Today, Stand for Murrieta, the demonstrators who successfully blocked buses outside of the Border Patrol Station in Murrieta, hand-delivered a letter to Congressman Ken Calvert’s office. The letter comes two-and-a-half weeks after the Department of Homeland Security attempted to bus illegal immigrants from San Diego.
DHS and ICE have stopped attempting to bus these illegals in for the time being but no long-term solutions have been proposed. Everyone in Washington is hoping for life to go back to “normal,” the way it was before July 1st, when protests originally began. What they fail to realize? This community isn’t backing down.
When a handful of us went to Congressman Calvert’s office today, we were automatically handed a pack of “information” from someone. They had prepared packets with things the Congressman has been doing. More like they touted his “record” and provided copies of Op-Eds that appeared in the Press Enterprise.
When asked about the NDAA, one staffer couldn’t tell us anything about is. Even scarier part? She couldn’t tell us what the acronym stood for. I also feel compelled to note that she was definitely trying to keep us from finding out who the Legislative Aide (LA) or Legislative Council (LC) for Calvert is, since no one in the district office handles “legislative issues.” She seemed stunned when I Googled it and had their names. Good thing we know the standard house email format!
Needless to say, we got the typical “Washington runaround.”
Chances of us getting a response that is more than clippings from the Press Enterprise? Slim to none.
________________________
Stand for Murrieta
Residents of Murrieta and the Surrounding Areas
July 18, 2014
Congressman Ken Calvert
4160 Temescal Canyon Road, Suite 214
Corona, California 92883
Dear Congressman Calvert,
We, the residents of Murrieta and the surrounding areas, have brought about our concerns in regards to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) busing a number of undocumented aliens, primarily women and children, into the Murrieta Border Patrol Station. We have monitored the Border Patrol Station 24/7 for the last two-and-a-half-weeks and successfully kept buses from entering the facility on 4 different occasions.
As you are aware, Murrieta Border Patrol Station is a temporary holding facility that is unequipped to provide for these women and children. The station was created and used to book and hold criminals for short periods of time before transferring them to a long-term facility. The station lacks food preparation and dining facilities, as well as shower facilities. The facility is also unfit to provide medical screening and treatment for sick women and children.
During your visit with Supervisor Stone and Mayor Long, you saw the first-hand conditions of the Murrieta Border Patrol Station and the lack of resources needed to properly house, screen and medically treat these undocumented aliens.
When officials from Riverside County and the City of Murrieta offered to provide assistance to help address these concerns by providing a mobile hospital, Border Patrol officials declined.
Our fears were warranted when we learned the majority of the undocumented aliens – the same ones who were to be released into our community – were infested with scabies, several had unknown upper respiratory infections and one child was diagnosed with active tuberculosis. Had we not stopped the buses from entering the Murrieta station, these aliments would have been released into our communities without our knowledge.
Congressman, as more information comes to light, we have a number of questions and concerns that we would like addressed. As our Congressmen, we feel as though it is your job to represent us, your constituents, by taking a number of actions.
Article 1, Section 7 of the United States Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. Based on that allocation of power, we feel it is imperative to defund, disarm and dissolve all unconstitutional agencies of the federal government. The federal government has had blatant disregard for the Constitution and the protections it provides its citizens.
Because of the actions of DHS and more importantly, ICE, we feel as though a Congressional hearing is warranted. We would like to know:
• Who ordered these undocumented aliens to be flown from Texas to San Diego and bused into our community?
• Who made the decision to continually attempt to bring these undocumented aliens into the Murrieta Border Patrol Station after we successfully blocked buses from entering the facility?
• Who threatened to bring in SWAT officials to combat peaceful demonstrators?
We have learned that Deputy Director Rodney Scott played a significant role in creating this chaos in our community. Based on these actions, we are asking for an injunction against the Border Patrol, and in particular, Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Mr. Scott, for using the Murrieta station as a detention and processing center for undocumented aliens that illegally entered our country in Texas.
Because we approve of the work the Border Patrol Agents have been doing and continue to do, we would like legislation to be introduced that protects agents who decide to speak out against decisions that are harmful to our community. Under no circumstance should these brave men and women be afraid of losing their jobs and their livelihoods out of fear of retaliation, up to and including termination. They have taken an oath to protect and defend our nation and can only uphold that truth when protections are in place.
Based on the actions of law enforcement officials on every level, we believe significant Constitutional classes are warranted. Every member of every law enforcement department on the city, county, state and federal level, should know the Constitution and laws of the land in order to protect and defend the freedoms that we, as citizens, have a right to invoke.
We also ask that you propose legislation that would reform the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), in order to redefine what constitutes a “domestic terrorist.” Based on the current definition, the federal government could decide that we’re a “threat” because we are challenging the legality of decisions being made by the Obama Administration.
Finally, we ask that you vote yes on H.R.3463, the Border Patrol Pay Act, that allows experienced agents to stay on the job for longer periods of time. Having this bill passed would give the American people a higher level of protection and security.
We appreciate your immediate attention on this highly important immigration issue.
Thank you for your time,
Residents of Murrieta and the Surrounding Areas
