immigration a liitle off topic here but I had to sound off.

The folowing is a letter I will hand deliver to Senator Trent Lott's office Thursday. We are planning a large gathering there to let him know how Mississippians feel about the Immigration Bill. Let me know what you think.

Thanks

Dear Senator Lott,

I am writing to you today to express my sincere regret over your support of this amnesty bill in congress. I also am concerned about your comment of "dealing with the problem" of talk radio.  In my opinion you have commit political suicide. I am a staunch Republican. I voted for you. I voted for Bush. I support Bush on many issues and yes even Iraq. However I will never vote for you or another Bush again if you continue to support this bill. I will campaign against you here in Mississippi. As far as talk radio goes it is the only way regular folks can keep up with what you big shots are doing in congress. You certainly are not telling us the truth. Things are changing in America and people are become smarter and more aware of their government and it isn't as easy to sugar coat things and get us to go along with it anymore.

I was a professional income tax preparer for about 9 years and I know the ramifications of legalizing 12 million lower income people. Please understand this about me. I understand why people want to come here. I also am not opposed to making it easier for Hispanics with clean records to come here legally. They do provide a great service and most work very hard. My problem is this. The Democrats in Congress just raised the minimum wage to 7.00 per hour. Now we are talking about keeping them here for their cheap labor. Do we not understand that these people are working for 4.00 per hour now? So we are going to almost double their pay right off the bat. I believe there are plenty of Americans willing to work for 7.00 an hour.  Now this is not my biggest complaint.

A large majority of these migrant workers will be in a lower income bracket. If the husband works and the wife stays at home with the 2 children they will qualify for earned income credit. If that family makes 18,000 per year not only will they not pay income taxes they will receive a check from the tax payers for about $4530.00. Now if only 3 Million of the 12 to 20 million people qualify that would come to 13.6 billion dollars per year of additional handouts. Who is going to foot the bill for that?  My struggling family and I are going to pay for it.

My next question is who is going to pay for their healthcare?  Are we going to socialize that too and give it to them for free? Remember they pay no income tax so am I going to have to foot the bill for that? Or how about the public education system? They pay no income tax and at minimum wage they won't be property owners so who is going to foot that bill? You and I that's who. Or what happens when they retire? Or Social security system is in shambles now. If Social Security was privatized they could probably put in enough money and earn enough interest to live on but the way it is now they will take much more out than they put in. So how is a system that is already broke going to handle 12 to 20 million low income workers?

Is cheap lettuce and sweet potatoes really worth all that? Besides when they start making minimum wage at 7.00 an hour that lettuce won't be cheap anymore anyway. If you want the labor to remain cheap you might as well leave things the way they are now. Then after working for minimum wage for awhile they will start their own union and demand 20.00 per hour, health insurance, shorter work days and profit sharing.

We must up hold the laws we have in place now before we make new laws to not uphold. We must secure our boarder. It is not the innocent Hispanic people coming here that bother me the most it is the criminals and terrorist coming with them. If you have not been to the Mexican Border before it is a trip worth making. Just west of McAllen Texas you will find the last rope ferry in existence. Men still pull cars across by hand there. I have been there. I have seen people who swim across the Rio Grande daily. It would have been very easy to cross and come back in without being spotted. I personally could have gone across picked up a small nuclear weapon in a suit case and have came right back. At this point the river is probably no more than 20 feet across and in the dry season you can just about wade across. The border guards at this point go home at 5:00. I was there at 7:00pm and there was not a soul to be found.

                We must secure the boarder. Once that is accomplished then we can discuss what to do with the innocent people here who are trying to make a better life for their family. As for as those people who are here illegally and have criminal records walk them back to the boarder and tell them not to let the door hit them in the rear on their way out.

Sir you are elected to fight for the people of Mississippi and the betterment of the country. You are supposed to stand up and protect our culture, our language, our way of life, our values and our freedom. It is my opinion that you are failing at this job on this issue.

Sincerely

Jeff Fulgham

Tupelo, MS