The Burton Blog

New Immigration Ad

Setting the record straight.

McGoff attack ads debunked

Dan's opponent, perennial candidate John McGoff, has dumped $60,000 of his own money into attack ads against Dan Burton.  His most recent attack ad lies about Dan Burton's record, accusing him of supporting "amnesty".  Visit this page to learn the facts.

Brian Jessen has a great summary of McGoff's false and misleading attack ads.  He also points out the irony in it.  While distorting Dan's record, he is pushing a plan to... wait for it... deliver amnesty to illegal aliens.

McGoff slammed Burton hard on this, saying Burton supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. (taken from a McGoff TV ad). In the ad, McGoff talks about a bill Burton authored in 2006 introduced as a discussion draft to encourage debate on illegal immigration.

Let's look at Burton's Congressional Record:
In 2007, Burton introduced HR3549 "to withdraw Federal funds from States and political subdivisions of States that interfere with enforcement of Federal immigration law."
He also introduced HR3638 "to end the cycle of illegal immigration in the United States."

Read the bills.  How can you consider this amnesty?

But what I really love...  is when you read McGoff's own plan for illegal immigration.

"I propose setting up registration centers where they will pay a fine and register for temporary worker status so that we can document how many there are and ensure that they are paying payroll taxes like those of us here legally."
(taken from McGoff's website).

Maybe it's how you define it...  but this idea really looks like amnesty to me. (emphasis ours)

John McGoff is spinning Burton's position on things so much that it is hiding his own positions. I can only imagine what McGoff would be saying if this was Burton's position.

Americans for Better Immigration give Dan Burton an "A"

TBB received an email today from Numbers USA.  It highlights a Congressional rating from Americans for Better Immigration.  Americans for Better Immigration gave Dan Burton an "A" rating.

Numbers USA/ Americans for Better Immigration support common sense immigration reform focused on stronger border security and are against amnesty. 

Learn more about Numbers USA here.

Dan Burton on Illegal Immigration

We found this great page on Dan Burton and Illegal Immigration.  We don't know much about the individual who put it up, but it's got a great summary of where the Congressman stands on the issue.

Representative Dan Burton has had an excellent record when it comes to border security. There are currently at least 12 million (with estimates reaching as high as 30 million) illegal aliens in this country. The first line of defense is controlling our porous borders. Representative Dan Burton clearly wants to secure our borders and the votes show that.

After an illegal alien has entered our country the next line of defense is interior enforcement. Currently employers are not required to verify that an applicant or employee is legally allowed to work in this country. In addition, local law enforcement at the state and local level have had their hands tied when dealing with illegal aliens by not even allowing them to inquire about arrestees' citizenship status. Representative Dan Burton has worked hard to allow state and local law enforcement to help in reducing illegal immigration and to put in place workplace verification systems allowing employers to quickly verify the legal working status of their employees.

If an illegal alien avoids being picked up, or remains here after receiving deportation orders, the next thing they look for are incentives, rewards and benefits. Amnesty is the largest of these rewards and gives illegal aliens a path to citizenship or makes them instantly legal. Representative Dan Burton does not approve of amnesty for illegal aliens and has worked against it.

Representative Dan Burton has voted against giving illegal aliens further rewards and other incentives to come such as in-state tuition, educational benefits, welfare and health care services.

Once here, many illegal aliens have what is known as an "anchor baby". This is caused by a misinterpretation of our 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which calls for all born on American soil to be given US Citizenship. Unfortunately this Amendment has been misinterpreted and was initially put in place to ensure that freed slaves were citizens and has been twisted and misused to include even the children of foreigners who cross illegally into this country and have a child. Once born this new "citizen" allows the parent to gain benefits at the expense of the taxpayers. Representative Dan Burton has been fiercely opposed to anchor babies and the increased illegal population that they support through taxpayer dollars.

On the issue of legal immigration Representative Dan Burton has stood opposed to the visa lottery. Each year 50,000 names are chosen to come to the US legally without regards to their needs, intentions, education level or whether they would benefit the United States. "Winning the lottery" takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to immigration. Once in the country these new immigrants can apply for taxpayer funded services.

Once an immigrant is legally here they can send home to bring in more adults from their family such as parents, siblings and adult children. That legal immigrant can then bring in more family members directly related to them. This is called chain migration and Representative Dan Burton is opposed to it. Chain migration has exponential growth and is the primary cause of the 4-fold increase in immigration to this country since 1960.

A high majority of refugee and asylum seekers to this country are not by international definition in need of relocation. This program is ripe with fraud and Representative Dan Burton has worked hard to crack down on it.

Representative Dan Burton has voted neutral regarding increases in permanent and temporary foreign work visas such as the H1-B. Sometimes foreign workers are desirable in fields where there is a lack of American workers to fill the positions. All too often these work visa programs are abused by employers and used to get lower cost workers into this country rather than hiring American workers. For the foreign worker it is common to see them not return to their home country and remain here on an expired visa.

Overall, Representative Dan Burton has an excellent record when it comes to immigration reform.

We dub Representative Dan Burton an immigration reformer receiving our second highest ranking and our seal of approval.

