Congressman Leonard Lance
Representative, 7th Congressional District
Westfield, New Jersey
Dear Congressman;
I am reaching out to you on the matter of protection from
deportation for children of undocumented immigrants – “Dreamers” – as one of
your constituents, a fellow Republican, and a member of a school board of
education.
Support for DACA legislation is consistent with Republican
principles that I am certain you hold dear, as I do. One is the value of family
as the fundamental building block and guiding light of democracy; another is
fiscal responsibility. Based upon these principles, you have an obligation as a
Republican to protect these residents and aspiring citizens, without any more
restrictions than those to which we hold our own “citizen” children.
First of all: yes, we have a sovereign right to decide who
comes into our country, under what circumstances, and in what numbers. However,
we have failed – for whatever reason – to accomplish this. Given that these
children could not be expected to understand immigration law when they came
here, or disown their parents (many of whom were fleeing chaos, violence and poverty,
as you or I would do for our families),
can we agree that they are innocents caught in the middle of the endless
immigration debate?
Do you remember when we Republicans used to tout “family
values,” and endure criticism from examples of hypocrisy? I, for one, never
understood this value to include some, and not others. Either America treats the rest of the world based
on its principles, or it does not really believe in those principles at all.
There is nothing I would not do to give my children a better life; can we not
take some pride in the fact that America still represents that hope?
Finally, as a school board member in a community that is
more than half Hispanic, my obligation – legally and morally – is to see that all of our children are prepared for
success and to participate as productive members of our society. If we wanted to, the law precludes our
board from standing at the door of the school and deciding who gets in; rather,
we pledge to one another that we will see that they all have the best
possible education, given the available resources. Including pension payments made by the state
on our behalf, Wharton Borough Schools spent $18,900 on each student, while the
statewide average is $20,385 for 2015-16.
Congressman Lance, I write to you not as a political
adversary, but as one who presumably, based on party affiliation, shares your
values. And our values as Republicans requires that you join forces politically
with anyone, of any party, who is
willing to stand up for those values and support legislation that gives my
neighbors, and your neighbors, an unqualified path to (minimally) permanent
residency in our country, that we love.
Paul Breda
Wharton, NJ
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