On Immigration, Tim Bishop, Chris Cox, and Randy Altschuler Fail

Tim Bishop, the incumbent congressman of NY district one(Most of Suffolk County, Long Island) where I live, looks to be in a tight race against whoever emerges from the Republican primary contest between Christopher Cox and Randy Altschuler.

All three have positions on immigration that are customly-designed for election purposes and not for any true stab at a workable solution.

Tim Bishop

This month, Bishop voted for the $600 million border security increase, releasing a statement including the required patriotic platitudes:

“This will give law enforcement the resources they need to strike back against Mexican cartels and secure the border…As criminals along the border escalate their violence, we will escalate our presence along the border to fight back”. Never mind that the escalating violence in Mexico has been clearly tied to the increased, U.S.-backed, drug war under Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

To put it simply, Bishop is ostensibly for comprehensive immigration reform, but ascribes to the current mantra that increased enforcement on its own is positive. This mentality does nothing for those here currently that are members of our community(virtually every restaurant and landscaping company in Suffolk County has a sizable contingent of undocumented workers). Likewise, the “increased border enforcement” first  is a political capitulation to his intransigent Republican opponents, who you shall see are, unlike Bishop, complete sell-outs for power.

Randy Altschuler

On Mr. Altschuler’s website, he begins with the clichéd “U.S. is made up of immigrants, but legal ones”, and then went on with this:

Illegal immigration has created a new set of national security and economic challenges for our nation, and has undermined American prosperity…No one should be rewarded for coming here illegally. I will not support any legislation that contains amnesty for illegal aliens.(emphasis added)

How one can make such bold conclusion without any supporting evidence that “illegal immigration” has “undermined American Prosperity” is baffling.

Even if there was evidence of that, one has to ask what is American prosperity? Surely many American employers have prospered handsomely by hiring cheap immigrant labor at the very least, no Randy?

Then Randy goes the “no amnesty” , and the “enforcement-only” way, thus completely aligning himself with his party-line, simulatenously joining the disreputable immigration-moral police. “Hey, my grandparents may or may not have come here legally, but I know you haven’t, and that is enough for my lifelong stamp of moral disapproval.”.

There is hope for Mr. Altschuler, however, given the A-grade demagoguery of his primary opponent, Christopher Cox.

Christopher Cox

From the following statement of Cox, no further questions on his immigration stance are required:

I know how hard so many people have fought to become citizens of this country, and I know that we need to secure our borders.  That’s the obligation of the federal government and the federal government has failed.  God Bless Arizona for standing up and trying to protect its citizens!’

Christopher Cox worked so hard for his citizenship:

The baby named Christopher Nixon Cox was born by caesarean section..at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center…

Being born is mostly work, as far we know, done by mothers, be they legal or not.

Seriously, though, Cox used God’s blessing for the controversial sb1070 that was found to be likely unconstitutional by a federal court. That’s a cheap, cheap political tactic, invoking God where God has no place to be invoked solely for the purpose of getting elected. I’ve commented, as well as thousands of others, on how the Arizona law had nothing to do with security and all to do with obtaining the goal of ridding the country of undocumented labor.

Cox, thus, should have said: “God bless Arizona for attempting to deport all the illegals at any cost, even at the cost of violating the constitution.”

Vote for Bishop

Insofar as it relates to Immigration, Bishop is the least loathsome choice for congress. Altschuler should distance himself from the proforma GOP position on immigration if he is to be honest with reality rather than political reality. A politician should not go with the political current if the current is offensive to what he believes is the right thing to do; rather, a politician should attempt to turn the current on its head. Or be like them all, and watch the results(or lack thereof).

Tags: 2010 elections, Christopher Cox, Congress, Immigration, Randy Altschuler, Tim Bishop