Read How We Lost Jim Barcia in Congress Because of Illegal Immigration
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Michigan's flat population growth caused the loss of Representative Jim Barcia in 2002.
Michigan's Congressional 1st_District, reaching 500 miles from the Keewenaw Peninsula to Monitor Township, Bay County.
Get Ramos and Compean home for Christmas, please Mr. Bush.
And, please, enforce the immigration laws.
The border with Mexico should not be a racetrack for illegals to sprint into the United States at will and take American jobs and raise costs to taxpayers.
The need for immigration reform and a common sense approach to controlling illegal entry into the United States are sure to be top issues in the coming Presidential election.
But the current president can do wonders for his historical legacy by righting what this corner sees as massive injustice.
As we noted in a recent MyBayCity.com article, illegal immigration has an effect on us in Michigan even though we have relatively few (70,000) illegals in this state. (See "Michigan Laws Proposed to Punish Employers Who Hire Illegal Immigrants," MyBayCity.com Dec. 13, 2007.)
Primarily because of illegal immigrantion, Michigan has lost three representatives in Congress since 1992. One of them unfortunately turned out to be one of the best, Jim Barcia of Bay City.
How could that happen? Because illegals jamming California, Texas and other states bump up the population and skew the allocation of Congressional representatives.
Michigan, with basically flat population growth, got squeezed out of two representatives in 1992 and one, Jim Barcia, in the last redistricting in 2002 and could lose more the next time around, 2010. Barcia is now back serving in the state senate, where he was prior to his election to Congress.
The gerrymandering by Republicans gave us in Bay County a Congressman, Bart Stupak, who, though he is an excellent legislator, hails from about 335 miles away in Menominee in the Upper Peninsula.
Actually, Kawkawlin and Monitor and a few northern townships are the only areas in the county represented by Rep. Stupak.
That is not only ludicrous, it is a travesty. Most of Bay County is represented by venerable Dale Kildee, of Flint, chair of the House Education Committee and a veritable workhorse for this area.
A man also of great integrity and an advocate for the environment, Rep. Stupak does his best and shows up here as often as can be expected. He has to cover this 24,875 square mile area, largest Congressional district in the U.S. east of the Mississippi.
The district reaches more than 500 miles from the tip of the Keewenaw Peninsula to its southernmost point, Monitor Township, Bay County. This is a prime example of gerrymandering and manipulation of district borders that should be eliminated in the interest of efficient government. Hopefully, the next redistricting will correct the situation and create a more contiguous district. It will all depend on who is running Congress at the time.
Congressman John Culberson, R-Texas, was a guest on the Glenn Beck Show on CNN's Headline News channel the other night urging President Bush to "Scooterize" the two U.S. Border Patrol agents who are jailed on what he called a wrongful conviction.
By "Scooterize," Culberson meant for Bush to pardon the pair of border agents like he did for the White House aide "Scooter" Libby who was charged with lying to Congress.
That's the first step in putting some common sense into the immigration issue, the Congressman said.
Agents Ramos and Compean are serving 11 and 12 years, respectively, being convicted of shooting a drug dealer during performance of their duties.
Culberson discussed his new resolution asking the President to commute the sentences of unjustly imprisoned Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
Congressman Culberson said: "The appeals judges recognized that the government overreached and in fact there are interviews with three of the jurors in this case who said if they had known that this drug dealer was running loads into the country while under federal immunity, they would have found Ramos and Compean not guilty. They need to be freed immediately, whether by the President or the Court of Appeals."
Congressman Culberson also spoke on the need to increase border security by saying, "This case symbolizes what is wrong with our borders. They are not securing the border, which is insane when you are at war with terrorists. We will never win the War on Terror until we have secured that border. In Texas, we understand the importance of a secure border."
There are some from Texas who apparently don't realize that, Rep. Culberson.##
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