As an update to my earlier post, my further research indicates the following:
As might have been expected, the SF Chronicle is out to lunch on several points. Yet, that hasn’t kept many folks — including those in the GOP — from reacting to it, creating much grist for the mill. Thus, I stand by my decision to create an avenue for readers to discuss it and for the party to set the record straight.
Some key points:
It is factually inaccurate, as has been reported and repeated, that the applying employer for the work visa in question must signify that no citizen is qualified for the job.
The State GOP’s deputy political director has yet to be hired.
Chris Matthews did not work for the State Republican Party in 2003 or 2004, he worked for the San Diego County Republican Party since 2003. He also worked in Great Britain for the Conservative Party and in Canada.
Matthews is currently working on a TN visa as a management consultant, helping with organizational management and networking. Similar work was done in San Diego.
The H-1B visa applicants go through a lottery system and Chris was approved. The H-1B is a three year visa. This visa was approved for 10/1/07, at which time he will be the director of research and political technology, looking at voter registration and other statistics.
Michael Kamburowski has been in the United States as a resident for more than 12 years — he worked for Newt Gingrich and the Reagan legacy project.
Those Chronicle factual errors and/or resulting implications now aside, I will share more of an opinion than I did before. Chris Matthews has been a tremendous benefit to the SD GOP. Anyone who wants to say he is unqualified, better also be willing to say they disagree with the hiring of legal employees.
Which brings us full circle to a key point. Last I checked, there is a difference between legal and illegal immigration. The Republican Party strongly believes in legal immigration and following the rules both for working in this country and gaining citizenship. The CA-GOP is clearly following the rules here.
June 19th, 2007 at 12:00 am
We’re the party that believes in the American Dream, right? If someone is willing to go through the hassle of applying for a job, getting a visa for an interview, and knows what the heck he’s doing, why are we discriminating against him? We should embrace all who want to come here through legal means! So many of you have broken Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.” Let the Dems say what they may, but we need to recognize that this kind of progressive thinking is good for the Party. I don’t know who all applied but I’m sure Mr. Matthews brought the most to the table, otherwise the CRP wouldn’t have taken the time to apply for a visa. It sounds like a lot of misinformation has been floating around about this hiring. I’m disappointed that some people didn’t check the source, ask the right questions, and think before they started on this which hunt.
The sad thing is that the Dems would have never reacted this way if they hired a legal immigrant. They probably would have had a press release, press conference, and probably even huge party to welcome this legal immigrant! It’s a shame that some of us in the Party are letting the Dems take away what used to be one of our stronger issues, immigration.
June 20th, 2007 at 12:00 am
As a LEGAL immigrant, who followed the rules and went through our very cumbersome, bureaucratic immigration process I don’t see what the big deal is when the party (or anyone for that matter) hires a person who went through the appropriate process to obtain a work permit and/or residency?
Are we that nativist? No, of course not. That’s what the media wants people to think.
Our party is the party of immigrants. We LOVE folks who come here LEGALLY. I came here legally, and it took me 11 years to finally become a citizen.
I applied for a work permit first, and then had to meet several requirements along the way to usher my case through the system towards becoming a citizen.
I worked hard (I still do!), and in June of 2003 my dream became a reality! I was sworn in as a citizen, in a huge room with people from over 100 countries who now all swore allegiance to this country over the one that they were born in. It was moving and very emotional for me.
My quest started 19 years earlier when I was just a 14 year old boy in Sweden and was inspired by the optimism that Ronald Reagan exuded. I made a vow to one day become an American – a REAL American!
As soon as I was sworn in, I registered as a Republican, and the following month I attended my first meeting of the local county committee – chaired by Ron at the time.
I got involved and was passionate about our Republican values – the same values that had inspired me 19 years earlier. After serving as Secretary, and later Finance Chairman I had the honor of being unanimously elected to succeed Ron when he ascended to become chair of the state party.
This was LESS THAN FOUR YEARS after I had been sworn in as a citizen. What an honor. What a country! What a wonderful party – one which would welcome with open arms (minds) a new citizen and “allow” him to rise through the ranks based on his merits.
I love this party, I love this country, and when I see that some folks want to make a big deal of the hiring of a LEGAL immigrant at the CRP, it breaks my heart.
It plays directly in to the hands, and agenda, of the other side which desperately wants to paint us as anti-immigrant, when nothing could be further from the truth. We are FOR immigrants – LEGAL immigrants. We LOVE legal immigrants. These are people who didn’t flaunt the law just because the process is difficult (and desperately needs to be reformed). These are people who wouldn’t compromise their principles – or our country’s laws – to come here.
They are exactly the kinds of people who we want to come to this country, and Chris Matthews is one of those amazing individuals who we should welcome with open arms. Someone who believes in America’s traditional values when so many of our fellow citizens these days take them for granted, or – even worse – scoff at them.