An Interesting Letter

This morning I was checking my email as usual and received my daily serving of The Conservative Voice. In this particular issue, I spotted an article entitled "An Open Letter to America About Bad Immigration Policy" and it caught my attention. This letter, written by Steven Voigt, hit a lot of the same issues that I have with this entire immigration issue. And like Voigt, I don't think the President's speech tonight is going to fix it.

Dear Fellow Americans,
On the eve of the President’s speech on illegal immigration and facing the imminent reincarnation of the Senate’s three-tiered amnesty proposal, I write to you again on this important issue. Illegal immigration is indeed the topic of the day, but illegal immigration is but a symptom of the greater issue we face – a crisis of failed leadership on both sides of the aisle in the Senate.

My disgust with our political "leaders" has reached new highs. I have tried to contact my Senators and have never received a response. I thought I was one of the people who put them in office and they were supposed to work for me...isn't this insubordination?

Today, through nothing we have done except to trust in the ballot box, we find ourselves betrayed – and mired in much the same spot as we stood several years ago, with dark clouds shrouding the horizon that we once gazed on with such promise. Our optimism of years past is muted, and we are left with frustration and disappointment in our leaders.

Friends, mediocrity may be fine in some parts of the world – but not here in America. Not in business. Not in schools. Not in science. Not in technology. Not in our values. And mediocrity shouldn’t be tolerated in government, either. We are America. We expect better. We deserve the best.

I try to be optimistic, I really do. I want to believe that our politicians will realize they are failing and start listening, but sometimes it's so difficult. They only ever seem to be after power and have forgotten why they are in Washington DC...to serve the people.

I write today to tell you that the bright horizon does remain; it is merely veiled behind a few dark clouds. But you have done nothing to dim this nation’s future. Your good hearts still fuel the fires of this nation’s hope, and they will forevermore. The dreams remain, but every leader on both sides of the aisle in the Senate must share the blame for failing to lead us on the bright path to the horizon. They have failed and abused our trust.

With the illegal alien crisis, the Senate continues to defy the will of the American people. Simply put, our Senators lack the guts to secure the border, to punish businesses that employ foreigners illegally, to uphold and enforce the rule of law and immigration procedures, and to reject outright any reward of amnesty for those who choose to evade legal processes. Instead, they seem only capable of self- aggrandizing speeches and pandering slogans that feed their egos.

Sadly, our President also seems to be on the wrong side of this issue, and no amount of feel-good phraseology in his Monday night speech will lessen this betrayal of the American mandate. Apparently, the only leaders who stand opposed to bad policy on illegal aliens are many members of the House of Representatives, who understand – rightly – that border security must be a priority.

Voigt points to one of the really awful effects giving amnesty to illegal immigrants will have on us, our working class and our economy. It depicts a frightening future if our politicians don't start listening to us.

This past Friday as I walked to work in Center City Philadelphia and passed two construction sites, I considered how the ineptitude of our leaders with the illegal alien crisis will impact America. As I approached my office building, to my left, workers in harnesses bolted steel beams together on the city’s next skyscraper. After I turned to the right and walked one block, I passed bulldozers and a second hard hat crew laying new asphalt on a road in William Penn’s grid. These men and women would be a little embarrassed to hear it, and they would never agree with their humble natures, but they are in truth all heroes. Nobles all, these individuals, along with most of us, clock in every day of every week to put bread on the table for their families, and in so doing, represent what is best in America.

In recent weeks, as the illegal alien crisis has come to the fore, time and again, I listened to wealthy, elite, out-of-touch Capitol Hill politicians pay lip service to these construction workers and others in the middle class, and then in the next breath, cater to the illegal aliens who have subverted our immigration laws.

Believe me when I tell you, if the politicians on Capitol Hill award amnesty to the millions of illegal aliens who have flouted our laws, in only a few short years those construction workers that I passed on my way to my office – individuals who are raising families with solid wage jobs – will be replaced by cheap, exploitable labor from a bloated labor pool, with all of the added profit going into the pockets of only a handful of corporate fat cats. Experts and commentators have documented repeated instances of such displacement and depressed wages in regions where illegal immigration is particularly excessive, and this will be the entirety of America if the Senate has its way.

He urges us to keep up the efforts to keep our dreams alive while doing whatever we can to make our politicians open their eyes and their ears and stop worrying about the vote. After all, illegal immigrants aren't supposed to have a vote...they are illegal!

While I pray for our leaders to turn their gaze back to the American people, the longer we tarry on this wayward path with failed leadership, the more I am beginning to believe that it is we who must turn our gaze from them.

I implore you, however, to never give up on our efforts. Since our leaders are failing us, we must redouble our efforts to make them listen. Please continue to call and email your Senators and Representatives and tell them that amnesty is wrong and border security must be a priority.

May God bless all of you and may God bless America.
Steven T. Voigt
Executive Director
Foundations of Law PAC

Let's build that wall (electrified fence that is solar or wind powered could work), let's prosecute those industries that use illegal immigrants even if it means paying more for that produce or that shirt. Our security and our way of life are much more important than a 49 cent head of lettuce.

Political cartoon from Iowa Presidential Watch.
Letter in its entirety can be found at The Conservative Voice.