From Amerca’sVoice.org June 29, 2011:

President Obama: No to E-Verify-Only; Only Comprehensive Immigration Reform Will End Illegal Immigration

Washington – In an important pronouncement at a White House press conference today, President Obama made it clear that mandatory E-Verify without comprehensive immigration reform is unacceptable, saying “We need to have a more balanced approach than just a verification system.” He once again spelled out his strong support for a comprehensive immigration reform package, one that includes “tough border security, going after employers that are illegally hiring and exploiting workers, and making sure that we also have a pathway to legal status for those who are living in the shadows right now.” In May, the White House outlined a similar position in a “blueprint” on immigration reform, stating that the expansion of E-Verify “must be accompanied by a legalization program that allows unauthorized workers to get right with the law.”

In addition to reiterating his support for comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act, the President also made it clear that he is fully aware of the problems with the current E-Verify program and how the program’s faults harm U.S. workers and businesses. He’s right to join the many voices from across the spectrum in raising these cautions. Currently some 4% of employers – and only 2% of small businesses – use E-Verify. Under Lamar Smith’s bill, 100% of employers will have to use the system within three short years. What will be the impact of such a dramatic expansion of E-Verify on businesses, workers, and taxpayers? According to a recent analysis by the Center for American Progress, an estimated 770,000 American workers could lose job offers due to E-Verify’s error-prone databases, the mandate would cost small business an estimated $2.6 billion, and, based on a similar bill scored by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office in 2007, $17 billion in tax revenue would be lost over 10 years as more jobs move into the underground economy. Remarkably, these costs would be in exchange for a system that identifies unauthorized workers only 46% of the time.

According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund: “The President gets it. The way to end illegal immigration is through comprehensive immigration reform, an approach that balances enforcement with legal immigration in ways both effective and humane. In stark contrast, mandatory E-Verify on its own will not only hurt ordinary American workers and small business owners, it will drive payroll workers off the books, allow bad actor employers to undercut honest ones, and send the American agriculture industry out of business and overseas. The President knows the system’s flaws. Let’s hope members of both parties heed his warnings, move towards comprehensive reform, and resist a bill that will make our dysfunctional immigration system even worse.”

The timely question came from Antonieta Cádiz of La Opinión,, who asked President Obama whether he would veto a mandatory E-Verify bill that did not legalize undocumented workers. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have introduced mandatory E-Verify bills, and the House is poised to take up the Smith legislation this summer. Smith and Grassley’s aim is to further the radical right-wing strategy dubbed by proponents as “attrition through enforcement.” Their goal? Nothing less than the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants, an ugly fantasy that is as unrealistic as it is un-American.

Added Sharry, “The President did not address the question of whether he would veto such legislation if it came to his desk, and Presidents typically don’t issue veto threats unless and until they see the details of the legislation about to emerge from Congress. If Democrats in the House and Senate stand strong and make it clear that this latest mandatory E-Verify scheme is a sham that will cost Americans and immigrants alike, it will never reach his desk. But if it does, we hope and expect he will translate today’s firm stance into a courageous veto.”

America’s Voice Education Fund — Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform.

www.americasvoiceonline.org

Consider this….Comprehensive immigration reform…a proposal

It appears that President Barack Obama has discovered rural America and wants to help us all.

Press Release from the White House June 9, 2011:

Obama Administration Establishes White House Rural Council to Strengthen Rural Communities

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The White House today announced the establishment of the first White House Rural Council. While rural communities face challenges, they also present economic potential. To address these challenges, build on the Administration’s rural economic strategy, and improve the implementation of that strategy, the President signed an Executive Order establishing the White House Rural Council.

“Strong rural communities are key to a stronger America,” said President Barack Obama. “That’s why I’ve established the White House Rural Council to make sure we’re working across government to strengthen rural communities and promote economic growth.”

The White House Rural Council will coordinate programs across government to encourage public-private partnerships to promote further economic prosperity and quality of life in rural communities nationwide.

Chaired by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the Council will be responsible for providing recommendations for investment in rural areas and will coordinate Federal engagement with a variety of rural stakeholders, including agricultural organizations, small businesses, and state, local, and tribal governments.

“Rural America makes significant contributions to the security, prosperity, and economic strength of our country,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

“The Rural Council announced by President Obama shows his continued focus on promoting economic opportunity, creating jobs, and enhancing the quality of life for those who live in rural America. Together with the rest of the Obama administration, USDA has worked to support families and businesses in rural communities so that their success will pay dividends for all Americans.”

