WILLIAMSON
FOR
U.S. CONGRESS

DEMOCRAT

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 6

“The Future Can Be Ours.”

480-607-9726

Dear Friend,

I apologize for this long and tedious e-mail, but the issue of immigration
reform is a long and tedious subject, and it takes a while to fully
explain my position. Nevertheless, by the end of this e-mail, you will
know what my position is.

“Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, previously
estimating the arrival of 60,000 unaccompanied child migrants in 2014,
have revised the figure, now expecting as many as 90,000. Of the 47,017
children apprehended thus far in 2014, the vast majority (46,188) are from
the countries of El Salvador (9,850), Guatemala (11,479), Honduras
(13,282), and Mexico (11,577), with the remaining (829) from other
countries.” (“IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) Expresses
Deep Concern on the Situation of Children Migrants Arriving to the United
States,” Organization of American States website, www.oas.org, June 20,
2014.)

The Future Can Be Ours if we bear in mind Andre Gide’s quote: “The color
of truth is grey.”

Immigration reform is not a black and white issue; it is filled with
shades of grey.

The present border crisis caused by the migrants who are unaccompanied
minors is, as far as I know, unprecedented for our country. Although the
United States is a great nation, we cannot be all things to all people.
The crisis is not only, as President Obama has stated, a humanitarian one;
it is also, I think, frightening, understandably, many Americans into
believing that our country is being overrun by people who will take our
jobs, overcrowd our schools, and cause an increase in crime.

This is an international crisis and must be addressed by not only the
United States, but also Mexico and the Central American
countries–Guatamala, Honduras, and El Salvador–from which these
refugees, as it were, are coming. This is a matter for the OAS–the
Organization of American states–of which all of these countries,
including ours, are members.

President Obama has been taking appropriate action. He is asking Congress
for $3.7 billion to cope with the problem. He has publicly stated that
parents in these countries south of our border should not be sending their
children north to our borders. The money requested is to be used, among
other things, for hiring dozens of judges to conduct deportation hearings
so that the unaccompanied minors, with due process, will be sent back to
their home countries. We have our own people to take care of; we cannot be
expected to take these children in. Their parents need to take
responsibility for them. These kids would overcrowd our schools and
overwhelm our social service providers. We must take care of our own
first: our own citizens.

Although some people, such as Rep. Schweikert, have asked the President to
send National Guard troops to the border, I’m not sure that this is a good
idea. We saw what happened on May 4, 1970 when National Guard troops were
called in to Kent State University during the anti-Vietnam War
demonstrations. This crisis involves children, and I’m not sure it’s a
good idea to put our troops into that type of situation. I think the
Border Patrol folks have had more professional training in how to handle
difficult situations like this. More Border Patrol agents should be hired
and trained to help cope with this crisis.

I think the International Red Cross as well as appropriate United Nations
agencies should be called in.

The question of whether illegal immigrants, adults, should have the
opportunity to become U.S. citizens is a difficult one. My grandparents on
my mother’s side, and my dad’s father, came to the U.S.A. has immigrants.
They came legally, through the front door, so to speak. They came through
Ellis Island, and there are commemorative bricks on the scenic deck there
for each of them. I’ve seen them myself.

What to do with people who come in by way of the back door, however, is
another matter. If we consider our border with Mexico, and migrants who
have come to work in our country over the past, say, 100 years, we know
that many of those migrants were illegal but were welcomed by our
agricultural community as a source of cheap labor that was exploited.
There were few objections then to these illegal immigrants, as they helped
our businesses to profit which sustained our economy. Even now, I think,
this is the case. If businesses would not hire the illegal immigrants,
say, in Arizona, they would not stay. They probably wouldn’t even choose
to cross the border. Thus, we are ourselves significantly to blame for the
undocumented migrants coming here. It is very important, therefore, for
e-verify laws to be enforced.

Because of the fluidity of the situation, I believe that workers, even if
they are undocumented, should be allowed to get guest worker permits which
would enable them, under my plan, to be employed legally in our country.
These guest worker permits would need to be renewed annually. Further,
with such a guest worker permit, the person would be eligible to obtain a
driver’s license in the state where the individual is working.

I believe there should be a path to citizenship, even for illegal
immigrants; but it would be a very long path. I propose that the illegal
immigrant must have been in the United States at least ten years before
that person can become eligible to be a citizen. During that period of
time, the person should have had a guest worker permit and not been living
“in the shadows.” In the case of a person who started living in the U.S.
as a minor, the person must show documentation that he or she was actually
in our country going to a public, or other accredited, school during that
time, and in good standing. In the case of adults, they must show at the
time they apply, after at least ten years in our country, that they, in
addition, have no significant criminal record.

This is a compromise. This arises partly from the legacy of decades of
exploitation of disadvantaged persons from south of our border who came to
the U.S. as immigrants illegally to work for farmers in the Southwest for
subpar wages. It’s also due to the legacy of discrimination against
Latinos in Arizona and the Southwest, especially prior to the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, and even after. This legacy includes when Latinos had to live
“on the other side of the tracks” and were treated like second- or even
third-class members of Arizona society, for example, in the Phoenix area.
Our dominant white society profited from this exploitation of this migrant
labor; Arizona society was built significantly on the backs of these
illegal immigrants. In short, we, in my judgment, owe this subgroup of our
society something in return for this mistreatment and exploitation. We
owe, in my view, this subgroup the benefit of the doubt as to their
motivations and aspirations when members of this subgroup say that they
want to become U.S. citizens. Perhaps their crippling poverty did not
allow them to come in “through the front door.” Perhaps the only way for
them to come to our country was “through the back door.” We, I believe,
owe them the chance to come in “through the front door” by allowing them,
first, to obtain a guest worker permit; then, after at least ten years of
gainful employment and with no significant criminal record, we owe them
the opportunity to become a U.S. citizen.

Many will no doubt not make it through that minimum ten-year period of
residency, gainful employment with a guest worker permit, and no
significant criminal record. But those who do will, I think, have earned
it and proven that they will be upstanding U.S. citizens.

That is my position on immigration reform.

If you wish to contribute to my campaign, please check out my website at
williamsonforuscongress.com. Click on “Make a Donation,” and, by means
of safe and secure PayPal, dare to stand by your Democratic candidate who
supports fair-minded immigration reform. You may contribute even if you
live outside District 6, or in another state.

The Future Can Be Ours if we allow illegal immigrants the opportunity to
meet arduous, but not unfair, qualifications–one being at least a
ten-year residency–to become U.S. citizens. Successfully holding a guest
worker permit is the key. We–because of our society’s past hybris in
exploiting this subgroup of disadvantaged persons–we owe this group’s
members the chance, however difficult, to become U.S. citizens. As long as
this door is open to them, we will not, in the year 2014, 102 years after
Arizona became a state, have turned our backs on those who helped Arizona
society to establish itself and become the strong culture it is today. We
will not have abandoned a group of people who, though we may wish to deny
it, helped our state to get on its feet, thrive, and achieve great goals.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
John

W. John Williamson
Candidate for U.S. Congress, CD6

Scottsdale, Arizona