"There has been no crime committed, so why is there a criminal investigation three weeks prior to a very important election?" -Tan D Nguyen
Pointing out that illegal residents are committing a criminal offense if they vote illegally is itself a "hate crime," according to Governor Schwarzenegger. Nguyen's campaign headquarters, his home and a staffer's home were searched by California Department of Justice investigators.
I'm about half a dozen kinds of disgusted over the caterwauling over the Tan Nguyen "anti-immigrant" letter. I'm not sure which is worse, but I'm probably more disgusted by the pure dishonest cowardice of the Republicans than the typical opportunistic race baiting by the Democrats.
Tan Nguyen (a naturalized citizen immigrated from Vietnam) is the 2006 Republican candidate for US House of Representatives running in California's 47th district against the incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez. A few days ago, a letter went out in Spanish to approximately 14,000 people in the district from Nguyen's campaign stating that voting by illegal immigrants is a crime for which they could face arrest.
Immediately, everyone in the vicinity went nuts, declaring Nguyen unfit for office and demanding that he quit the race. Of course, you expect this kind of nonsense from the opposition party and their tools in the press, but he's been hit even harder by Republicans. The county party has officially and publicly called for his withdrawal, and Governor Schwarzenegger says "I think it was one of the worst letters that anyone could send out and I think those kind of tactics (are) illegal. It is a hate crime and I think that anyone who knew (about it), if he knew, has to resign immediately."
On top of which, various police forces are investigating this supposed "hate crime." According to Associated Press reporter Peter Prengaman, "Complaints about the letters this week prompted a state probe, and a spokesman for California's attorney general said investigators had been questioning people in Orange County. U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said the department's civil rights division was investigating in coordination with the state attorney general's office."
Nguyen is accused of hate crimes and violations of the Voting Rights Act and of killing Palestinian children to use their blood in baking cookies. No wait- that's the Hebrews. I think the Vietnamese eat dogs, or is that just the Koreans? I get confused.
But Nguyen is seriously being treated as a pariah and under criminal investigation primarily because he (or his office staff on his behalf) sent out a letter that said in Spanish that "if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Nancy
From what I can tell, Nguyen isn't anti-immigrant, he's anti-ILLEGAL, which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. In which case I say, Good For Him! We should ALL be anti-illegal, if only because we support law & order. I hope he wins in spite of the odd-bedfellow coalition of pro-illegal organizations who'd like to be able to influence if not steal outright the elections, and the GOP who are intent on punishing a guy who refuses to be their puppet & patsy. Actually, it seems to me Nguyen has the REAL, genuine conservative spirit. Good for him; I hope he wins.
2 - Nancy
And it seems to me Ah-nuld has imbibed too much of the politically correct spirit from his Kennedy wife; he's turning into a girly-man himself, ethically.
3 - DK
Where is this so-called "office manager"? You would think that investigators would know who this person is by now.
Apparently, according to today's news, Mr. Nguyen was the one who bought the list of voters (specifically, voters who were Democrat, had Spanish surnames, and born outside the US). If the letter is legit, why doesn't Mr. Nguyen just admit his involvement? Let's be real, this letter came out of his campaign. There is no way that Mr. Nguyen did not know about it. Office manager? Can you seriously buy that?
So, if Mr. Nguyen knew about it, who's Sergio Ramirez? Why didn't Mr. Nguyen just put his letterhead and name on the letter?
Is this part of the letter true also? "...be advised that the US government is installing a new computer system to verify names of all the newly registered voters who participate in the elections in October and November. Organizations against emigration will be able to request information from this new computerized system".
4 - Jody
I agree with Tan Nguyen. He is just trying to right a wrong in the first place. The people trying to make it possible for illegal immigrants to vote in our election is hurting the legal citizens of the USA! It makes me wonder what these people are really up to!
5 - PJ
Voter intimidation falls is illegal in this case the company nguyen used to gather voter information has told investigators that nguyen personally asked for registered democrats with hispanic sounding surnames.
Voter intimidation has nothing to do with hate crimes or PC. Arnold is the only one using these terms. Law enmforcement is using the terms Voter intimidation and Racketeering. And yes California has laws against Voter intimidation.
