• California,  California Citizens Redistricting Commission,  Elton Gallegly

    California Congressional Redistricting: Visualizations Have Thousand Oaks Thrown Into Democratic San Fernando Valley District

    Map courtesy of Redistricting Partners

    Yes, it looks like the Conejo Valley of which Thousand Oaks is a part (where I live) will be merged with the West San Fernando Valley and its predominate Democratic registration. GOP Rep. Elton Gallegly will no longer be my congressman.

    Western and southern portions of the San Fernando Valley were drawn into a district that extends into the Ventura County’s Conejo Valley.  This would make the San Fernando Valley vote most important in the district.  Brad Sherman and Howard Berman are drawn into the same seat, but this is much more a Brad Sherman district based on where these two members of congress have run and won in the past.

    Not really wonderful.

    The visualizations could very well change by the release of the drafts on Friday, and most likely will change before final versions are issued no later than Aug. 15.

    I can only hope.

  • Barack Obama,  Elton Gallegly,  Illegal Immigration

    Rep. Elton Gallegly to President Obama: Illegal Alien Amnesty Will NOT Pass the Congress

    California Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley)

    This is my Congressman’s response to President Obama’s MEGA-PANDER to Hispanics along the Texas-Mexican border today.

    From the press release:

    U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly, (R-CA), Chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, issued the following statement on President Obama’s call today for Congress to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants:

    “Providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, as the President called for again today, without requiring illegal immigrants to return to their countries of origin and apply for legal status, is amnesty.

    “Amnesty will not pass Congress, Mr. President. It is unfair to the 26 million American workers who are unemployed or underemployed and it is unfair to those who are waiting to legally immigrate to the United States.

    “Conservatively, seven million people are working in the United States illegally. Instead of focusing on creating jobs and getting 26 million Americans back to work, the President’ proposal would give millions of illegal immigrants the opportunity to work legally in the United States, attract more illegal immigrants looking for the same opportunity, and take more jobs from American workers.”

    My Man, Elton!

    I could not have said it better myself.

  • Elton Gallegly

    Rep Elton Gallegly Announces New Camarillo District Office

    Guess my Congressman is on the move from Thousand Oaks to Camarillo. In any case, here are his contact details:

    U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties) today announced that he will open a new district office in Camarillo on Monday. The current office in Thousand Oaks will be open during regular hours until 5 p.m. Friday.

    The Camarillo office will be at 5051 Verdugo Way, Suite 120, Camarillo, CA  93012. The new phone number is 805-482-2424. Faxes can be sent to 805-482-0024. Office hours will remain 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. The toll-free number will also remain the same, (800) 423-0023.

    In addition to the Camarillo office, Gallegly maintains a Solvang office at 485 Alisal Road, Unit 144, Solvang, CA 93463. The phone number is (805) 686-2525. Fax is (805) 686-2566. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

    Ventura County and Santa Barbara County residents can also contact Gallegly’s Washington, D.C., office: 2309 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515-0523. The phone number is (202) 225-5811. Faxes can be sent to (202) 225-1100. Washington, D.C., office hours are 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.

  • Elton Gallegly,  Illegal Immigration

    House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement: “Making Immigration Work for American Minorities”

    Yesterday’s hearing, chaired by my Congressman Elton Gallegly proved partisan and combative with Democrats accusing Republicans of playing racial politics.

    A congressional hearing led by Rep. Elton Gallegly quickly turned partisan and combative on Tuesday, with Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to drive a wedge between African-Americans and Latinos over illegal immigration.

    Some lawmakers are trying “to pit black against brown” by essentially arguing that illegal immigration is the reason minority communities still struggle nearly 50 years after Martin Luther King Jr. led a landmark civil rights march on Washington, said Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat who was one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

    “This is a very sensitive subject,” said Conyers, who called the idea of dividing minority groups “abhorrent and repulsive.”

    Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, charged that the hearing was an attempt to divert attention from the real causes of high unemployment among African-Americans.

    “We cannot afford to let people who have political agendas divide us,” she said.

    Gallegly, who called the hearing as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, disputed the assertion it was part of a divide-and-conquer strategy.

    “I think it’s shameful,” the Simi Valley Republican said of the Democrats’ accusations. “I hope we’ll bring a little more civility to hearings in the future.”

    You can read a more complete summary of the hearing here.

    I am glad to clue in Conyers and Waters, there is already a racial divide between Hispanics and African-Americans and it has nothing to do with illegal immigration. I know the Democrats need racial demographics in order to win elections, particularly statewide in California, but to bury their head in the sand about the impact of illegal aliens on society is just pathetic.

  • E-Verify,  Elton Gallegly,  Illegal Immigration

    House GOP Set to Mandate E-Verify to Crack Down on Illegal Immigration

    This is what Flap’s Congressman Elton Gallegly said on Thursday.

