As you may know, I am a member/advisor to the Tea Party Immigration Coalition. My goal is to provide my perspectives and advice on the many aspects of the immigration crisis that confronts our nation and our citizens based on my 30 year career with the INS and my additional experiences that include my having worked as an expert witness in trials and having provided testimony in Congressional hearings and state legislative hearings, where immigration was at issue.
I am often asked if, having testified before approximately 15 Congressional hearings, I believe that the hearings serve a purpose. I certainly understand the reason so many ask that question- it is because so many of us are frustrated by the failures of so many of our elected representatives to truly represent the citizens of our nation. In fact, I sometimes say that instead of hearings, perhaps the time has come for Congress to hold “Listenings!”
While it is hard to find real leaders in Congress and in politics altogether, there are some true leaders. One of those leaders is Steve King of Iowa. For four years he served as the Ranking Member of the House Immigration Subcommittee. He has attended a number of the hearings where I have testified and he and I have had a number of private meetings in which he was truly attentive and greatly concerned about the cause and effect relationship between the failures of our nation to secure its borders and create an immigration system that has real integrity.
Yesterday, November 3, 2011 Representative King, Representative Walter B. Jones and members of the Tea Party Immigration Coalition, the Federal Immigration Reform and Enforcement (FIRE) Coalition and the Foreign National Crime Information Center which administers a website that tracks homicides committed by illegal aliens on the Victims of Illegal Alien Crime Memorial held a news conference in Washington, D.C., to discuss the issue of innocent lives lost to the failures of our nation to effectively enforce and administer our nation’s immigration laws. Below I have attached a copy of a letter to President Obama from the leaders of the Tea Party Immigration Coalition and the Federal Immigration Reform Enforcement Coalition asking that this November 6th and from now on, every November 6th be declared a “Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Illegal Aliens.”
Here is a link to a video of the statement made by Congressman Steve King at that news conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEqWe2QKZ5Y&hd=1
Please take the time to watch the video. I was, as you might imagine, surprised but gratified and greatly honored that during his remarks, Steve King noted that it was my testimony at one of those hearings that caused him to delve into the nexus between illegal immigration and violence in our country. What he found out is startling- more than 25,000 people have been killed in the United States since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by aliens who should not have been in the United States!
Here is a link to the Victims of Illegal Alien Crime Memorial website:
www.fncic-voiacm.org
It is also important to know that Representative Walter Jones has sponsored a bill, H.R. 3168 known as
“Illegal Alien Crime Reporting Act of 2011”
Here is the description of this bill:
To make payments by the Department of Homeland Security to a State contingent on a State providing the Federal Bureau of Investigation with certain statistics, to require Federal agencies, departments, and courts to provide such statistics to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and to require the Federal Bureau of Investigation to publish such statistics. view all titles (2)
Here is the link to this important bill:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3168/show
Immigration is not a single issue but a singular issue that has a huge impact on so many areas of concern including where it impacts national security, criminal justice and community safety.
Various members of this administration have sought to minimize the importance of our nation’s borders and our immigration laws. The administration has worked tirelessly to hobble and thwart efforts by the enforcement personnel at ICE (immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (CUstoms and Border Protection) by issuing policy directives and taking other such measures and litigating against several states that have attempted to fill the immigration law enforcement void created by the administration by enacting their own immigration laws that parallel federal immigration statutes.
It is important to understand that the fundamental principle behind the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that was enacted in 1952, was to protect our nation and our citizens from the entry and presence of aliens in our country who pose a threat to the safety and well being of our citizens and the security of our nation. The INA has been amended over the years, but, at least on paper, the objective of those laws contained within the INA has been to protect our nation and our citizens. This is why it is incomprehensible that many of our political “leaders” mock the purpose of those laws, especially in this perilous era where our nation finds itself under Damoclean threat of terrorist attacks and the infiltration of large numbers of transnational gang members including the extremely violent Mexican drug cartels which is believed to be responsible for the wanton slaughter of more than 40,000 people since Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon took office a few short years ago.
Title 8, United States Code, Section 212, is the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that enumerates the various categories of aliens who are statutorily ineligible to enter the United States. Here is a link to that important section of law that makes it clear that our immigration laws seek to offer an important layer of protection and security and protection that only a fool would ignore:
http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-1956.html
While the current administration has worked the hardest at blocking the enforcement of our immigration laws, it is certainly not the first administration to fail to enforce the immigration laws. Administrations and politicians from both major parties bear the responsibility for these failures that go back nearly a half century.
It is time for our nation’s leaders, on all levels, to come to terms with the fundamental fact that the purpose of our immigration laws is to protect our nation and our citizens from aliens whose presence has the potential to have a serious adverse impact. Ignoring those laws exposes our nation and our citizens to a variety of serious threats and challenges ranging from national security and criminal justice and public safety to the economy, the environment, healthcare and education!
A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!
If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!
We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.
My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.
The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.
If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”
The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.
For far too long our citizens demonstrated apathy which emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups.
It is therefore understandable that the politicians of both parties, are greatly concerned about the demonstrations currently sweeping our nation just as did the creation of the Tea Party. Clearly more and more of our fellow Americans are demonstrating that they are not as dumb as the politicians from both parties had expected us to be!
I am encouraged that more and more of us, We the People, are not willing to simply sit on the sidelines anymore!
I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!
If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!
All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!
We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.
This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!
You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!
Democracy is not a spectator sport!
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
Dear President Obama,
Millions of American citizens and legal immigrants are killed, maimed and otherwise victimized by illegal alien criminals every year. This unnecessary harm to Americans is perpetuated by the failure of the federal government to enforce our nation’s immigration and employment laws. And the toll on our citizens will continue to grow so long as you ignore your responsibility to enforce those laws.
Accordingly, we have designated November 6th as a Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Illegal Aliens.
November 6th is also the 25th anniversary of the 1986 IRCA Amnesty for illegal aliens which encouraged, and even a quarter century later continues to encourage, illegal immigration by those expecting amnesty.
Mr. President, we are asking you to order all national flags to be flown at half-staff on November 6th to honor our fallen citizens, victimized not only by illegal alien criminals, but by the federal government’s refusal to secure the border and enforce our immigration laws.
Respectfully,
John Stahl, Tea Party Immigration Coalition
Jeff Lewis, Federal Immigration Reform & Enforcement Coalition
I hope you will be listening! (Please tell your friends and neighbors!)
Here is a link to the program:
http://www.usaradionetwork.com/cutler.htm