The reality here is that Tan Nguyen chose a select group rather than sending out the info to all registered voters republican and democrat.
that is why OC Party Chairman Scott Baugh is maintaining his callls for Tan to step down.
6 - Nancy
Sending out literature via the mails is expensive. You don't carpet an area sending unnecessary mailings and wasting postage if you can target the appropriate audience; this is SOP for any and all mass mailings these days. Since in California the persons most likely to be involved in or as illegal voters are Hispanics (to date the vast perponderance of fraudulent votes by illegals has involved Hispanics), why would he target any other audience? It's kind of like the stupidity of patting down 90-year-old ladies at the airport as potential terrorists, instead of targeting males age 16 - 50 who are most likely to be the Real Thing.
7 - Bob Vu
Good point:
"The reality here is that Tan Nguyen chose a select group rather than sending out the info to all registered voters republican and democrat."
If Mr. Tan had sent out 10,000 letters in Vietnamese language, he would be driven out of dodge, oops, "Litle Saigon" by his fellow Viet-Americans.
It's a fact that Mr. Tan has a hidden agenda.
8 - JoePro
The letter was clearly meant to be intimidating. Besides claiming that it is illegal to vote if you are an immigrant (it does not say illegal immigrant), it also falsely claims that a government database is being set up to record immigrant voters and anti-immigrant groups will be able to access this database. See it here
This type of voter intimidation is outrageous and illegal.
9 - LG
Before you rant you should get the facts straight. The letter said, "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time." I speak and read Spanish and have seen the Spanish text. This translation is correct. Now, it's pretty apparent that he is saying if you are an immigrant that voting could result in jail time. He also stated that your name would be put in a database and sent to anti-immigration groups. That my darling is not only a threat but it is illegal. You cannot threaten voters - it is against the law. That is why there is a criminal investigation. I am amazed that you link out to everything but the letter itself. But of course how could this ridiculous rant make any sense if you had the actual facts.
I also love how you cite that Democrats haul illegals off to vote for them. That's just precious. Of course there's no link to that because it would probably only lead to O'reily(pervert), Rush(dopehead), or some other equally vile pundit.
Orange County has already been in trouble for intimidating latinos at the polls. Do you honestly think an illegal alien could vote there? Have you voted in CA, do you know the process. All this does is stir up predjudice. BTW - Tan was a "boat person" - he was an illegal immigrant. Hypocrite.
I am just disgusted that this stupid platform has resonated with so many republicans. I have never seen a group of people so ready to vote against the things that frighten them nor a group that is frightened so easily.
10 - Al Barger
JoePro- surely Nguyen's letter is meant to be "intimidating" to people not eligible to vote, in much the same way that the local convenience store is "intimidating" visitors with signs that say "shoplifters will be prosecuted." Why would that be a bad thing? Is it your position that telling non-eligible people that it would be against the law to vote is wrong?
I don't know or understand about this "database" business or the fine points of California election law, but voting records are generally considered public information. Is that not the case in Cali? If so, they would be available to anti-immigration groups- and to the ACLU, NRA, CIA or anyone else interested.
Bob Vu, what exactly is this supposed "hidden agenda" of Nguyen's? If you mean that he's really for cracking down on enforcement of immigration laws, that's already the centerpiece of his public campaign. Did you have somethng else in mind?
11 - Al Barger
LG- The fact that you're really disgusted doesn't mean that you're right, or that you've got even a half-reasonable point. It is surely NOT illegal or even midly unethical to tell people that it is illegal to do something that is in fact illegal.
Now, you can argue over the parsing of the point about naturalized citizens being allowed to vote. Perhaps the letter was slightly sloppy on that point, giving the opposition a marginal legitimate point of grievance. Again though, the point of what they're trying to do was clearly NOT to stop legitimate voters, but to scare off those who are not in fact supposed to be voting.
But really, if they had clearly and specifically stated that naturalized citizens do have a right to vote, would you have been ok with the rest of it? I thought not.