    The balance between Republican calls to reduce government regulation of business and the GOP’s campaign against undocumented workers is about to be tested by a bill that would mandate use of an illegal-worker detection system, which critics say would cripple U.S. agriculture by depriving farmers of cheap labor.

    House immigration subcommittee chairman Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) said Thursday that he plans to introduce the bill to mandate the use of E-Verify within the next month. The program is already mandatory for government agencies and contractors and used voluntarily by nearly 250,000 businesses to check the legal status of potential hires. But Gallegly said he hopes making it a requirement for all U.S. enterprises will drive out illegal workers entirely.

    “If there was ever a need to do something quickly, when we have 14 million Americans who aren’t working today, I think they deserve to be put in the front of the line,” the California Republican said at a hearing on the use of E-Verify.

    About damn time.

    I think such a bill would have an excellent chance of passage. But, will President Obama who needs the Hispanic vote in 2012 veto the legislation?

    Previous:

    Businesses Fear Expansion of the Illegal Immigration E-Verify Program

  • E-Verify,  Elton Gallegly,  Illegal Immigration

    Businesses Fear Expansion of the Illegal Immigration E-Verify Program

    Protesters at a Chipotle restaurant in Minnesota, where some workers were fired after an immigration audit

    Well, too bad.

    In an early indicator of how congressional Republicans will legislate on immigration, House GOP leaders are expanding an inquiry into an enforcement program that allows employers to check the immigration status of employees.

    The E-Verify program has long been championed by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel, which will hold a hearing on it Thursday.

    Many business owners believe that Gallegly and other House Republicans want to make E-Verify, currently a voluntary program for companies, mandatory. Critics of such a move, many of them farmers, warn that it could destabilize the agricultural economy, which is heavily dependent on undocumented immigrants, and jeopardize millions of jobs held by American citizens that are upstream and downstream of farm labor.

    The fact is that agricultural mega-business have been using cheap, illegal aliens for most of their labor for decades at great cost to American taxpayers.

    Why?

    Well, it is way cheaper than hiring native born Americans or mechanizing their farming/manufacturing operations. Hence, more profits. But, the taxpayers are picking up the tab for the illegal aliens and their American born (and american citizen) children e.g. public education, medicaid, criminal justice et. al..

    E-Verify is a sensible reform and if the large agricultural companies cannot obtain enough labor then there is always a guest worker program for which they can apply.

    Let’s get the illegal aliens and their hidden costs out of the shadows and back to their home countries while supplying jobs for Americans.

    I will gladly pay a bit more for my lettuce and grapes.

  • Elton Gallegly,  Illegal Immigration

    Shocker: Over a Million Immigrants Land American Jobs from 2008-2010

    A group of immigrant day laborers stand near a street corner waiting for work in the Staten Island borough of New York August 3, 2010

    And, most of the immigrants were illegal aliens to boot.

    Over the past two years, as U.S. unemployment remained near double-digit levels and the economy shed jobs in the wake of the financial crisis, over a million foreign-born arrivals to America found work, many illegally.

    Those are among the findings of a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data conducted exclusively for Reuters by researchers at the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

    Often young and unskilled or semi-skilled, immigrants have taken jobs Americans could do in areas like construction, willing to work for less wages. Others land jobs that unemployed Americans turn up their noses at or lack the skills to do.

    With a national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, domestic job creation is at the top of President Barack Obama’s agenda and such findings could add to calls to tighten up on illegal immigration. But much of it is Hispanic and the growing Latino vote is a key base for Obama’s Democratic Party.

    Many of the new arrivals, according to employers, brought with them skills required of the building trade and found work in sectors such as construction, where jobless rates are high.

    “Employers have chosen to use new immigrants over native-born workers and have continued to displace large numbers of blue-collar workers and young adults without college degrees,” said Andrew Sum, the director of the Center for Labor Market Studies.

    “One of the advantages of hiring, particularly young, undocumented immigrants, is the fact that employers do not have to pay health benefits or basic payroll taxes,” said Sum.

    From 2008 to 2010, 1.1 million new migrants who have entered America since 2008 landed jobs, even as U.S. household employment declined by 6.26 million over that same period.

    These facts are something that will need to be addressed by my Congressman Elton Gallegly as he takes over the House Immigration Subcommittee.

    Americans are out of work, illegal immigrations are displacing them in the work force because they work cheaper, and the immigration laws are not enforced while thousands of folks continue to come across the boader from Mexico.

    Immigration will be a Congressional issue in 2011 and in the Presidential campaign in 2012.

  • Elton Gallegly,  Illegal Immigration

    Why California Rep. Elton Gallegly was a Solid Choice for Immigration Subcommittee Chair

    Conejo Valley Republican Women Lunch January 15 2010 019

    Representative Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley and Flap, January 15, 2010, Thousand Oaks, California

    NumbersUSA has a great piece on my Congressman Elton Gallegly who was recently appointed Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee.

