NC-02: Name-calling, no seating & tardiness. (Oh, my.) An amnesty showdown at Renee’s office
I 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.
[…]
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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As I recall, NC weakened E-Verify under the ‘leadership’ of Thom Tillis
Ellmers is out of touch with voters, she sides with special interest groups. When ICE says they cannot do their jobs, we have a major problem on our hands. Ellmers has to go
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/369706/ice-union-boss-urges-gop-dont-ignore-immigration-officers-andrew-stiles
http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2013/11/05/head-of-ice-agents-union-sends-letter-blasting-immigration-reform-backers/
How is it illegals are ‘in the shadows’ when they showed up on the National Mall yet our war memorials were off limits to the public during the partial shutdown? I can list many more examples but you get the point.
Yep… they, with Tillis, bowed to crony capitalism… again…. and decided to gut the rules, watered down as to be impotent.
The GOP now has the majority in the legislature, but unfortunately they arent immune to abusing the power and purpose of government.
Renee Ellmers is an embarassment to North Carolina and to the Republican Party, and she is far too often like she is on this issue, an undocumented Democrat. We are better off without her. Lets beat her in the primary, and if that does not happen, then run a conservative write in against her in November. Whatever needs to be done to get her gone needs to be done.
I sincerely wish I could cast a vote against her, both for her inane, poorly reasoned political stances, and for simply being an arrogant ass.
There is absolutely no reason for her to remain in office. I hope her constituents send her home soon.
Ellmers’ office taped the entire meeting. If there is any doubt about this account, call Ellmers’ office and ask her to share a copy of the recording, UNEDITED of course! 🙂
Apparently, some of it was recorded by one or more of the constituents. I googled and found some videos posted within the last few hours.
Only briefly looked ’em over so far….
so Ellmers is ‘in charge’ huh? we will see about that soon…
Here’s some video and audio of portions of the meeting:
http://pjmedia.com/davidsteinberg/breaking-video-of-renee-ellmers-berating-anti-amnesty-constituents/2/
Ellmers Berates Constituents For Opposing Amnesty: ‘You Don’t Have Any Damn Facts!’
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/22/Ellmers-Berates-Constituents-for-Opposing-Amnesty
She would never speak to the Dictator this way. I believe Ellmers will be very comfortable in OBAMA’S NEW NATION!
Ellmers seems to have the potential to be an effective ruler in the new Obama Nation.
How bad is Renee, Doug Clark ( N@R) a liberal, defend her.
That should tell you all you need to know!
Vote her out.
I personally don’t like E-verify. I don’t like the idea of having to ask the federal gov’t for permission every time I get a job or hire someone. I don’t like the possibility of abuse that creates. And, it’s a false premise.
The premise is that employers can’t tell legal from illegal, and businesses use that excuse when they’re caught. It’s b.s.–the vast bulk are not only perfectly obvious, but they didn’t even try hiding it over on the west coast, anyhow. They were pretty open about it, once they were hired.
Back in the ’80’s before Reagan’s amnesty, the INS would raid shops full of illegals, fine the employers, and deport the illegals that same DAY. That’s how most countries do it, and it worked pretty well. That’s really all we’d ever need. Not another federal database.
The problem today is that D’s affirmatively want illegals and encourage it, not that they’re impossible to detect.
I dont like it much either…. but the U.S. does have rules in place, for a whole bunch of reasons, governing who is and who is not allowed to work. As long as such rules exist, we need a way to effectively enforce them, and so I dont see that as an undue burden.
I’m quite OK with taking away the ability of cheating employers to claim ignorance over bad hires (which I think E-Verify should be capable of doing), and also quite OK with much more heavily throwing the book at employers caught cheating. Their cheating bypasses the rules and undermines the free market when it comes to labor.
Deporting illegal immigrants (and jailing repeat offenders) is something I’d advocate for “on top of” increased fines on employers and E-verify.
Vote for Frank Roche, send Renee home.
Is this possibly Renee’s “Ethridge moment?”