In the coming months, the White House Rural Council will focus on job creation and economic development by increasing the flow of capital to rural areas, promoting innovation, expanding digital and physical networks, and celebrating opportunity through America’s natural esources.

The Council will begin discussing key factors for growth, including:

Jobs: Improve job training and workforce development in rural America,

Agriculture: Expand markets for agriculture, including regional food systems and exports.

Access to Credit: Increase opportunity by expanding access to capital in rural communities and fostering local investment.

Innovation: Promote the expansion of biofuels production capacity and community based renewable energy projects.

Networks: Develop high-growth regional economies by capitalizing on inherent regional strengths.

Health Care: Improve access to quality health care through expansion of health technology systems.

Education: Increase post-secondary enrollment rates and completion for rural students

Broadband: Support the President’s plan to increase broadband opportunities in rural America
Infrastructure: Coordinate investment in critical infrastructure.

Ecosystem markets: Expanding opportunities for conservation, outdoor opportunities and economic growth on working lands and public lands.

Since taking office, President Obama’s Administration has taken significant steps to improve the lives of rural Americans and has provided broad support for rural communities.

The Obama Administration has set goals of modernizing infrastructure by providing broadband access to 10 million Americans, expanding educational opportunities for students in rural areas, and providing affordable health care.

In the long term, these unparalleled rural investments will help ensure that America’s rural communities are repopulating, self-sustaining, and thriving economically.

COMMENT: The first reaction out in rural America was this “rural council” looked like a committee of coyotes and wolves sent to manage the chicken farm.

On one had there are lots of good things the feds do to help rural America….but what one hand gives the other takes it all away.

Access to federally managed lands (aka “public lands”) is increasingly being restricted to rural America using the Endangered Species Act and wild lands declarations as the hammer.

Rural water rights are being usurped in the name of the Endangered Species Act.

You don’t even want to know all the mischief Army Corps of Engineers 404 permits cause let alone EPA’s activities.

Rural folks feel like a war is being waged against them by the federal government and radical environmental groups who would just as soon see everything outside urban areas turned into a giant wilderness park.

What would be really helpful President Obama is to set up a special committee to deal with the conflicts between the federal government and rural America.

The Rural Council supposedly will look at, among other things, renewable energy development.

Cool…now how do you stop the environmental litigation factories from blocking every renewable energy project in the country because wind turbines might threaten birds and solar projects might impede the movement of desert tortoises and so forth?

And what about access to the oil and natural gas an coal in rural America?

And what about mining?

And the “Ecosystem markets: Expanding opportunities for conservation, outdoor opportunities and economic growth on working lands and public lands.” ….Sounds a lot like instead of continuing farming and ranching and food production, we’re looking at becomming eco-tour guides so city folks can watch birds on our former farms and ranches.

Here is the Executive Order:

Executive Order 13575 of June 9, 2011

Establishment of the White House Rural Council

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America and in order to enhance Federal engagement with rural communities, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. Sixteen percent of the American population lives in rural counties. Strong, sustainable rural communities are essential to winning the future and ensuring American competitiveness in the years ahead. These communities supply our food, fiber, and energy, safeguard our natural resources, and are essential in the development of science and innovation.

Though rural communities face numerous challenges, they also present enormous economic potential. The Federal Government has an important role to play in order to expand access to the capital necessary for economic growth, promote innovation, improve access to health
care and education, and expand outdoor recreational activities on public lands.

To enhance the Federal Government’s efforts to address the needs of rural America, this order establishes a council to better coordinate Federal programs and maximize the impact of Federal investment to promote economic prosperity and quality of life in our rural communities.

Sec. 2. Establishment. There is established a White House Rural Council (Council).

