U.S. House of RepresentativesCandidate for District 1

I favor a return to the Bracero Program in which vetted foreign workers are allowed to enter/re-enter the U.S. under a work visa for approved work, but only in areas that U.S. citizens refuse to work.  If the work is seasonal, as in agriculture, migrant workers should return to their own countries with the understanding they will be allowed to return the next season.   

We must actively pursue and remove those who overstay their work visas. I favor a technological “wall” over a physical wall.  There are excellent facial recognition programs the government can use at key detection points around the southern and northern borders to identify known terrorists, or other threats, including those who were previously deported. Using technology will not eliminate the need for border agents, but it will reduce the amount of agents needed.  I would require the government to dispose of all records involving American citizens within a short period of time to avoid abuse of privacy.

I do not favor an amnesty program for those who illegally enter the country. Anyone that comes here must enter legally.  Anyone who stays here must have a current visa. An amnesty program is not fair to those who have waited years to enter our country lawfully.

As a former prosecutor and judge, I am a very seasoned negotiator and I know how to work with people that have diverse interests.  I’m not willing to sacrifice or compromise my conservative values, but I don’t believe we need to focus exclusively on the things which divide us. There are important issues which unite all of us. For example, all of us, regardless of our political beliefs, want: 1) a more responsible and responsive government; 2) a more vibrant economy than the one we currently have; and 3) safety in our homes and streets. It is far more productive to focus on things that unite us.

As a recent example, I worked with a local Democrat to build the Chico Youth Court, a program which diverts kids from a path of criminal behavior through early accountability with their peers. The common ground we found was our interest in protecting kids from having criminal records, and the community from increasing youth crime. It did not require us to sacrifice our values.

Also, because the country believes that Washington, D.C. is broken and disconnected from the people, I believe the majority of the 435 U.S. Representatives will be new. That is an opportunity for someone like me, who knows how to build coalitions, to unite my fellow members of Congress for true change.

The U.S. must be able to vet anyone who enters the country, regardless of national origin or religious belief. Where possible, I favor setting up refugee camps near areas where refugees have come from. This distance will insure greater protection for U.S. citizens, and will provide greater convenience and closer proximity to the families of those who have been displaced from their adjacent homelands.

We must also improve our human intelligence gather efforts as intelligence gathering cannot be accomplished with surveillance alone.

Finally, we must continue to support our traditional allies.  However, we should be very hesitant about inserting ourselves into conflicts that do not involve our national security interests. We cannot afford the cost in lives or dollars.

I do not want the state or federal government involved in our personal water rights.  It was a mistake for Doug LaMalfa to co-sponsor HR 5781 (California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014), which was an attempt to transfer even more of our limited water supply down south.  It will take us years to recover from the drought and we cannot afford to make these kinds of mistakes in the future.

We must increase water storage to help us through periods of drought. If we are unable to build Sites Reservoir for any reason, we must secure another water storage location immediately.  As an alternative to Sites Reservoir we should consider increasing the height of our dams to store more water. 

We must also improve water run-off to our lakes and rivers below by requiring the U.S. Forest Service to revise its forest management practices and allow modest tree thinning and clearing of underbrush from our national forests.  Doing so will save human and animal life, reduce the number and intensity of forest fires,  preserve property and timber, allow more water to soak through the canopy to recharge our last remaining aquifer, and allow more water to flow downhill into our rivers, lakes and streams.