An Open Letter to President Obama on Illegal Immigration and the Faithful Execution of the Laws

President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
Washington, DC 20500

Your speech in El Paso was a great disappointment. Instead of pandering to a block of marginal voters, you should be concentrating on putting unemployed Americans back to work!

The following section of your El Paso speech really floored me:

"You know, they said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Or now they're going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol. Or they'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they want alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied."

You seem to think that securing the border is just a game. A game you can win using cute rhetoric and political posturing. Let me tell you, border security is not a game and that those who support securing our border are not racists or xenophobes (as your supporters shouted out). This is a serious issue and lives are lost because politicians like you fail to take it seriously.

El Paso, where you gave your speech, is across the Rio Grande from the most dangerous city in the world -- Ciudad Juarez. Are you telling me that El Paso is as safe as it can be? Are you telling me that the miles of unprotected borderlands in New Mexico and Arizona are as safe as they can be? Are you telling me that the border sands of California cannot be crossed illegally? We both know our border is not as secure as it can and should be and Americans are dying because of it.

I hope you will get off of your political high horse and have an honest and realistic conversation with Members of Congress and urge them to pass legislation that truly secures our borders and puts Americans back to work.

Please take to heart the following words from Calvin Coolidge, spoken when he was President of the Massachusetts State Senate and later on when he was President of the United States:

"While our country numbers among its best citizens many of those of foreign birth, yet those who now enter in violation of our laws by that very act thereby place themselves in a class of undesirables. Investigation reveals that any considerable number are coming here in defiance of our immigration restrictions, it will undoubtedly create the necessity for the registration of all aliens. We ought to have no prejudice against an alien because he is an alien. The standard which we apply to our inhabitants is that of manhood, not place of birth. Restrictive immigration is to a large degree for economic purposes. It is applied in order that we may not have a larger annual increment of good people within our borders than we can weave into our economic fabric in such a way as to supply their needs without undue injury to ourselves."

"We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people; A faith that men desire to do right, that the Commonwealth is founded upon a righteousness which will endure, a reconstructed faith that the final approval of the people is given not to demagogues, slavishly pandering to their selfishness, merchandising with the clamor of the hour, but to statesmen, ministering to their welfare, representing their deep, silent, abiding convictions."

"Our country has one cardinal principle to maintain in its foreign policy. It is an American principle. It must be an American policy. We attend to our own affairs, conserve our own strength, and protect the interests of our own citizens; but we recognize thoroughly our obligation to help others, reserving to the decision of our own Judgment the time, the place, and the method. We realize the common bond of humanity. We know the inescapable law of service."

Sincerely,

J. Bruce Gabriel

This is a copy of a letter, with a few minor changes that I sent to President Obama because first and foremost, our borders need to be secured. Secondly, but equally as important, the Executive Branch has been sworn to ensure that our laws are faithfully executed.

Currently, our president is not enforcing U.S. Code Title 8, Chapter 12, Subchapter II, Part VIII, sec 1325 passed by Congress, signed by the President and which provides criminal penalties for crashing our borders.

We are a nation of laws. We must have the will, courage, and fortitude to enforce with compassion, but without apology, those laws that protect the integrity of our borders and our rights as lawful citizens. President Obama must be made to do his job of faithfully executing the laws in general and the above noted U.S. Code Title 8, Chapter 12, Subchapter II, Part VIII, sec 1325 in particular.

Credit for many of the ideas expressed in this letter is given to NUMBERS USA, a non-partisan group committed to stopping illegal immigration and reducing immigration levels in general. President Coolidge's quotes are taken from his cornerstone speech, "Have Faith in Massachusetts" and from several of his annual presidential messages.