Sec. 3. Membership. (a) The Secretary of Agriculture shall serve as the Chair of the Council, which shall also include the heads of the following executive branch departments, agencies, and offices:

(1) the Department of the Treasury;

(2) the Department of Defense;

(3) the Department of Justice;

(4) the Department of the Interior;

(5) the Department of Commerce;

(6) the Department of Labor;

(7) the Department of Health and Human Services;

(8) the Department of Housing and Urban Development;

(9) the Department of Transportation;

(10) the Department of Energy;

(11) the Department of Education;

(12) the Department of Veterans Affairs;

(13) the Department of Homeland Security;

(14) the Environmental Protection Agency;

(15) the Federal Communications Commission;

(16) the Office of Management and Budget;

(17) the Office of Science and Technology Policy;

(18) the Office of National Drug Control Policy;

(19) the Council of Economic Advisers;

(20) the Domestic Policy Council;

(21) the National Economic Council;

(22) the Small Business Administration;

(23) the Council on Environmental Quality;

(24) the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs;

(25) the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs; and such other executive branch departments, agencies, and offices as the President or the Secretary of Agriculture may, from time to time, designate.

(b) A member of the Council may designate, to perform the Council functions of the member, a senior-level official who is part of the member’s department, agency, or office, and who is a full-time officer or employee of the Federal Government.

(c) The Department of Agriculture shall provide funding and administrative support for the Council to the extent permitted by law and within existing appropriations.

(d) The Council shall coordinate its policy development through the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council.

Sec. 4. Mission and Function of the Council. The Council shall work across executive departments, agencies, and offices to coordinate development of policy recommendations to promote economic prosperity and quality of life in rural America, and shall coordinate my Administration’s engagement with rural communities. The Council shall:

(a) make recommendations to the President, through the Director of the Domestic Policy Council and the Director of the National Economic Council, on streamlining and leveraging Federal investments in rural areas, where appropriate, to increase the impact of Federal dollars and create economic opportunities to improve the quality of life in rural America;

(b) coordinate and increase the effectiveness of Federal engagement with rural stakeholders, including agricultural organizations, small businesses, education and training institutions, health-care providers, telecommunications services providers, research and land grant institutions, law enforcement, State, local, and tribal governments, and nongovernmental organizations regarding the needs of rural America;

(c) coordinate Federal efforts directed toward the growth and development of geographic regions that encompass both urban and rural areas; and

(d) identify and facilitate rural economic opportunities associated with energy development,
outdoor recreation, and other conservation related activities.

Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) The heads of executive departments and agencies shall assist and provide information to the Council, consistent with applicable law, as may be necessary to carry out the functions of the Council. Each executive department and agency shall bear its own expense for participating in the Council.

(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 9, 2011.

Oh golly oh geee Santa has just come down our chimney.

Drug smuggler backpack Photo by Stephen Cullen

This Open Letter to Obama was written by Dinah Davidson of Portal. The folks living around Portal are in one of the most dangerous drug smuggling corridors on the border…over by the Chiricahua Mountains in Cochise County which is called the ” Chiricahua-Peloncillo drug and human smuggling corridor” :

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Copies to: The Honorable Gabrielle Giffords, Senator John McCain, Senator Jon Kyl, Secretary (of Homeland Security) Janet Napolitano, Secretary (of Agriculture) Tom Vilsack, Secretary (of State) Hillary Clinton, Governor Jan Brewer, NPR.

Dear President Obama:

It is with great wonderment and sadness that we listened to your May 10 speech on immigration issues.  All of the joking about moats and alligators cut residents of Portal, AZ, to the core as we sheltered with friends or at a Red Cross evacuation site, to survive a terrible fire that still threatens our lives and property, as well as our ecotourism-based economy.

Like last spring’s ‘Horseshoe Fire’, fought in SE Arizona at a cost of more than $10 million, ‘Horseshoe Fire 2’ was ignited by humans along a well-established route used by human and drug smugglers high in Horseshoe Canyon, about 50 miles north of Mexico.  This fire burned catastrophically in an environment stressed by the worst drought this region has ever recorded, and 50 mph winds have propelled it through whole mountain valleys in a heartbeat.  During its first 24-hrs, the fire consumed a greater area than did last year’s fire over a 6-week period.  Local residents were roused after midnight, and some slept fitfully in cars after fleeing with family photos and any valuables that could be quickly assembled.  Elderly retirees left with medical supplies, including oxygen tanks on which some depend.

