Tony Zirkle for Congress

Visitor #46522

Immigration

TONY ZIRKLE FOR CONGRESS

PRESS RELEASE: IMMIGRATION and SOCIAL REFORM
MARCH 24, 2006

Amended March 29, 2006

“FROM DEAD BEAT TO THE BORDER BEAT”

“ZIRKLE PROPOSES BORDER DRAFT FOR CHILD SUPPORT DODGERS”

1. Immigration Reform.

In my 2004 Congressional race, I stated that we will never solve the illegal immigration problem unless we grant concurrent jurisdiction to local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. Objectors often state that the undocumented will then fail to cooperate with local law enforcement. My answer is to provide local county prosecutors with visa granting authority to stay deportation for material witnesses to felony and certain misdemeanor crimes such as domestic violence.

No one is calling for the deportation of millions, so the answer has to be a one-time final amnesty with real enforcement for future law breakers. However, we must first secure the borders.

Stage 1: I am proposing to re-introduce the draft for child support dodgers. The first to be drafted will be those who have children out of wedlock with 20 or more women. Child support policy has been misguided in the past to focus on the amount of arrearage. Typically high income non-custodial parents who have lost their jobs and failed or didn’t realize they could obtain a modification of support have been the prime targets for criminal prosecution. For instance, the medical doctor who misses a month of support will be hauled into court immediately; whereas, the drug dealer with a multitude of non-supported offspring whose income can not be verified and whose mothers may not even know they have a right to support, will likely never be prosecuted or held accountable for nonpayment.

Stage 2: These dead beats will then be placed on the border beats where their salary will be garnished for support. We can even add to the border force certain convicted criminals who have children in need of support. Taxing citizens $30-40,000 a year for incarceration is difficult to defend when many of these inmates can work.

Stage 3: Once the border is more secure, I would then propose a one-time final amnesty for all those who can prove they are in the U.S. as of a certain date. The amnesty will not take place until the border is relatively secure. We can even have a temporary National Guard call-up to stop those who might try to hop the border at the last minute. All individuals will then go to local governmental offices to take photo, DNA, and fingerprint samples.

Stage 4: Those who are in the U.S. will then be given five (5) year guest worker Visas. If they pass the English test and avoid criminal activity, then they will be given full U.S. Citizenship after five years. If they fail to meet these and additional requirements, they will be immediately deported. Additionally, all entering this program will have to post a non-refundable bond for the expected cost of deportation should they fail to appear, so that the costs of this program will be defrayed.

2. Social Family Reform.

In this 2006 race, I’m attempting to call citizens’ attention to the current social crisis we are experiencing with the cultural war on the traditional family.

For instance, in 1970 when I was born, only 10% of children were born to single-parent families. That number is now 50% in Lake County, Indiana. Few factors spread poverty and crime more rapidly than mass single parenthood. In my personal experience as a law clerk and deputy prosecutor in 4 of the 5 largest Indiana counties and from my private law practice that centers around criminal and family, I can speak with confidence that children from broken families experience a far higher incidence of poverty and criminal behavior. I can name only a few criminal defendant clients who have had what appeared to be even a remotely healthy marriage. In my opinion, defending the family would be far more cost effective than tripling our prison population every 30 years like we have since 1975.

I know of one case where a man had at least sixteen children whom he couldn’t support with multiple women. What is particularly disturbing to me is our current alpha male fornicate-impregnate-evacuate culture that glorifies irresponsible male behavior and punishes women with great burdens and that is creating virtual “widows and orphans” at a faster clip than any of our foreign enemies has accomplished by war.

By drafting these hyper “orphan-siring” alpha male irresponsibles, we will take a major bite out of crime and poverty over the next generation and produce a massive tax cut in social costs. The War on Poverty from the 1960s and the Great Society have been unable to complete their missions in large part because of the Sex Revolution that has quintuply decimated the American family.
3. Zirkle appears live on Fox News Channel during the Neil Cavuto Show.
On March 29, 2006, Fox News invited me to discuss my immigration reform proposals on live national television. During the interview, the host asked questions about how my plan to put dead beats on the border would work. In my view, a draft might not even be needed to get many to show up at the border. For instance, when a state judge sentences someone for the felony crime of non support of a dependent, the judge could give the defendant an option to choose either six months in jail where his child support arrearage would continue to mount or a six month stint doing community service on the border where he could be paid a small fraction of the wage that a border agent would make. The money could then be garnished to reduce his support arrearage so that he is less in debt than before the six months sentence started.

Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

James 1:27 “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.”

2004 CAMPAIGN

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. We will finger print, get DNA samples, and 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.

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 work 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, the job 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 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.