NC-02: Name-calling, no seating & tardiness. (Oh, my.) An amnesty showdown at Renee’s office

ellmers1I wish Renee Ellmers had shown as much devotion to fighting ObamaCare and cutting the size of government as she has to promoting amnesty for illegal aliens.  Every survey I’ve seen shows ObamaCare and the economy as the top concerns on voters’ minds, but Ellmers is riding the issue of “comprehensive immigration reform” all the way to the finish line. 

The folks at NC Listen — an anti-amnesty advocacy group — tried this week to talk some sense into “Our Girl.”   Ron Woodard, the top dog at NC Listen, tells us how that went:

It took me months to setup a meeting in person with Congresswoman Renee Ellmers.  We agreed to change the time three days ago to accomodate her, then today (day of our meeting) an email was sent after 10 am (which I actually saw at 11am) asking for us to move the meeting from Dunn to Asheboro.  I was told by her assistant there was less seating in the Asheboro office so I said to her assistant, some of us can just stand, and I scrambled and contacted all ten attendees who were constituents, some already on their way to Dunn but we met in Asheboro at 3:30 pm.  Congresswoman Ellmers already in Asheboro arrived 17 minutes late and said we had only have 13 minutes to speak with her.  As she arrived she said only 3 persons could meet in her office, even though there were four chairs and plenty of standing room. I mentioned how we scrambled to meet her in Asheboro with her last minute change and all ten attendees are her consitutents and her reply was, “I am in charge and only three can be in the meeting”, so the others had to wait in her small lobby just outside her office and to add insult to injury they closed the door on the 7 constituents.

I have arranged 11 group trips to Washington, DC over the last 12 years to meet with US House members and US Senators from North Carolina to discuss immigration reform, not to mention other trips I made to DC myself and local trips, so I have had a lot of experience meeting with members of Congress.  Today’s meeting with Congresswoman Ellmers was the most contemptible meeting with a member of Congress I have taken part in.  From the beginning she showed a sense of arrogance and disdain for meeting with us.  If you heard the audio clip from the Laura Ingraham radio show of Laura interviewing Renee Ellmers, today was deja vu.  When she wasn’t interrupting me she was constantly changing the subject, with a look of glee in her eye as if she thought she was being clever.  I have studied immigration and immigration policies for nearly 20 years, and she was the most misinformed and uninformed member of Congress I have ever spoken with on the matter of immigration reform…..and that is saying something.   

Just as Congresswoman Ellmers called Laura Ingraham ignorant during their interview,Congresswoman Ellmers went a few steps further by calling me ignorant, a racist, and dense during our meeting…….these insults were sprinkled through our discussion which was about immigration policies and her own statements about immigration reform.I refrained from any personal name calling.  As we know, these kinds of insults are usually used by those who have weak arguments or are under the age of ten.   

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Three other Second District residents, who accompanied Woodard to this meeting, have corroborated his version of events.  Woodard gives us a few details of his discussion with the congresswoman:

I stated that NC LISTEN believes we need real enforcement of our immigration laws first without any legal work permits for illegals nor any amnesty.   Ellmers believes we must give legal work permits to illegal immigrants.  She denied stating the following but in an op-ed piece in the Fayetteville Observer on January 18, 2014 she wrote, “only after this legal work status is obtained (by illegals) can they have the opportunity to begin the naturalization process”.   The naturalization process is a path to citizenship.  I pointed out again that she wrote this and she denied it again.

I asked her why she was for giving legal work permits to illegal immigrants when we have 20 million citizens in the USA who are either unemployed or are working part-time but want and cannot find a full-time job (also called the U-6 rate) and that the U-6 uneployment rate in North Carolina is near 14%.  Even with her attempting to change the subject, I asked her repeatedly and she NEVER would answer that question.

Not once during our conversation did Ellmers ever say she was concerned or troubled by our high unemployment rate and how citizens are suffering……it was over and over about citizens won’t take jobs and why we had to allow illegal immigrants to “earn” legal work permits.  

I mentioned the contacts I get in desperation from people who have lost their jobs to illegals, and she said in effect she didn’t believe me, but yet she believes cheap labor industries/companies who tell her they can’t find citizens who want to work.  She went on and on about companies telling her citizens won’t work and I asked her, given the high real unemployment rate, if she believes most citizens are lazy or won’t take non-farm jobs and she dodged that question.  Of course companies who want cheap labor are going to ask her to be weak on immigration enforcement.  She said that since I was attacking some companies for hiring illegal immigrants, I had a grudge against businesses.  I reminded her I worked for a high-tech company for 40 years, but I won’t stand by and watch citizens lose jobs to illegal immigrants.  Again she was trying to play a game.

I was asked to provide ways to stop illegal immigration and I was interrupted repeatedly. She thinks we need to start all over with enforcement ideas.   Of course we enforce few of our immigration laws. So it is enforcement that’s missing, not a lack of ideas.

The E-Verify system is but one of many steps but now it is only voluntary, but if Congress required all companies to use it and it was enforced, then it would protect most jobs for citizens. Ellmers said she was for it but wouldn’t discuss implementation and she doesn’t think it works.   Of course today the companies who hire illegals won’t use E-Verify because it’s not mandatory and until it is required it won’t have near the effect.

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