RSSFoes of illegal immigration appear to be short on signatures
Initiative 1043 likely finishedas state deadline arrives todayYakima Herald-Republic
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YAKIMA, Wash. -- A petition drive for Initiative 1043, which would prohibit illegal immigrants from getting jobs, driver's licenses or public benefits, appears to have fallen short.
On the eve of a key deadline, chief organizer Craig Keller of the immigration reform group Respect Washington said he doesn't know yet whether the campaign has collected the 241,000 signatures needed to make the November ballot.
"I haven't tallied it up quite yet," he said Wednesday, the day before the signatures must be turned in to the Secretary of State's office in Olympia.
But sponsor Wendell Hannigan, a Yakama tribal member, described the initiative's chances as "doubtful."
"I don't think so," he said of the signature-gathering effort, adding "It's going to be really touch and go."
David Ammons, a spokesman for Secretary of State's office, said the only initiative campaign that's notified his office of a successful petition drive ahead of today's deadline has been
Tim Eyman's latest tax-reform measure.
"Even when you've got a hot button issue, it's very difficult to gather essentially 300,000 signatures," he said, referring to the number of signatures suggested by election officials as a cushion against so-called spoilage.
The initiative would require employers to use the now-voluntary federal E-Verify system to check the status of workers and prospective employees. It would also require law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws, and prevent illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses and public benefits.
The measure is identical to Initiative 409, which failed last year.
The deadline for referendums, which double-check new state legislation, is July 25. Ammons said the most active proposed referendum is a campaign to repeal the Everything But Marriage bill.
With a budget of only $30,000, Keller said immigration reform supporters could not afford to pay signature gatherers and instead relied on the relatively novel strategy of placing I-1043 petitions as inserts in newspapers.
He said 186,000 petitions went into newspapers around the state, including 6,000 in West Valley editions of the Yakima Herald-Republic last month and another batch in the bi-weekly Yakima Valley Business Times.
Each petition had room for up to 10 signatures. Keller said he was hoping for a last-second flurry of returns to Respect Washington'smail drop in University Place before throwing in the towel.
"It's hard to say," he said. "I'm just going to see what the mailbox presents today and tomorrow."
Hannigan praised the efforts of volunteers and said the campaign might have prospered with better funding.
"Our effort was primarily at least to let Washington (D.C.) know people are concerned, one way or another," he said.
Bob West, head of the anti-illegal immigration group Grassroots of Yakima Valley, acknowledged a dip in interest in the issue, which he attributed at least in part on the left-leaning agenda of the Obama administration.
"People are concerned about the issue," he said, "they just don't know how to fight it."
* Chris Bristol can be reached at 509-577-7748 or cbristol@yakimaherald.com.
LOL!!!!I sure hope they don't get those signatures that they are dreaming about. It would be a pity to see the children suffer and for the orchards to be in a hurt for the lack of NON lazy fruit pickers.
Report ViolationToo bad. E-Verify is easy to use - takes about 30 seconds to a minute, and is a great tool for employers and State agencies to know who is really working for them or whether or not their name matches with the Social Security number presented with the application. This way, is there is a discrepancy, they can clear it up - or not - BEFORE the applicant is hired. Also, it helps to identify fake or stolen ID's.
On the other hand, if the employer doesn't WANT to know if the employee is legit or not, and is just hiring him/her because they can get them cheaply, then that may be the one big reason why there is any resistance at all to this petition. The Congress, for some reason, failed to renew the E-Verify program and it will now die in September.
It mystifies me why some people still want to pay public benefits through taxpayer-funded welfare to these criminal aliens, (the Federal Government's definition, not mine, although I agree with the context) who are taking many jobs away from citizens while they send their meager paychecks out of the country to be spent elsewhere. The continued issuing of driver's licenses, our States accepted form of legal ID that proves nothing but residential status, not citizenship, is a huge source of the "fake" ID documents these people offer up when needed.
Employers of illegal criminal aliens need to be prosecuted. This would dry up the primary magnet that entices workers from other countries to sneak into ours and work for slave-wages. No jobs, they would to self-deport and solve all the immigration issues in one short hurry. We DO NOT NEED 35 MILLION NEW "CITIZENS" WHO ARE ALREADY MOSTLY AT THE POVERTY LEVEL!
The very last thing our country should do is offer these felons amnesty and citizenship as a reward for breaking our laws. Our deluded President and congressional leaders see this as a solution when all it will do is cause a further disregard for the law, aggravate the existing economic problems of our country, prolong lower wages, continue to put citizens out of more jobs than already done, and create a Social Security nightmare for our children that is worse than the one we already have to look forward to.
