Rep. Royce Fields Questions From Second Community Forum in Orange

Congressman Ed Royce (D-CA, 40th) held the second of community meetings at the Orange City Council Chambers on August 20th. The standing room only audience of over 200 people heard the representative speak about the Congressional projects he was personally involved with and field questions from a majority of citizens from the city of Orange.

The congressman began the meeting speaking of two bills. He co-sponsored the first bill, the Real ID Act [H.R. 418], that was signed into law. The second bill, being strongly supported by Rep. Royce, the Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act of 2005 [H.R. 1279], had passed in the House, heading towards the Senate for approval.

The objective of the Real ID Act is to close loopholes in security on the borders and crack down on terrorist travel within the US. It seeks to prevent a future terrorist attack by disrupting terrorist travel.

The goal of the Anti-Gang Bill is to remove the gangs from the streets, arms the police and prosecutors with tools to go after threatening gangs in communities.

However, when the meeting was opened for questions, organized, angry citizens concentrated its frustrations towards the congressman with issues dealing in boarding houses and the re-zoning of housing regarding illegal aliens. The illegal alien topic was revisited many times ranging from automatic citizenship for illegal alien's babies born in US, English as the only language, making it illegal for illegal aliens to qualify for home loans, and a lack of enforcement of immigration laws by the authorities.

When Rep. Royce, a member of the Driver's License Task Force, tried to offer a potential solution to the lack of enforcement of immigration laws in the Real ID Act which would aid in reducing this problem. The hostile crowd demonstrated that it had 'no' confidence in local and national politics and were defiant to any additional government legislation offered by the congressman.

Citizens asking questions regarding accountability of the Bush administration on the Iraq invasion and bringing the US troops home through peace processes were chided by the hostile audience and marginalized by the congressman, although there was an an admission by Royce that "mistakes have been made" in Iraq.

The meeting became suddenly somber when the congressman, being the Africa Subcommittee Chairman, became emotional explaining the genocidal atrocities in Darfur, Sudan. "In addition to the 100,000 dead, many young children have lost limbs to janjaweed militia's swords. The US should fortify the support of the African Union", pleaded Rep. Royce. He stated that genocide needed to be stopped and would "do all that we can" within Congress.

Finally, the issue of high home prices was asked and what possible solutions were available. The congressman suggested that more zoning and development of housing in the Central and Empire Valleys needed to be stocked.