Thinking about this in the context of your own loved ones, does this account strike you as a description of security?  We can personally attest to the fact that neither the border nor daily life is secure for members of our community.  Seizure of record quantities of drugs may pad the statistics of Homeland Security, but it does nothing to ease the burdens we have been forced to bear.  Over the years, as our homes have been burgled or invaded, our fences, water lines and windows repeatedly broken, our businesses driven toward bankruptcy, our natural surroundings desecrated by trash and fire, and our lives even obliterated (neighbor Rob Krentz, murdered by a drug scout), it has amazed us how little note is taken of these tragedies by our government and the press.  Is it enough, now that we have suffered back-to-back fires that threaten to erase our very reasons for living here?  What must we say or do to garner your attention and help?  How is it that, on the same day we took Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, we could not prevent illegals – 50 miles within our borders (!) – from setting a fire along a known smuggling route in an extremely dry year?  Why were federal agents (BP, ICE, National Guard, or Special Forces) not posted along this route in anticipation of a repeat of last year’s calamity?  Better still, why were the illegals not captured before they had traveled 50 miles north of the border?!  Or, in the eyes of our government, do we just reside in a ‘sacrifice zone’?

The region where we live is not just our personal homeland but a repository for much of the nation’s biological diversity.  Naturalists from all over the world come here to study at the American Museum’s SWRS field station, or just to observe, but year after year, less natural habitat survives to accommodate them.  For them and for ourselves, watching this environment collapse is akin to watching a beloved family member die. 

All of Arizona’s highly biodiverse ‘Sky (Mountain) Islands’ are in jeopardy and for the same reason – fires set by drug and human smugglers.  (For other examples, you might ask your Agriculture Secretary about the Santa Rita range south of Tucson, and the Sierritas, west of that, and also on fire at this moment.)  Moreover, the country itself is in jeopardy of losing not just the extraordinary biological patrimony represented in these mountain ranges, but (extrapolating over a century or two) the U.S. territory itself.  If this strikes you as hyperbole, what Americans do you know who would choose to remain in lands so tragically depleted?

We therefore wish to know what you plan to do to protect our constitutional right (Article IV, section IV) to defense from foreign invasions, especially as this regards fires set by Mexican drug and human smugglers.  We thank you in advance for your anticipated response.

Sincerely,

The following residents of the Chiricahua-Peloncillo drug and human smuggling corridor:

To: Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Re: Invitation to visit the border in Arizona

Dear President Obama

I understand you have been invited to visit Nogales, Arizona by the Mayor of that city for the dedication of the new Mariposa Port of Entry .

Please come to the Arizona-Mexico border and not only visit the new port facility, but also to see the border in all its diverse manifestations.

Please come to the Arizona-Mexico border and meet with the diverse people who are the voices of the border’s issues.

Please bring with you leaders of both political parties from the US House and Senate. Especially include Senators Kyl, McCain and Grassley and Representatives Grijalva, Chaffetz and Issa.

Here is a proposed itinerary and discussion topics for the visit:

Fly into Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson and take a helicopter tour of the Arizona border region. Fly over the various Border Patrol office complexes in Tucson and Nogales and Sonoita and see all the Border Patrol vehicles parked in their parking lots. See the checkpoints on Interstate 19, and other roads in the region. Then fly the line from Douglas out over the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation and see where the border fence has been constructed and where it has not been completed. See the rugged countrysides and deserts where immigrants and drug smugglers cross into the United States. Maybe you might even see drug cartel spotters sitting on our mountain tops guiding groups of undocumented aliens and drug smugglers around Border Patrol deployment. The borderlands residents will not agree the border is “secure” until the drug cartel spotters and smugglers are ousted from the United States.

Then stop in Nogales and walk down Morley Avenue and then go to the Nogales Wal Mart and see hundreds of Mexicans shopping in border stores contributing to the US economy.. Talk to people you meet in the stores and the store keepers about the economic importance of trade with Mexico. You will see first hand that it is true that border security inside border cities is vastly improved as claimed.

Then tour both the DeConcini Port of Entry and the new Mariposa Port of Entry and see what the gateways to the United States look like. In particular notice the massive traffic jams at the two ports. The USEPA can provide you with documentation that these traffic jams create a serious air pollution problem on both sides of our border.

Then meet with a delegation of maquiladora, produce and retail interests to talk about the problems of crossing the border. They will tell you that building fancy new port facilities is wonderful…but the lack of sufficient Customs and Border Protection officers to staff the ports takes away the benefits of expanded port facilities and still leaves the border gummed up and not functioning as well as it should. You will hear requests for more funding to fully staff the ports of entry.

Then meet with the border county sheriffs from Cochise, Santa Cruz, Pima and Yuma counties. You will get a diverse view of the border from Dever, Estrada, Dupnik and Ogden. Since federal border enforcement authority and strategies reach 100 miles into the US, also include sheriffs Babeu and Arpaio.

