Letter to Congressman Chris Gibson Re Immigration Reform

Mike Marnell forwarded Betsy McCaughey's video about the gang of eight's immigration reform proposal. 

PO Box 130

West Shokan, NY 12494

June 22, 2013

The Honorable Chris Gibson

1708 Longworth HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman Gibson:

The proposed immigration law being put forward by the gang of eight is flawed and should be scotched.  Betsy McCaughey makes several points.  First, community organizations should have no role in the processing of citizenship applications, including those of immigrants seeking asylum.  Community organizations are partisan.  Marco Rubio and John McCain are committing direct partisan suicide by supporting this bill; I was skeptical of Mr. Rubio's conservative credentials before, and they have been discredited now.  

Second, the bill's proposed US Citizenship Foundation is a Trojan horse. It is outrageous that potentially partisan groups like this are being proposed to receive government funding.  Community organizations are fine as long as they are privately funded. They should not receive sanctions of law.  

Third, the Office of Civil Rights should not be involved in border security and enforcement.   

The America I once knew and that you defended is gone.  This is no longer the land of the free.  A government that regulates what you eat, forces you buy insurance, and, like this bill, uses soviets or community organizations to perform government functions is not the government of a free people.   Washington has failed America.  America's can no longer be called a great government.   

Have you thought about transforming the federal government into a defense-and-tariff treaty and downloading all other federal responsibilities to the states?   In its current form, from the Fed's garish monetary policy to social security to immigration regulation to the crackpot environmental proposals being put forth to federal gun control, the federal government is a failure.  I see massive net losses to the public from Washington. The federal government's only useful responsibilities are defense and tariff coordination. 

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert

Government Is the Problem: Phil Orenstein on Immigration Reform

Over at Democracy Project Phil Orenstein chronicles the inability of a highly skilled mechanical engineer in his high-tech manufacturing firm to obtain a visa to stay in the US. Instead, Gianluca Mattaroccia, the Italian techie, is returning to Italy with a six figure salary offer. Phil notes that while legitimate immigrants with unique skills that are in demand globally cannot obtain a visa, those willing to come to the USA illegally but who lack skills and wish to mooch off welfare are welcomed with open arms. Phil's article points out that combined with America's bad educational system, dominated by progressive educationists who fail to provide the basics, our immigration laws do not work because they are ineptly administered:

"While American schools have succumbed to progressive pedagogies that focus more on social justice education and feel good outcomes than on competency, there is certifiable proof that Chinese schools have left us far behind, according to Andrew Wolf in the New York Sun. As we keep dumbing down proficiency tests year after year to make the results appear better and Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein look like heroes, our children and businesses suffer. Thus our own students graduate with less proficiency compared to foreign students who possess more competence with 21st century skills. The answer isn’t to kick out the smarter, more proficient foreign workers and students, so we can go on fooling ourselves that our schools aren’t failing.."

Phil suggests an argument against immigration restrictions, not because of the pros or cons of limiting low-wage immigration in order to protect low-wage American workers, but because the US government lacks the competence to administer an immigration program intelligently. I think that there is much merit in this idea. What scares me is that these bozos want to control what goes on on the operating table, your refrigerator, and your living room.

Isn't it time to roll back government bureaucracy?