Immigration

 I believe that Immigration must be done professionally and with much thought. We have more than a million immigrants now who have lived behind the shadows for many years to provide for their families. They work hard night and day and contribute as much as they can to society. Their children grow up to be productive members of society and continue giving. I myself am a product of growth. I grew up knowing that in this country you have to work hard to get what you want in life and there are no boundaries that you can't cross. I served my country in Iraq and call this land my home.

Now I feel what is going on in our southern borders is a crisis. The border patrol states that an average of 5,000-10,500 migrants cross the border a week. This does not include the ones they fail to account for. What I believe to be true is that it will take at least a minimum of 5 years for these migrants to become independent of the government. They must learn English, get an education, build credit, and much more to bring them to our way of life. What some people fail to understand is that these nations like Venezuela, you are not obligated to work to receive government assistance. They come from socialist countries where everything is given to them.

In the month of October 2023, I bought a plane ticket to El, Paso TX, to see for myself the situation. I saw mostly men between the ages of 18-35 sleeping on the streets of downtown and businesses. I had the opportunity to talk to the locals there and understood their concerns about safety, sanitation, and believe it or not, the preferential treatment that migrants got just by turning themselves into border patrol. Some of them include shelter, food, and fast track to working visas, and I was even told that migrants were receiving up to $ 1,000 spending money for each person.

I had the opportunity to volunteer in a Denver migrant hotel shelter. I felt great grief to see that many migrants were getting treated better than Americans. It seemed like every migrant had a phone, Nike shoes, polo shirts, and Beats headphones. It could be that many of these items were given to them or this was how they spent the tax dollars they received.

We must focus on the immigrants that are here now contributing to our society. Migrants that are crossing over now are putting a burden on people already here. Just imagine the strain this will put on our schools, Medicaid, and food stamps. I could already see an increase in sales tax in the near future. We have a homeless military veteran population that can use this assistance. 

I Condemn the Denver Mayor's action of making their city a sanctuary city and then asking for help from other cities and our state resources to deal with the situation that they put themselves in. I demand that the city pay back the 3.5 million dollars given to them by the state and reimburse sister cities for the cost of the burden Denver has put on them. Denver has over 10,000 homeless people out on the streets. Let us focus on Coloradans first.

- My goal when elected is to push for HB24-1128, Enforcement of Federal Immigration Law. If migrants commit a crime, then they should and will be held accountable.