Reed Harris often misses center of target, sometimes the target itself.

Several claims in his last article “Not in your backyard” are proof that there is more to a subject than sound bites. By many claims Mr. Harris states, “This is a small fraction of the things our president is trying to accomplish. Is this Democracy?” The United States is not a democracy, although it appears Mr. Harris would prefer mob rule over rule by law. The United States of America is a Republic and citizens are constitutionally guaranteed a representative form of government.

His comment “Interesting how Republicans in Congress keep voting with the president”, then inferring the President will dismantle Congress. Mr. Harris must have forgotten the parallel, how Democrats in the last administration also voted with the President. How this happens is not so odd when one considers there are only two political branches of government and we vote for them to carry out our political will, the Art I Congress and the Art II President. We voted. They are doing the will of the majority.

Mr. Harris asked why an Executive Order (on elections) blatantly against constitutional law would even be followed? Framing the question this way assumes it is fact. States do control elections, but federal elections run by the states can have standards imposed. The Executive Order directs actions to be taken to do things like purge voter rolls and ensure the federal voter is qualified. Mr. Harris also claims other Executive Orders are the same, yet provides no specifics. I am not persuaded.

I do not like that federal troops, in any of their forms, are stepping into a state’s jurisdiction. That is a concern. We threw off Britain for this type of reason (and others). What the media fails to cover is the statutory law that is being used so the citizen can understand what is actually going on. The challenges in court will be played out. The court arguments are good lessons in civics.

Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) has a tough position. First is to remove the convicted criminal catch and release mess that has infiltrated civil society. One online commenter tried to list the wrongfulness of six citizens that were detained, implying it was an unreasonable detention. After debunking the first three, I stopped checking.

Probable cause is the criteria for arrest. In one example the person had the same name and close resemblance to a person with a violent criminal history and multiple child sex offenses. The two items, same name and appearance, make probable cause. When further investigation proved the tattoos did not match, a release was made. The real question: Is it better to detain by probable cause or just let these criminals continue to lawlessly wander our streets?

How does anyone justify the recent Florida event of an Indian illegal causing the death of three citizens? He was given a CDL license from California, barely able to navigate the English language, then decides to U turn on a highway, through the emergency vehicle access, causing a crash.

The article’s missed target is who determines what America is and will be: citizens or the 75 to 100 million noncitizens within our borders? Under the last administration, 20 million-plus Third-world unvetted illegal migrants crashed our borders and infiltrated the country. Would Reed Harris allow a stranger to walk in his front door, watch his TV, head to the fridge, make a dinner, sit at his table, use his restroom, use his toothbrush, sleep in his bed or in his kid’s bed? Why would that answer be different for anyone crashing the border?

It’s time for Congress to represent citizens first, not the noncitizens by body count. Citizens and citizens only should count in the census for the 14th Amendment apportionment of people. The “people” to be counted for the census are the citizens stated in the amendment’s paragraph one.

Per the government census site there were 47 million non-citizens in the country. Add the 20 million from the previous administration and a million temporary protective status (TPS) non-citizens. That is 68 million minimum. There are 761,000 people per representative district. Divide non-citizens by people per district and it is equivalent to 89 seats in Congress and 89 electoral votes for President. When they are concentrated in dense population areas, a balance of power is shifted. Maybe there is a reason certain states, like California and Illinois, embrace this.

Reed Harris says, “We can march, we can protest, we can write articles, but also we can call our elected officials in Congress”. What would you say to your congressman? “I embrace the dilution of my citizenship? I want more non-domiciled truck drivers. Tren de Aragua is OK to take over wherever they want? MS-13 is a benevolent El Salvadoran group here to help us?” No.

We need vetting. We need the front-door process for entry into the United States. Every back-door illegal is jumping the queue to stand ahead of all using the lawful front-door vetting process. By state and local governments refusing to assist the citizens in the rights of property, life, and liberty, a turbulent society is created favoring the illegal border-crashing migrants. The question to the citizen is: Who determines destiny?

- John Dickson, Oregon