WILLIAMSON
FOR
U.S. CONGRESS
DEMOCRAT
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 6
“The Future Can Be Ours.”
480-607-9726
Dear Friend,
On June 12, 2013, David Schweikert stated on his facebook page: “On this
day 26 years ago, Ronald Reagan urged Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
to ‘tear down this wall.’ LIKE if you miss Ronald Reagan!”
One gets the impression the Rep. Schweikert admires President Reagan. One
gets the impression that he respects the things that Ronald Reagan said.
In Ronald Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill” speech, however, that he gave
as he departed from office after serving two terms, President Reagan
asserted something that, apparently, David Schweikert has either forgotten
or never really thought about.
This is an excerpt from President Reagan’s speech: “I’ve spoken of the
Shining City all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite
communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall,
proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed,
and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city
with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had
to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone
with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it
still.” (from THE CITY ON A HILL by Michael Reagan with Jim Denney, 1997,
as quoted in The New York Times, www.nytimes.com)
Let’s look at the second to last sentence in that excerpt: “And if there
had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to
anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”
Now let’s look at the last independent clause of that sentence: “…and
the doors were open to anyone WITH THE WILL AND THE HEART TO GET HERE.”
(capitalized letters added by me.)
The “Shining City on the Hill” is of course the United States. In the
context of immigration, it would seem that President Reagan was saying
that the doors of our country should be open to “anyone WITH THE WILL AND
THE HEART TO GET HERE.” Notice, he does not say: the doors were open “to
anyone who was able to get here legally.” He just says: “anyone WITH THE
WILL AND THE HEART TO GET HERE.”
Using this, I think, not unreasonable interpretation of President Reagan’s
words, there are many so-called “illegal immigrants” today in our country
who, it would seem, he would not want to send packing from our borders.
Those undocumented immigrants who have crossed the southern Arizona desert
to search for a better life, certainly had to show “THE WILL AND THE HEART
TO GET HERE.”
Why, then, did Rep. Schweikert, along with his colleagues Reps. Gosar and
Salmon, miss the boat on U.S. Senate Bill 744 last summer after it had passed the
Senate by a vote of 68-32? Why did Rep. Schweikert turn a deaf ear to S.B.
744, even though conservative Republican Arizona Senators John McCain and
Jeff Flake had both supported and voted for it?
S.B. 744 offered a path to citizenship, but only after the immigrant had
been an RPI, Registered Provisional Immigrant, for ten years; and then a
Lawful Permanent Resident for three years. Thus, an immigrant who had
arrived illegally would have to follow this procedure which would take
thirteen years! That’s hardly a giveaway.
John McCain understood that something has to be done, and he astutely
voted for this compromise bill so that the problem could be addressed. He
knew, I believe, from his years in the Senate that the illegal immigrant
problem cannot be ignored with positive results. It’s an elephant in the
room that must be coped with.
Reps. Schweikert, Gosar, and Salmon, however, didn’t get this. This is
what they said: “The desire to make a better life for oneself and one’s
family is certainly admirable, but we should not reward those who have
broken our laws at the expense of the millions of immigrants who have
played by the rules and are patiently waiting their turn in line. Simply
put, those in our country illegally should not have a unique path to
citizenship not available to those who have chose to abide by our laws and
attempt to emigrate legally.”
Further, they went on to say: “At the same time, there is no benefit to
keeping 11 million illegal immigrants trapped in the shadows. In fact, it
is in our country’s interest to know who they are and where they live.”
(“Arizona Republic Op-Ed: What immigration reform must entail,” By U.S.
Reps. David Schweikert, Matt Salmon, and Paul Gosar, as republished on
Rep. Gosar’s Congressional website, May 1, 2013, www.gosar.house.gov.)
You can’t ask people to come out of the shadows and put themselves at risk
unless you offer them the incentive of citizenship. Otherwise, nothing
meaningful is being offered to them, given the pain and suffering they
have already endured.
President Reagan said that in his “Shining City on a Hill,” aka the United
States of America, “the doors were open to anyone WITH THE WILL AND THE
HEART TO GET HERE.” WILL and HEART must be rewarded, after following the
specified thirteen-year procedure, with citizenship. It’s only fair.
Clearly, Reps. Schweikert, Gosar, and Salmon do not know their Ronald
Reagan. They need to review that passage I quoted above and, if they
really respect the words of Ronald Reagan, revise their positions
accordingly.
S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration
Modernization Act, passed the U.S. Senate by a 68-32 vote on June 27,
2013. (www.govtrack.us) Then the bill went to the House where it was never
taken up for a vote by the Speaker, John Boehner. Had I been in the House
at that time as your congressman, and had S. 744 been brought up for a
vote, I would have voted for it. The cut-off date for those wanting to
qualify for RPI status–Registered Provisional Immigrant–would have been
December 31, 2011. That is, any undocumented alien would have had to be in
the United States prior to that date in order to qualify for RPI status.
Then, as stated above, after ten years as an RPI and then three years as a
LPR–Lawful Permanent Resident–that immigrant would have been able to
apply for citizenship.
Had S. 744 passed the House and been signed by the President, and thus
become law, I do not think, contrary to some critics, it would have led to
a situation where illegal immigration would have been encouraged. Our
circumstances today are different from those when President Reagan signed
into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. At that time, the
illegal immigration situation was not as dire as in today’s world. Today,
for one thing, we have e-verify, the system whereby
employers can check whether an applicant for employment is a U.S. citizen
or not. Today, we have learned that too many illegal immigrants can
overwhelm our social services networks and legal system if not kept in
check. Today, we know the limits of what our society can absorb as far as
new immigrants are concerned.
If S. 744 would have passed, or if it, or a bill with the same essential
features–including a path to citizenship–,passes in the future, it will
be a watershed moment that will signal the end of illegal immigration, for
all intents and purposes, as we have known it, on a permanent basis. The
bill includes requirements for border security, such as increased fencing
and increased numbers of Border Patrol personnel, that would ensure this.
Those measures, along with the firm enforcement of e-verify, will lead to
a much different situation than in the past.
If you would like to contribute to my campaign, please check out my
website at williamsonforuscongress.com. Click on “Make a Donation,”
and, using safe and secure PayPal, show that you’d like a Democrat to be
your congressman in District 6. If you do not donate money, or volunteer
in some other way, then it would seem you are satisfied with the status
quo, and should not be complaining.
The Future Can Be Ours if, by referencing the historical record, we can
see the disingenuous pronouncements of David Schweikert in the proper
light. The record would seem to indicate that Ronald Reagan was thinking
less of legalistic impediments and more of the human spirit when he said
that the doors of the Shining City on the Hill should be open to “anyone
with the WILL and the HEART to get here.” Yes, it’s true that President
Reagan said in his Berlin speech: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Correspondingly, he said that our shining city of the United States, if it
has walls, should have doors in those walls that can accommodate those who
have had “the will and the heart to get here.” Unfortunately, due to the
sheer numbers of those who want to enter our country these days, we must
have a stricter process by which immigrants may become a part of our
nation. S. 744 offers that opportunity for illegal immigrants who came to
our country by December 31, 2011. For those who came after that date,
however, we cannot be as generous as we were before. We must take care of
the citizens we already have; we cannot abandon our own people, nor ignore
their right to a respected and quality existence in their own beloved
land.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
John
W. John Williamson
Scottsdale, Arizona