When I reproduced the letter that Wayne Gilchrest sent me re: the immigration issue, I challenged his opponents to send me their views. Sure enough, my e-mail box the other day had a note from Andy Harris’s campaign. So in the interest of fairness this is what he has to say on the issue.
The Honorable Michael Swartz,
I know the large readership of your blog and with the Senate Amnesty Bill’s potential to be revived; I wanted to take a minute to discuss illegal immigration with you and your readers.
Before I get into the specifics of the issue I want to remind you that illegal immigrants knowingly and willfully violate the law of the United States by entering this country illegally or by staying beyond the term of their visas.
Those who examine my voting record in the State Senate know I have been a leader on fighting illegal immigration in Maryland. Most recently I successfully killed the Democrats proposal to allow illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition (i.e. taxpayer funded scholarships) at state colleges and universities. As a State Senator my goal has been to make sure Maryland does not become a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants.
For over the last decade, members of Congress have failed to protect the sovereignty of our nation by refusing to secure our borders. Members of Congress refused to get serious about illegal immigration and not a single Congressman from Maryland would take the lead.
I believe first and foremost the borders must be secure. Illegal immigration hurts the taxpayers of our nation (studies show the average illegal immigrant family receive government subsidies of $19,000 per year) and is a threat to our national security (many of the 9/11 hijackers were in our nation illegally). Unlike some politicians, I do not only talk about illegal immigration in an election year. I am a leader in the fight against illegal immigrants flocking to Maryland.
I have a very simple immigration plan. Enforce the laws we have on the books and NEVER allow amnesty!! If current laws were enforced we would not have 12 million (an estimate created by Democrats who know the real number is closer to 20 million) illegal immigrants in our nation.
To help secure the borders Congress needs to:
1) Double the number of Border Patrol Agents. We must stop the flood of illegal immigrants across our southern border.
2) Double the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents – Not only must we stop illegal immigrants from coming into our country, we must increase enforcement once they are here. We must punish businesses that knowingly violate our laws by hiring illegal immigrants.
3) Say NO to all forms of Amnesty. I believe amnesty undermines the rule of law in our nation. The rule of law is the fabric that holds every democratic society together.
I want to summarize some of the provisions of the senate bill that I believe are completely unacceptable to the American people. The bill:
1) Automatically allows illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition at state colleges and universities.
2) Creates a new visa called the ‘Z-Visa” which will immediately make all illegal immigrants legal residents of the United States.
3) Grants amnesty to those who have broken our law including gang members.
4) Forces tax-payers to pay for lawyers for illegal immigrants.
5) Allows amnesty BEFORE enforcement measures are put in place.
I am a firm believer in LEGAL immigration. A vast majority of Americans including myself have ancestors who immigrated to this county and they did so LEGALLY. When these immigrants came to this country, they were forced to have sponsors and were forced to sign papers agreeing they would not accept handouts from the government.
The Heritage Foundation, www.heritage.org provides extremely insightful analysis of the senate immigration bill. If you have some free time, you should read a few of their articles.
Thank you for taking the time to read my opinion on this vital issue,
Dr. Andy Harris
P.S. As an elected member of the central committee, you have earned the title “The Honorable” and I can assure you I will use it in any communication we may have unless you request otherwise.
There are a couple editor’s notes before I continue. In order to format this properly to monoblogue, I had to redo the numbers on his original list because the indent wouldn’t work correctly. Also, he misspelled my name in the original – trust me, he’s been set straight on that. (It’s a common error.)
You know, I think he read my website before he did this because I agree with practically everything he says. He’s adding to my “large readership.” (Well, I’m not up to Powerline or LGF numbers but I’m working on it! Hey, I’m now a Top 10 most influential political blog in Maryland. I’ll have lots of fun with that.)
The one disagreement I have may come off as minor, but Harris notes we are a “democratic society”. In truth, we are a constitutional republic – if we can keep it. But he’s correct in saying that enforcement of existing laws is the key, not coming up with new legislation which will likely be ignored when it comes to enforcement. Of course, with our judicial system there’s the real possibility any new law would be thrown out in court as well.
I appreciate Senator Harris taking the time to respond. And it’s nice to be reminded I’m “Honorable” even though I’m sure a number of my readers disagree with that sentiment.
Michael,
Speaking of Republicans, it doesn’t reflect well on the Wicomico County Republican Club to have a website that hasn’t been updated in almost a year. Not only that, but I have expressed an interest in joining more than once via the contact link on the site and have gotten no reply. Sorry to rant here, but a valuable recruiting and informational tool is being overlooked.
Thanks.
Well, a-t, you are in luck on both counts. First of all, the newly revamped WCRC website is scheduled to go up July 1st. We’re in the final stages of getting more and timely info onto it, also I’ll be restarting the newsletter in July.
Secondly, just come to a meeting (next one is a week from tonight) and you can join, or give me the info and I’ll take it from there.
I, too, am interested in joining. We as a people need to become more politically active in order to change the direction in which we’ve been heading. Andy Harris seems like he feels the same way I do relating to illegal immigrants. I must admit, though, that none of the Republican candidates for President move me at all. As a matter of fact I am fairly disappointed with most of them. I have been watching Fred Thompson. It will be interesting if he throws his hat in the ring. He seems to have support from some Democratic constituents as well as many Republicans. We’ll just have to wait and see. He may be the most viable candidate.
Mike,
I came across a proposal by Jonathan Rauch in Reason magazine (http://reason.com/news/show/120930.html) and was wondering what you (and others who oppose the immigration bill) think of it:
*First, raise the number of legal immigrants by about 50 percent, to about 1.8 million a year. That meets the economy’s demonstrated demand for workers.
* Second, provide pathways to permanence. Bring in these 1.8 million people on temporary visas, say for three to five years, with the promise of permanent legal residency (a green card) if they stay out of trouble, pose no security risk, and work or get a college degree.
* Third, don’t micromanage who gets in. Allocate visas using a simple three-way formula that gives about equal weight to family, work, and education: 600,000 family visas for close relatives of citizens and green-card holders; 600,000 work visas for people who are sponsored by an employer and have less than a bachelor’s degree; 600,000 education visas for people who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, with first call going to those who also have employer sponsorships or family ties.