Republicans strike a blow against illegal immigration

On May 11 House Republicans passed a sweeping bill that, if enacted, would largely end the illegal immigration crisis.

Of course, the legislation — dubbed HR 2 — stands little chance of getting past the Democratcontrolled Senate or President Biden’s veto pen.

But it’s still worth praising, because it contains the most ambitious immigration reforms ever voted on by either chamber of Congress. American voters elected a Republican House majority, in large part, to solve the worst border crisis in our nation’s history. Lawmakers have now answered that call.

The timing of the vote is no accident. On May 11 the Biden administration ended the Title 42 restrictions that gave border agents the authority to quickly expel illegal migrants. As a result, border crossings — which are currently hovering near record levels of roughly 7,000 per day — are expected to double to 13,000 per day.

HR 2, also known as the Secure the Border Act, includes a laundry list of important reforms.

For starters, it would fix our broken asylum system. Right now it’s easy for economic migrants to lie about facing persecution in their home countries and then work for years in the United States while their cases are adjudicated.

From 2014 to 2019, just 15% of migrants who passed a “credible fear” screening were ultimately granted asylum, according to a Department of Homeland Security review of completed cases.

The bill would reduce asylum fraud by raising the credible fear standard and requiring migrants to show that it’s “more likely than not” a judge will find they truly merit asylum. Currently, migrants only need to show that there’s a “significant possibility” that they’d win asylum.

The bill would also make migrants ineligible for asylum if they’ve passed through another safe country without applying there or if they’ve tried to sneak across the border illegally and then retroactively claim asylum when caught, instead of appearing at designated ports of entry. And it’d place limits on migrants’ ability to obtain legal work permits while waiting for their day in court — thus reducing the jobs magnet that attracts so many migrants in the first place.

The bill would further discourage illegal immigration by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to either detain asylum petitioners in the United States, or have them wait south of the border for their day in court.

Letters to the Editor

Memorial Day

EDITOR:

Dale M. Lawrence left college, where he hoped to study medicine, to enlist in the Army, just as thousands of other young American men and women put their dreams on hold to answer the call to serve their country. Stories my dad told his four daughters about serving as an Army medical assistant on the Queen Mary, transporting troops to England and injured soldiers back to New York during World War II, probably influenced three of us to become nurses.

I actually think of that entire generation as veterans of World War II because of their sacrifices in support of the war e ort at home. Some food items were rationed, but after work my mom and a friend from the clinic where she worked in Davenport, Iowa, would travel out to Credit Island in the Mississippi River to tend a big Victory Garden and raise chickens.

Though both my parents have passed on, I am proud to remember among the other valuable lessons they taught me about life, that some things are more important than our own comfort, selfinterest and even our dreams.

Sometimes sacrifice is called for to ensure opportunity for the greater good to prevail.

As we think of all those veterans, military or civilian, who are no longer with us, let us hold them in our hearts and strive to honor their memory by the choices we make between what may be easy or comfortable for us personally and that which contributes to promoting the general welfare, upholding our democracy and protecting our freedom to choose.

MICHAL LAWRENCE Camino

Misinformation and allegations

EDITOR:

Project Frontier was not “almost approved” as Todd White claims, as it had not even been subjected to the first o cial review and public hearing per the well-defined county review process. To state it “would have been approved” is pure speculation on Mr. White’s part.

The EDH Area Planning Advisory Committee hosted a Project Frontier “applicant presentation” March 15, which was the first known informal presentation with members of the community. APAC was started in 1981 as an advisory group to the county in creating area plans, prior to the state requiring a county general plan. APAC has been operating continuously on a monthly basis for over 40 years, reviewing and commenting on EDH development proposals.

The claim about Project Frontier being possibly “subjected to less tra c impact fees than a couple trying to build a home” is preposterous, as county DOT had estimated the Tra c Impact Fees from the project would be close to $17 million. The reference by Mr. White to a 2017 sta memo in response to possibly establishing a West Coast Amazon headquarters facility in El Dorado County is totally unrelated to Project Frontier.

White further claims, “The largest project in our county’s history would have been approved largely behind closed doors” when, in fact, the public hearing process had not even begun or been calendared. I consider Serrano Village (thousands of acres with 1,000 acres of open space alone) to be the largest project. Project Frontier was proposed on 208 acres.

For Mr. White to further state “high level county sta have almost complete disregard for local taxpayers and their quality of life” should not go unchallenged by anyone who has ever worked closely with any of our county public servants. We have an incredible sta of dedicated people who do care about our residents and work hard to better the lives of all of our residents.

I would like to thank the members of the EDH APAC who put in hundreds of volunteer hours to analyze the available Project Frontier information and provide their conclusions and recommendations to the county. Their inputs, and those of the many individual public comments provided, were not ignored, but were thoroughly reviewed by the decision-makers involved, from the Planning Department to the Board of Supervisors. It is obvious that Mr, White’s reference to Supervisor Thomas and myself being “cheerleaders for the project” is a clear distortion of the facts, as no public record has ever been produced to justify this allegation. If following well-defined county processes and publicly recognizing that every property owner has rights that should be respected constitutes “cheerleading” then Webster’s dictionary needs to be updated.

I want to recognize the e orts of Bridging Divides and Braver Angels (an associated organization) for e orts locally to address the political division across our county. Many of us have attended their workshops and committed ourselves to working collaboratively with everyone in the community to find common ground and resolve issues to better the quality of life for all of us.

JOHN HIDAHL District 1 supervisor