New Media cover Burton pro-family award

A thanks goes out to the great folks over at Hoosier Access and Fort Wayne News for covering Dan's recent award from Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council.

For those of you who missed our post about the pro-life, pro-family award please check here.

Check out the blog posts:

Hoosier Access
Fort Wayne News

Burton Floor Speech on Illegal Immigration

Mr. Speaker, everybody in America, at least the vast majority of Americans, are very concerned about illegal immigration. And they want it stopped.

Back in the early 1980s, we passed a bill called the Simpson-Mazzoli bill. It was in about 1986, and it was supposed to stop illegal immigration. And what it ended up being was a magnet for more illegal immigration. It just simply didn't work. So today, instead of 2 or 3 million illegals in this country, we have got maybe 14, 15, 16 million. And we really need to deal with the problem.

One of the problems we have is that we are not enforcing our laws. Here in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, a person can acquire an illegal driver's license, a fake, a fake Social Security card, a fake green card, and all they have to do is talk to somebody on the street.

My chief of staff lives over near a place here in Washington, D.C. called Adams Morgan. It's a very popular place, especially for young people. And the ABC News affiliate here in Washington, D.C., recently went down there with a camera and did an interview and watched what was going on as far as giving phony IDs to illegal aliens. And I want to read to you what happened. Here's what they said:

"On any given day, you see them walking up and down Columbia Road in Adams Morgan. As soon as you make eye contact with them, they try to offer you freedom as best they can.

"Seller: `Green card or security card?'

"Buyer: `Yes. What will that cost me?'

"Seller: `The green card and Social Security card will cost you $140. The driver's license alone will cost you $120.' "

Now, they are selling fake IDs. And the people that attacked us on 9/11 had phony driver's licenses and had regular driver's licenses and they used them as ID to get on planes. And here in Washington, D.C., we have these people making phony ID cards, driver's licenses, green cards, Social Security cards, and they're selling them in broad daylight and we are not doing anything about it. And these people may very well be terrorists and a threat to the United States of America. I'll go on:

"After jotting down a fake name, using our subject's photo ..... the card sharks put it all together in a private office. Two hundred dollars and a couple of hours later, our subject picks up his documents ..... documents so real looking it's almost impossible to detect anything suspicious ..... identical seals, a new Social Security number, and even affirmation that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has given its okay. It's easy to get a good fake ID that can legitimately fool employers. And the Federal employment verification "Basic Pilot" cannot detect fraud, which means employers must fend for themselves when determining if a prospective employee is authorized to work in the U.S. What's the point of a system if it doesn't work?"

And that's my question tonight. What are we going to do? We have a system that invites illegal aliens to come into this country. They get education, they get health care, and we have even had legislation passed that would give them an apartment or a home to live in. It's just amazing.

And now we are not enforcing the laws that would stop these people from selling fake IDs, which could give a terrorist the ability to move about in a very easy way here in the United States of America.

This is tragic. Our FBI, our Homeland Security, the State police and the local police in this country need to enforce the laws against creating these fake IDs. It is absolutely essential to keep this country protected and to stop the flow of illegal aliens coming into this country. What's to stop them? Nothing. Right now they get fake ID and they can go anywhere they want, and the American people are sick and tired of it. You talk to any congressman and go to any congressman's district and they will tell you that the American people want this illegal immigration stopped. And we are not even enforcing the law and stopping the manufacture of fake IDs. We have to do something about it.

End Sanctuary Cities

Congressman Burton stands strong for enforcing our immigration laws. Too long now, many cities have designated themselves Sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities are cities that refuse to enforce our immigration laws.

These sanctuary cities give immigrants incentive to come to our country illegally vs. using legal channels. Instead of telling immigrants that they will be prosecuted for breaking our laws, they are told that they will be allowed to come illegally and have sanctuary here.

We don't get to pick and choose which laws to enforce.

That's why Congressman Burton has introduced a bill to end sanctuary cities by removing federal funds from them. Until they can be shown to be enforcing the law, they should no longer receive tax dollars from our pockets.

Enforcing Immigration Laws

Dan will be sponsoring the CLEAR Act of 2007.

The CLEAR Act provides several critical improvements to current Federal law, including:

1) clear authority for local agencies to enforce immigration law;
2) improved information sharing so local agencies can practically enforce immigration the law;
3) requirements for the Federal government to remove and deport criminal aliens;
4) increased Federal resources for local governments that choose to enforce the law; and
5) reduced Federal resources for local governments that provide sanctuary to violent criminal aliens. 

The CLEAR Act was originally crafted by Rep. Norwood in 2003 to respond directly to the nation's burgeoning criminal alien crisis.  It was introduced following an incident in Atlanta where Miguel Angel Gordoba, a criminal illegal alien with a history of convictions (including child molestation and rape), was simply released onto the streets after serving a three year prison sentence.  Since there was no communication between the Federal government and the local authorities, no information available to the local officials on the alien's immigration status, and inadequate funding available to house him, Gordoba was simply released on the streets...and he has not been found since.

TBB hopes that this bill will pass.