You will hear vastly different views of the border security “problem” from these sheriffs. There is truth in all of what they have to say because they are the front line of the human smuggling and drug trafficking problems in our state.

Then meet with some of the Samaratans…folks who go out in our deserts every day to provide water and first aid to undocumented immigrants who get in mortal danger trying to enter the United States. They have some chilling stories to tell you about the humanitarian crisis in our borderlands.

Then meet with the Pima County Medical Examiner who will describe Pima’s morgue full of unidentified bodies of undocumented immigrants who died in our deserts. Hundreds of bodies are found every year around here. Bodies will continue to be discovered as long as the remains are intact and many will never be discovered because of the rugged nature of the region.

Then visit the site of one of the rape trees along our border. There is one near Arivaca. Consider the violence being wrought against undocumented aliens in our borderlands by bandits.

Then meet with representatives of the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation and hear their version of the border security problem and the impacts on their people. Half of the dead undocumented aliens being discovered in our borderlands are found on the Indian lands.

Then visit the site where Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered by some of the border bandits and talk to some ATF agents who blew the whistle on their bosses for “walking” guns to the Mexican drug cartel. Two of those “walked” guns were found at agent Terry’s murder scene. Meet with agent Terry’s family.

Begin to consider that your administration’s approach to the Gunwalker scandal should not be hiring a public relations agent, but to weed out of the government the misguided management that “walked” the guns. Make sure your administration understands that any US official who impedes Senator Grassley’s and Representative Issa’s investigation into Gunwalker will be fired and turned over to the US Attorney’s office for prosecution for obstruction of justice.

Then come to one of the border ranches and meet with Sue Krentz, the widow of Robert Krentz and, Dan Bell and Tom Kay and Jim Chilton and others whose ranches are along the border and daily have to deal with drug smugglers and undocumented aliens in areas where…by the Border Patrol’s own admission, the border is not secure. Hear their stories.

I would hope by the time you visit our borderlands you will see what the problems really are.

First, I would hope that you begin to understand that when folks around here demand that the border be secured, we’re not talking about a moat filled with alligators and 10,000 more Border Patrol agents.

What we are questioning is why the federal government cannot finish building the fence. As your own Government Accounting Office has documented, your federal land managers along the border are impeding securing the border.

What we are questioning is why the Border Patrol has spread itself around 100 miles into the interior of the United States instead of concentrating themselves at the border.

What we are questioning is why the federal government cannot adequately staff its ports of entry.

What we are questioning is why the federal government cannot come up with a visa tracking system so 6 million people who entered the US and overstayed their visas cannot be found.

What we are questioning is why a Guest Worker program cannot be developed immediately to get people out of our deserts and mountains.

What we are questioning is why are parts of our country being taken over by the drug cartels armed with automatic weapons.

What we are questioning is why some sort of legalization process cannot be agreed upon to bring 11 million undocumented aliens above-ground that is not an “amnesty”.

As the final stop in your trip, I’d like you to enjoy some bar b que steaks at one of the border ranches and have a frank discussion between yourself and key congressional leaders to develop a legislative package that secures the border and straightens out our immigration mess.

The claim that legalization is going to benefit Democrats in 2012 is actually bogus. If you knew our Hispanic residents you’d begin to see what a mistake it has been for some to demonize illegal aliens. We have millions of people who believe in the American dream of hard work equals a better life. If they weren’t the target of xenophobes, they just as likely would vote Republican in the future.

We must break the political and rhetorical impasse we are in now on the border. Neither side of the border debate should use the border for political gain as this does nothing to actually solve our border and immigration problems.

Come to our border Mr. President and hear all the diverse voices coming from our region….aid workers, retired Border Patrol agents, ranchers, sheriffs, produce importers, store keepers…and appreciate everyone is right from their side and between all of the various views there are solutions we can all agree on.

Thank you.

PS: If you can’t make it out here please talk to Chris Sautter who has been making a documentary film about our border and has a lot of this on film.

________________________________________________________

More on border issues:

The following are articles and commentaries on border issues and SB 1070 that have appeared in the View From Baja Arizona .

Most recent….
“Probationary Presence” not “amnesty” needed in immigration reform

Who will wipe your baby’s butt? Who will pick your lettuce? Who will mow your lawn?