An e-mail to Sen. Dole

June 3, 2008

To: Elizabeth_Dole@elizabethdole.org

Sen. Dole,

I've read the e-mail you sent last week to North Carolina voters about your establishment of a 287(g) deportation program with county sheriffs across the state. The purpose of the program, you say, is to deport illegal aliens who are committing crimes to property and people.

As someone from the Nashville area where a 287(g) program has been in place for more than a year, I can state that the contentions you've made in your e-mail are wrong. This program is not to stop crime; it has become something vicious to stop illegal immigration -- which is a federal responsbility and yours as a senator in Washington, D.C. If you have not been able to make change happen in Congress on immigration policy with your party, then you step aside for someone who can, not run for re-election.

As you have done, this program is initially sold to the public as rounding up criminals. Here, the sheriff pushed it.

Yet, now, more than a year later, everyone including the sheriff is disclaiming any connection to the promise that the program was only to deport undocumented workers committing crime to property and people. They're deporting everyone under the basis that Washington won't resolve immigration problems, so we will. Sadly, even the major local newspaper won't come out against a program that has morphed into a human rights monster.

Here are the 287(g) facts, not anecdote:

* Of the more than 3,000 undocumented workers arrested and deported from here the past year, only 3 percent were arrested for a violent felony, according to fine reporting by The Tennessean's Kate Howard. And just 19% of those arrested were charged with felonies. The rest were charged with misdemeanors.

* In fact, 62 percent of those arrested went to jail for the first time. For the remaining 32%
who had criminal records, two-thirds of those records were for misdemeanors.

* Hispanics here are being deported for simple traffic offenses like a broken headlight. In one case, it was for fishing without a license. Families are being torn apart. Children live in fear that the daddies they kiss goodbye in the morning will not be seen that evening for weeks, months and years. Children carry the phone numbers of relatives and friends on them in case momma and daddy aren't home. Property crimes and hate crimes against Hispanics are rising because they're too scared to report them to authorities.

As a local Catholic priest, Joe Pat Breen, told his predominantly white congregation, "We would not treat animals this way."

* Dr. Robert J. Sampson. head of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University, analyzed Hispanic immigrant crime rates for 14 years in Chicago. From 1990-2004, Hispanic immigrants were found to have much lower crime rates than other ethnicities and citizens. They turned urban neighborhoods into safe places. And it doesn't take a sociology department chairman to figure out why. These immigrants want to stay low, obey the laws and just be allowed to work. The last thing they want to do is draw attention to themselves.

* No, Hispanics as community members are not perfect people. DUI offenses by any race or enthicity anger me. Yet despite 287g in Nashville, DUI arrests continue to rise.

It's not Hispanics who only commit this crime, and in two instances, took lives with their drunkeness. It is country music stars, NFL and NHL players and University of Tennessee football players who commit offenses under the influence in Tennessee. Former UT star Leonard Little played in the NFL despite his conviction for involuntary vehicular manslaughter while under the influence. He killed a St. Louis woman and got 90 days in jail. Yet no one has proposed special programs to arrest and detain country music stars, pro players or college players.

* Strangely, as a conservative, you are creating another layer of government, based on anecdotal evidence from sheriffs. The assertion that the Feds and ICE are going to foot the taxpayer bill in North Carolina is highly questionable. Counties here in Tennessee outside of Nashville have declined to participate in 287(g) because of the cost. The sheriff in Memphis, our largest city, flatly says such a program is not needed in his county.

* The cost you claim to taxpayers from undocumented workers committing crimes does not match the experience in a state that has even a larger immigrant workforce. The University of Arizona conducted a study that showed undocumented workers contributed $942 million more in revenue than state services they use.

The reason behind your effort is outrageously apparent and is indicative of fear. Your state may be in political play with Barack Obama leading the Democrats, attracting independents and possessing long coattails. Progams such as 287(g) are not about deporting criminals. They are about scoring political points with talk show hosts, extremists in the immigration debate and sadly, some bigots. America's historical bigotry against Hispanics, parituclarly those of Mexican descent like myself, is well-documented. You may win for the moment in your state, but you are writing the GOP's obituary by going after Hispanics. We will remember these outrages against human decency and human rights. And history will increasingly be written from our point of view as our numbers and economic influence grow.

Every day's obit pages in newspapers carry the death of another Republican. Every day's birth notices carry the birth of another Hispanic voter. I would have preferred both parties pursue Hispanic voters. But you and so many others have made consideration of anyone with the GOP -- except presidential nominee John McCain -- impossbile for most Hispanics. Your party is heading toward historical losses in Congress and deservedly so.

Do not try and draw a distinction between undocumented workers and Hispanic citizens of this nation. You insult us all with your efforts. This nation freely and repeatedly recruited our ancestors to address America's needs at the time of war and harvest. Green card soldiers are dying in Iraq for this nation. Yet your party has blocked immigration reform that includes punitive points but also common sense measures such as a temporary job program and steps toward legalization.

Legalization is not amnesty; you appear before a court and pay a fine like for nearly every other non-violent misdemeanor.

Finally, undocumented workers are not "aliens". That label is just another way through words to paint Hispanics as creatures and not human beings. They are church-goers, taxpayers and most of all workers who have helped this country maintain a standard of living of incomprable measure.

Please do not sell your persecution of Hispanic families as national security. I have sat across from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and then AG Alberto Gonzales in one-on-one interviews and asked them if undocumented workers posed a terrorist threat. They adamantly answered "no." They said this country had the technology at the border to safeguard this nation.

I will be encouraging Hispanics across the nation to look at Ms. Hagan's campaign as possibly a place to donate, in response to your unnecessary persecution of people who look like me and my abuelos. The facts are not behind you, just this nation's historical bigotry against Hispanics.

Sincerely,

Tim A. Chavez
politicalsalsa.com