    Rep. Gallegly is among an elite group of Immigration-Reduction Champions. Only two other House Members have taken more constructive actions in their careers to reduce the flow of both illegal and legal immigration. The No. 3 champion Gallegly will be serving under the No. 1 champion, House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith.

    Gallegly has earned a Career “A” Grade from NumbersUSA. He has a perfect score in 5 of our 9 categories, and only one category is less than 92%.

    Last Congress, Gallegly sponsored 3 of our “5 Great Immigration-Reduction Bills” – the SAVE Act, the CLEAR Act, and the Visa Lottery elimination bill. He also introduced his own legislation – the Enforce Immigration Law Act of 2009 that would have required information sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS to help root out illegal aliens in the workplace.

    But to understand the real commitment Rep. Gallegly has to reducing immigration, one can look back to the 1996 debate that resulted in the passing of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.

    Read all of the piece here and you will understand why the appointment of the 16 years more of seniority Gallegy was a very solid choice to fight illegal immigration and lead this subcommittee.

  • Elton Gallegly

    Rep. Elton Gallegly Named Vice Chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee

    Conejo Valley Republican Women Lunch January 15 2010 019

    Representative Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley and Flap, January 15, 2010, Thousand Oaks, California


    From the press release:

    Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) today was named Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee by incoming Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida.

    “Congressman Gallegly is a very valued, experienced and effective Member of this Committee and is very familiar with the global challenges facing us today, as well as with leaders around the world who we must work with closely to address those challenges. I greatly look forward to working with him and getting his input on the direction that our Committee should take in the next Congress,” Ros-Lehtinen said.
    “I appreciate incoming Chairman Ros-Lehtinen providing me with this opportunity to serve the full committee as Vice Chairman,” Gallegly said. “The United States and our allies face many challenges and it is critical that the House Foreign Affairs Committee lead Congress in meeting those challenges.”

    Gallegly is a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and currently Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Europe, which he chaired the last time Republicans were in the majority. He is finishing up his third term on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and its Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence Subcommittee. For years, Rep. Gallegly has been in the forefront of homeland security and the United States’ war against terrorism.As a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Gallegly has worked with America’s European allies to fight terrorism here and abroad. He has met with more than 50 heads of state, government delegations, or members of foreign legislative bodies here and abroad. He introduced and passed major NATO expansion legislation and represented the House of Representatives at the NATO summit in Prague at the request of President Bush.

    In 2008, he was the only member of Congress to fly to Pakistan to meet with the country’s then-President Pervez Musharraf the day after the elections that brought a new Parliament to power. He also flew to Israel to meet with then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and then-Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss Israeli-Palestinian relations and other Middle Eastern issues, and to tour Sderot, an Israeli town under siege from rockets fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza.During the 108th Congress, Rep. Gallegly was handpicked by then-Foreign Affairs Chairman Henry Hyde to chair the newly created Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights. As such, Gallegly chaired one of the first hearings on the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations, a hearing that led to eight provisions being included in the final bill.

    In January 2004, Gallegly – representing the Foreign Affairs Committee – and former Rep. Curt Weldon representing the Armed Services Committee led a congressional delegation of three other members to Libya to meet with Moammar Gadhafi after the Libyan strongman denounced terrorism and agreed to open his country to international arms inspectors. It was the first American delegation to travel to Tripoli in about 30 years.

    Six weeks later, Gallegly chaired a meeting with family members of the victims of Pan Am 103 to discuss their pending settlement against Libya.

    A great appointment for an excellent Congressman.

  • Barack Obama,  Elton Gallegly

    President Obama Signs Rep. Elton Gallegly’s Animal Crush Bill

    My Congressman Elton Gallegly has been at the forefront of this travesty.

    From the press release:

    At President Obama’s invitation, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) stood with him as the President signed Gallegly’s bill to outlaw animal crush videos at a White House ceremony today.

    Crush videos graphically depict the abuse and killing of animals. In 1999, President Clinton signed into law a Gallegly bill to outlaw the videos and for 10 years the industry disappeared. However, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law earlier this year and videos reappeared on the market.

    Gallegly’s new law, the Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010, will prevent video depictions of drowning, impaling, burning and crushing of animals. After careful restructuring, both House members and senators believe Gallegly’s new bill addresses the U.S. Supreme Court’s constitutional concerns.

    The House passed Gallegly’s bill by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 416-3 in July and the Senate passed it by unanimous consent last month.

    “Violence is not a First Amendment issue; it is a law enforcement issue,” Gallegly said. “While the torture of defenseless animals is in itself despicable, numerous studies also show cruelty to animals is often the first step leading to violence against people. This law is one step toward ending this cycle of violence.”

    The new law is written with a narrower scope that will most likely pass Supreme Court scrutiny.