I'm not a Republican, and I'm generally much more sympathetic to open border arguments than to anti-immigration efforts. Still, that's nothing to do with the point in question, ie this letter. Also, anti-immigrant sentiments are not particularly a Republican thing. They seem to resonate nearly as well among independent and Democrat voters.
You may not like Tan Nguyen, the Republican party, or his positions on immigration policy. I wouldn't defend any of those things. None of that, however, makes it illegitimate for his campaign to tell people that voting fraud is a criminal offense.
12 - PJ
"Since in California the persons most likely to be involved in or as illegal voters are Hispanics"
That fails to adress why onl;y democrats received these emails.
and sorry the Email is too expensive excuse just won't cut it in court
13 - PJ
Once again the recipients were Resgistered Democrats only!! these letters were not sent to Republicans with spanish sounding surnames, Only to democrats.
14 - Al Barger
PJ, I don't know why Nguyen would need any "excuse" about who he was targeting for this mailing. Why would it be a scandal that he sent such a letter only to known Democrats- if that was in fact even the case? Would you feel better about this letter if they had sent it to every household in the district?
15 - Mohjho
This letter was sent to democrats from a republican to try to confuse and intimidate registered voters into not voting. It is illegal and a lie and the republican machine knows this. That is why the republicans called for Nguyen to withdrawal from the race. Wake up Al.
The hate crime thing is just Arnold being Arnold.
Not much we can do about him.
16 - Al Barger
Mohjho, you carefully take the wording of the Nguyen letter in the worst way, and then carefully make the worst possible assumption (that Nguyen is trying to intimidate legal voters)- despite the fact that the obvious point of the letter would be to scare off ILlegals. There's just no evidence of intent to deceive, and the obvious likely point (preventing vote fraud) is perfectly legitimate. You're simply determined to make it sinister, even despite any actual facts.
17 - steve
Tan was only calling for a fair election...i.e. no illegal immigrants trying to vote for a democratic immigrant sympathizer with mexican ancestry. He could have addressed the issue in a more politically correct sense...but if you look at Tan...here is a guy from Vietnam. He came here legitimately and built his own american dream. I dont blame him for disliking illegal immigrants illigitimately in this country.
18 - LG
Al, it's amazing to me how you take this threatening letter in the most positive way imaginable. You give Nguyen every allowance that he is merely a wronged man doing his civic duty to inform on voting law. This is simply false. It is not illegal to put a sign threatening shoplifters. It is illegal to threaten voters. I know that it's no big deal to you that he did not specify that the letter did not apply to immigrants that were naturalized citizens but that's a pretty big deal. Here's another take on this. What if I wrote a letter to those same voters saying that it is illegal to drive an unregistered vehicle in California and that you should be advised that if you drive to the polls in an unregistered vehicle that your car will be impounded. This is even less threatening than Nguyen's letter and it also states a fact. I'm not talking about jail time or putting your name in a hate database. But imagine that you are a legal registered voter with expired tags. Would it be reasonable to assume that you might refrain from voting? How about if I sent this letter to the wealthy of OC. Please be advised that there have been several violent crimes over the past few weeks near your polling station. Please use caution when going to vote. Again, less threatening than Nguyen's letter but could I deter voters? Probably so. This is not a direct threat but a threat is implied and it is illegal to threaten voters, period.
19 - VN
Have anyone got a chance to read the very first part of the letter?
"You are being sent this letter because you were recently register to vote. If you are a citizen of the United States, we ask that you participate in the democratic process of voting."
The word "citizen" here applies for both native citizen and naturalized citizen, doesn't it? If so, I think the letter makes it very clear that if you are a US citizen, you should vote, and if you are not, you should NOT vote. Simple and clear. Then why someone purposely started the whole confusion? Probably they were concerned of Tan Nguyen's chances in the race. Who knows, his chances are getting even higher now after all of these publicity going on.
20 - VN
LG,
Your sample scenariors are not comparable to what in the letter. The ultimate different between them is that your samples are to discourage LEGAL voters, whereas the letter tries to discourage only ILLEGAL voters. It is LEGAL to discourage ILLEGAL voters from going to vote.