for contacting me about the immigration reform debate. I appreciate your strong feelings on this issue.

Public concern and frustration about unchecked illegal immigration on the United States is growing dramatically, and I agree with those who believe that President Bush and Congress must step up to the plate and address this problem, sooner rather than later. Illegal immigration has significant adverse effects not only on American workers but also on our communities’ health and education infrastructure. Also, I understand the strong feeling within Illinois that undocumented immigrants should not be rewarded for flouting U.S. law.

The challenge facing President Bush and Congress is how to effectively stop the flow of illegal immigrants across our borders and deal with illegal aliens who are already living and working in this country. I appreciate that many disagree on how to actually solve this problem. But it is significant that the Department of Homeland Security recognizes that identifying and deporting 11 million undocumented workers currently working in this country would not only be extremely difficult logistically, it would be disruptive to the American economy.

In an address to the nation, President Bush argued that the most reasonable and effective response is to stop the entry of illegal aliens across our borders, prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants, and establish an orderly, rational path to citizenship for law-abiding immigrants who are already here and contributing to our country. The President said:


Some in this country argue that the solution is to deport every illegal immigrant, and that any proposal short of this amounts to amnesty. I disagree. It is neither wise, nor realistic to round up millions of people, many with deep roots in the United States, and send them across the border. There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation. That middle ground recognizes there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently, and someone who has worked here for many years, and has a home, a family, and an otherwise clean record.

President Bush has the right approach to a difficult and highly emotional problem. The immigration reform bill I voted for last year, and the President supported, would have provided more funds and technology for border security and strengthened the employment eligibility confirmation system so that employers are unable to skirt our laws by hiring illegal immigrants. It also would have provided immigrants who are now contributing and responsible members of society an opportunity to remain in the country and earn citizenship. But not all illegal immigrants would have been guaranteed the right to remain in the U.S. under this proposal; they would first have had to pay a substantial fine and back taxes, learn English, satisfy a work requirement, and pass a criminal background check.

You may also be interested to know about three amendments I offered to this bill last year. The first amendment strengthened the requirement that a job be offered at a prevailing wage to American workers before it is offered to a guest-worker. It also ensured that communities where the American unemployment rate is high will not experience unnecessary competition from guest-workers.

The second amendment was a collaborative effort with Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Max Baucus (D-MT) to create a new employment eligibility verification system. The legislation made it simple, but mandatory for employers to verify that their employees are legally eligible to work in the United States. This is probably the single most important thing we can do to reduce the inflow of undocumented workers into the United States.

The third amendment authorized $3.125 million a year for the next five years to allow the FBI to hire additional staff and take other steps to improve the speed and accuracy of the background checks required for immigrants seeking to become citizens.

This immigration reform bill passed the Senate by a 62 to 36 bipartisan vote, but a joint House/Senate conference committee appointed to reconcile the differences between this bill and a separate version passed by the House of Representatives (H.R. 4437) couldn't complete its negotiations before Congress adjourned. I look forward to continuing to work in the present 110th Session of Congress with President Bush, my colleagues in Congress, and the people of Illinois on an immigration bill that respects the rule of law and deals responsibly with the illegal immigrants here in our country. I appreciate your thoughts, suggestions and guidance as this process continues.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/tes ... VIPID=1162

This sounds exactly like something Bush would say.

And what's with this "11 million" number? Do these people really think that millions more haven't come across since that estimate was made?

Originally Posted by CountFloyd

This sounds exactly like something Bush would say.

And what's with this "11 million" number? Do these people really think that millions more haven't come across since that estimate was made?

Yep, lots of words but nothing new to say.

What are we looking at now? 20 million?

Whatever the number is, it is too high. I don't trust this Obama guy anyhow.

The U.S. Census 2000 estimated 10 million
Senator John McCain estimated 4 million in 2002
Source: http://www.thedustininmansociety.org/ar ... feb10.html
U.S. Border Patrol fiscal 2005 apprehended 1.2 million, U.S.B.P. 'catch rate' is estimated to be 20%, meaning 4.8 million last year.
Assuming these 2 years to be 'average', 4+million times 6 years since Census equals 24 to 25 million added to the pre-existing 10 million equals 35 million here now.

It is interesting to note that in 1986, it was estimated that 1.2 million illegal aliens would qualify for THAT amnesty. The actual total was 3.5 million. Assuming a comparable miscalculation today, 35 million is a more realistic number.

Originally Posted by gusgriswald

Whatever the number is, it is too high. I don't trust this Obama guy anyhow.

I stopped trusting him when I first read about how he and Durbin went to bat for Elvira Arellano when her situation first became public. I just hope that the rest of America doesn't vote on appearances and does their home work before going to the polls in '08. On the surface (especially because of his stance on Iraq) and his fresh face in politics he appears to be an alternative to business as usual. Let's face it the country is sick of career democrats and republicans they have all pretty much proven to be serial liars and cheats who only run to position themselves for a bigger piece of the political/financial pie. I know I am deseperate for a candidate who will fix some (if not all) is wrong with this country, starting with illegal aliens.

What do "deep roots" have to do with whether a person is here illegally or whether, given the fact that he or she is here illegally, that person is required to leave and return to his or her place of origin? Hey, most of the weeds I pull from my lawn have deep roots as well. That still doesn't entitle them to a place in the midst of my St. Augustine.

CG wrote:

What do "deep roots" have to do with whether a person is here illegally or whether, given the fact that he or she is here illegally, that person is required to leave and return to his or her place of origin?

IMO, absolutely nothing. The way I see it, the illegals that have been hiding out here the longest are the ones that should be the first to leave! Anyone that believe that the illegals here the longest should have priority in staying is not considering the "rule of law" in the development of their logic. For example, should someone that has comitted tax fraud for one or two years receive a larger fine and/or more jail time than someone that has done it for 20 years? What about someone who has raped one girl compared to someone who has raped 20, should the person that raped one girl receive more prison time than the one that raped 20? I think you get my point and will agree, Bush's logic on this issue is ill-conceived and idiotic.

Originally Posted by MW

CG wrote:

What do "deep roots" have to do with whether a person is here illegally or whether, given the fact that he or she is here illegally, that person is required to leave and return to his or her place of origin?

IMO, absolutely nothing. The way I see it, the illegals that have been hiding out here the longest are the ones that should be the first to leave! Anyone that believe that the illegals here the longest should have priority in staying is not considering the "rule of law" in the development of their logic. For example, should someone that has comitted tax fraud for one or two years receive a larger fine and/or more jail time than someone that has done it for 20 years? What about someone who has raped one girl compared to someone who has raped 20, should the person that raped one girl receive more prison time than the one that raped 20? I think you get my point and will agree, Bush's logic on this issue is ill-conceived and idiotic.

thank you! you have changed my prospective on this issue!

Those politicians all start with the same "concerns" and
"you are right" letters,, then they go "but I believe that
we should consider this and that.." NO NO NO

There is no middle ground on this issue