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Zirkle launches Web site and accepts Hispanic Leadership Council's invitation to speak on immigration.

1. Zirkle launches Web site.

My campaign Web site is now up and can be located at www.TonyZirkle.com. The discussion board is in operation for anyone to make a posting of their political views. A voter's registration form can be downloaded. I'm still working on the chat room. I plan on posting certain set times so that anyone can go live and chat with me before the primary. I'm in the process of reformatting for organization and content and am currently correcting the typos in the issues. I typed out about 18 single space pages of issues in one morning, so I'm asking for mercy from all of the English majors out there. Critical comments are welcome since this Web site is a work in progress.

2. Zirkle accepts invitation to speak to Hispanic Leadership Council

On Wednesday, March 17, 2004 at 11:30 a.m. at the Morris Inn on the Notre Dame campus, I will speak to the Hispanic Leadership Coucil about my view on immigration. I will speak for a few moments and then will take questions from the audience. Below is some of my preliminary thoughts on immigration.

3. Immigration Proposals

We need to decide whether or not we have the will to enforce immigration laws. The current situation which gives exclusive jurisdiction to the federal government has failed. We will never solve this problem unless we grant concurrent jurisdiction to local law enforcement to enforce the law. I have proposed this policy at a prosecutor's conference and was informed that it was an issue of trust with local officials and that it was basically a power trip on the feds' part.

If I could get concurrent jurisdiction, I would support a one-time final amnesty jubilee for all those who do not have a serious criminal record. After we obtain finger prints and get DNA samples, we will bring millions out of the shadows with a revocable five year quasi-citizenship grant. If they commit a serious crime or fail to pass the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and a very basic U.S. History course in five years, then they will be deported. We created this mess by making the benefits of coming here illegally outweigh any minimal risk of deportation.

One other option is to place prisoners on the borders. We now have 2.2 million inmates nationwide. Most just sit, sit and sit some more. Many have child support obligations. I say let us put them to work. We can interview and weed out the inappropriate candidates and give priority to those who owe child support. We can then give them a reasonable pay allowance and direct this money to the custodial parent. This policy would go a long way to relieving the mass burdens on the states who pay welfare benefits and would make life easier for America's second toughest job description, single mom (the first is crack-addicted prostitute).

The immigration laws should not be mocked at as they are now. As a community prosecutor who hit the streets with police officers, I learned that whenever we would stop an undocumented alien for a traffic ticket or even when he/she was convicted of a crime, the INS would generally not take custody of the individual. They would simply instruct the individual to go to Chicago where they could get a free bus ticket home. Rarely would an individual accept that invitation.

The Bush policy on immigration, though it is probably better than what we have now, will not likely solve this issue and may make the problem worse. I have already heard reports of the new scam in Mexico where Bush's plan is discussed and its citizens are swindled for money. We do not need any more second class citizens who will be financially exploited and who will take jobs from our citizens. Bush's statement that these guest workers will do jobs U.S. Americans will not do misses the point that if we raised the minimum wage, then the jobs would be more attractive.

By granting local police the authority to enforce immigration laws, the costs of illegally coming here will skyrocket. If an individual is undocumented, then no bond will be given. Local police will no longer be forced to aid in the commission of a federal felony crime. The undocumented aliens will get a deportation hearing within a few days in order to preserve due process and will be removed from this country which will open up jobs for legal residents and will reduce the exploitation that is taking place now.

The above policy is my second choice. My first choice would be to provide greater economic/military/law enforcement ties with Mexico. We should have a police officer exchange program so that our officers can help them with corruption and they can assist us with discrimination. We could then look to the European Union for guidance and lessons learned from mistakes in order to provide greater integration with Mexico. I placed my second choice first because I believe that national pride in both nations will make my first choice very unlikely.

I have also entertained thoughts about the possibility of creating a new United States of North America where Canada and Mexico would be invited to become the next several states. We would create a new currency which would pay off all three nations' national debts. In order to stabilize the currency, we could pass a law dictating that paying off debts by printing new money could not be engaged in for at least 50 years. (In the Old Testamenet, this economic practice of a "jubilee" was engaged in once every 50 years without any major negative economic consequences being reported). In order to check inflation, we could raise the prime rate to 6% and raise taxes on the top 1-2% by reinstitution the payroll tax on incomes over $200,000. Such actions would establish confidence in the new currency. I am not going to push this proposal since I am operating on very little information and without the vast resources that would be needed to study the pros and cons of this proposal before it is even seriously considered.

They say if you can't beat them, join them. If we can't patrol our borders, perhaps we should join them. I don't have much confidence that even if we gave them that invitation, that they would accept; however, I'd like to debate and research the idea because if the research produces a favorable result, perhaps an interest would arise. Perhaps one of the best policies we could engage in for world economic and peaceful security is to divide the world up into 10 completely free trade zones that have primary, secondary and teritiary languages. Each citizen would learn the primary language, so that if anyone could learn 10 languages, they could communicate with anyone on the planet. This policy would break down the walls of prejudice. Also, each region would be primarily responsible for its security and outside nations, such as the United States would have a greatly reduced incentive to act as the world's policeman, which is a policy that appears to be creating about as many enemies as friends. These free trade zones would increase economic efficiency and would provide a boost to sagging economies all over the globe. We would also encourage a mass student exchange program so that tribal/insular cultures would come to realize that children of all cultures are basically the same and have similar goals. This is a lesson I learned from going to Annapolis where we had student from all congressional districts as well as from many foreign nations and from attending Georgetown and Andrews where the student body included representatives from over 100 different nations each.

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