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Published Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008 | 10:19 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 | 10:15 a.m.
Sun Expanded Coverage
(The Sun has gone on the road to listen to voters and talk to political leaders around the West. Reporters will examine the economic, cultural and demographic forces re-shaping the region as they drive to Denver for the first of the two major party conventions the Sun will cover.)
WASHINGTON -- Leaving Washington, D.C., this crisp, late-summer morning to join my Winning the West colleagues at the Democratic National Convention in Denver feels like leaving one bubble for another.
Inside the Beltway to inside the convention hall.
Thank goodness for the interlude earlier this month in Nevada for a glimpse of grannies playing slots at the neighborhood casinos - regular folks living regular Nevada lives.
A new poll out today in the R-J shows 15 percent of Nevada voters remain undecided.
Hopefully by coming to Denver, and to St. Paul with the Republicans next week, we can offer some insight and analysis for crunch time.
The poll showed McCain gaining a wider lead over Nevada, though another recent poll showed it remains as tight as ever.
How enviable for Nevada, others must think, to have such a voice in this democratic system.
How enviable to matter.
Wish us well as we navigate the bubble and look for the language of the regular folks.
What's left to decide. A chance for Nevada to survive if we can bring down the price of gas and jet fuel, or a chance to see Huge empty hotels with crime and unemployment everywhere if we don't.
CONVENTIONEERS SHOULD NOT IGNORE THE BORDER IMMIGRATION ISSUE!
As the nation's media attention now focuses on the long-awaited conventions, we must encourage people, conventioneers and media alike to not avoid discussion of the border and immigration issue. Because there are no easy fixes, the candidates have been loath to discuss this issue in any kind of depth. Recently, I came across a filmmaker named Chris Burgard, who has produced a terrific documentary called BORDER which explains how deadly the border region has become. Chris has now sat down and come up with a plan to STOP 90% of the border crisis in 90 days! He calls it the S.T.O.P. plan and this needs to be brought to the attention of the candidates, the delegates and the media a.s.a.p. Here's what Chris proposes (the four points will be featured in separate blogs, because we don't have enough room in just one. So keep reading.
1) Secure the border. Empower the U.S. Border Patrol and local law enforcement by giving them the needed resources to bring law and order to the border. Supply them with the money, equipment and manpower that are lacking to save American ranchers from the marauding immigrants and narco-mercenaries that are destroying their property and profiting from human and drug trade.
Give them the needed resources to end the rapes and vicious assaults on Mexican women who are crossing in the desert by:
A) Build the four layer fence in high traffic areas to work as a force
multiplier for the rank and file Border Patrol agents.
B) Deploy either National Guard or Federal troops to confront and engage
narco-mercenaries head-on where needed, (an already proven
method as seen in the documentary BORDER) until the Border Patrol
is completely prepared.
C) Enforce existing employment laws. This is the number one request of
The National Border Patrol Council.
Here is a continuation of Chris Burgard's S.T.O.P. PLAN from the previous blog:
2) Tax: Tax wire transfers that leave the country. Last year, more than $62 billion was sent to Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean from the United States alone. By levying a remittance tax, funds could easily be collected wherever wire transfers of money are purchased.
3) Oil for social services: The time is now to bill Mexico for the social services incurred by undocumented Mexican immigrants, including education, incarceration and medical care. For every day a Mexican national is in a U.S. hospital, school or prison, our government should bill the Mexican government one barrel of oil per person. The business of America has always been business. We are providing services, but we aren’t billing for that service. Instead, we pass the bill to American taxpayers—taxpayers who are tired of carrying the load.
Mexico may be cash poor, but they are one of the five richest countries in natural resources on the planet. Mexico is one of our top three importers of oil and natural gas.
4) Post the Bond: Once the first three parts of the STOP program are implemented, the need to establish a reasonable and efficient guest worker program can be created.
In our plan, immigrant workers post a bond at a legal port of entry at the border. Foreign nationals seeking employment will check in at the front door. They will be issued a tamperproof id card. Any employer employing a foreign national without such card pays an automatic $10,000 fine per employee.
Such a system would enable U.S. officials to effectively track and monitor those who are entering our country. For the first time we would know who they are, why they are here, and that they are healthy and not a burden to U.S. taxpayers.
While working in the U.S., a percentage of their pay goes back to the bond/escrow account. When their work visa expires, they will have accrued
a sizeable amount of money in the account. The foreign national collects that money and goes home. However, if they are even a day late in leaving, all monies in that account are forfeited to law enforcement.
Money is what drives the vast majority of people to illegally cross the border. Money is what will encourage visa compliance.
This program separates the drug dealers and criminals from the immigrants seeking honest work. This plan will work most effectively if we bid out the bonding program to a private American corporation like American Express or Visa. At any given time, Fed Ex can give us the whereabouts of our packages. Our lawmakers admittedly have lost track of 12-20 million people. Adopting such a system would put the pressure on employers who will be forced to pay an exploited foreign work force competitive American wages and related benefits.
These points are good, but they need to be discussed at the highest levels of our government. Share them with your peers, your representatives and the media. And go to bordermovie.com and learn more about Chris' excellent documentary BORDER. Thank you.