You know, I lived in Mexico for a few years in an out of the way beach town. The weather was mild and water was warm and inviting. I loved the "laid back" attitude of the people. ( God forbid this should be interpreted as lack of ambition or drive.) The issues that finally brought me back to the ranch were many but here are just a few.
1. Filth. People dumped their garbage everywhere and the roads were covered with trash and the garbage and flies were everywhere. Every public restroom was beyond filthy. You could never trust the bottled water at even the nicest restaurants as they would save the empties and fill them with e-coli laced tap water with no regard for the patrons.
2.Crime. They stole everything. Gas caps, clothing at the laundry, food off your table at the restaurants. You name it-they stole it. If someone ran over your dog or cat or child, they would never dream of stopping. Criminals never faced justice they were merely held for ransom and everyone was for sale.
3. Corruption. I guess the issue is the acceptance of corruption as if there was no possibility of honesty or decent behavior. People were enslaved to the powerful in so many ways and so unconcerned about their own slavery or the slavery of their children that any conversation always ended with a shrug of the shoulders and a vacant stare.
4.Low regard for human life. People who stood up to the bosses or gangsters were certainly going to lose their lives. Who cares about those people? There was never any shock or outrage in the local press. NEVER! Corruption and death were actually celebrated.
5. Child labor. Very young children worked everywhere and the schools were a joke. Administrators stole so much money that the teachers were paid nothing. Parents didn't care. 12 and 13 year old girls were sort of expected to become pregnant.
6. Religion and cynical, jaded and defeated people. Everyone was a Catholic but it seemed that no one believed anything. Very strange.
YAKIMA THIS IS WHAT IS COMING TO YOUR TOWN. THIS CULTURE IS NOT AMERICAN. IF THE FRUIT KINGS AND QUEENS HAVE THEIR WAY THEN THIS WILL BE YOUR FUTURE. WELCOME TO MEXICO. THE TIAJUANNA OF WASHINGTON.
vet - couldn't be said better. some good first-hand observed FACTS.
It remains to be seen if the citizens of this country can get beyond their emotional, condescending approach to "the poor underprivileged" people and get back in line with law and order. Furthermore, we simply cannot afford to adopt the world-at-large regardless of the sob-stories, (everyone has one, by the way, including you and I).
No matter how bad things get here, they will NEVER equal the conditions in Mexico and other Latin countries to our south. That is, unless we don't stop this lemming-like migration of undocumented illegal aliens.
And THAT won't stop until we begin to prosecute the root of the problem - the employers that hire them - and they know who they are, and they are in no way all farmers.
Add hospitality, health care, light manufacturing, (Yamato Engine in Bellingham is one who has been raided and found in violation TWICE) and most of all, local self-proprietor sub-contractors using day labor. Illegal farm workers are only about 6% of the current-day problem. We have all the tools necessary to hire guest workers as needed, through the H2A program.
For you Lib apologists, it is also a program that protects the guest workers from employer abuse, a common regular under-reported problem - Example: Wal-Mart sub-contractors not paying workers they KNEW were not legal.
But...but...but...Where would this leave Sonja, Hector, DSHS, and Martha? Oh, I know...they could go to Mexico and fix all the problems that countryvet pointed out to us. (man, I'm in trouble now)
Report ViolationI agree with Chris R.! LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!!
Report ViolationWAY TO GO, Nick and CountryVet.
Report Violationcountryvet's list almost describes Yakima now.
Report Violationcountryvet wrote:
"YAKIMA THIS IS WHAT IS COMING TO YOUR TOWN. THIS CULTURE IS NOT AMERICAN."
The conditions you list aren't widespread in the US (note I didn't say America, Mexico and Canada are America too) because of laws that were, at the time, considered restrictions on our freedoms.
Prior to 1938 with the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act, child labor was common in this country. Public education has created a mostly literate society. Few other countries can match our success at educating the masses. We have strong food safety laws that are enforced. While some corruption exists in our federal, state and local governments, for the most part we don't tolerate it. We have laws, and they are enforced. This country would probably be run by the gangsters if it weren't for federal agencies like the FBI and the ATF.
We are NOT inherently better than our neighbors to the south, if it weren't for bleeding-heart labor laws, unions and an excellent education system that does an outstanding job of educating the vast majority of the population, we would be no better off.
Ignorance (lack of education) and poverty are at the center of everything you list. Don't fault us "Libs" because we want to eradicate as much of these "cancers" as possible.
Everything that makes this such a great country is because of liberals over the years. Remember it was the conservatives (Tories) that opposed the revolution. We wouldn't even be a sovereign nation if it weren't for the "Libs".
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