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By Jim McNally | Statesville R&L

June 9, 2010

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx wasn't preaching to the choir during a special telephone town hall Tuesday afternoon.

The choir was preaching to her.
 

Foxx fielded calls from around her North Carolina 5th Congressional District and of the dozen and a half or so people who phoned in only one constituent was even marginally out of sync with her message.
 

Mary, from Roaring Gap, said she is a "great fan of term limits."
 

Mary's call came immediately after a caller named Paul -- Foxx addressed callers only by their first name and, on occasion, by their place of residence -- spoke out against term limits to Foxx's approval.
 

Paul said that "people out in San Francisco will talk about wanting term limits and vote for people like (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi forever."
 

Paul also decried the recently passed health care reform legislation; praised the tax cuts of Republican presidents Reagan and Eisenhower; and voiced concerns about the future vis-a-vis the ever-rising national debt.
 

But Mary said term limits had changed the political climate in Cincinnati, and that they should be employed in the U.S. Congress.
"My feeling is that people should not go to Washington, D.C. to get rich or start a career," Mary said. "They should go up there to serve an then go back to their regular jobs."
 

Foxx, who is in her third two-year term in the House of Representatives, has said many times in the past that the problem -- if there is one -- is not with the number of terms people serve in their respective districts but the districts themselves.
 

She has said that districts are drawn by state legislatures to favor one political party or their other and that very few districts in the nation, therefore, are really competitive.
 

She told Mary she would talk to her privately about the matter.
 

Several callers voiced displeasure with the nation's current regulations -- or their enforcement -- regarding illegal immigration.
 

Two years ago -- that is, before the recession and its attending troubles displaced it -- Foxx said immigration reform was the most prevalent concern voiced by her constituents.
 

It seems as if that concern is again boiling its way to the top.
 

"My problem is with immigration," said a caller named Dana. "Except I wouldn't even call it immigration, I'd call it an invasion."
 

Dana went on to say that the present situation qualifies as such because people are coming here from other countries and simply taking advantage of U.S. social programs and taking jobs from Americans.
 

"I agree with you," Foxx said.
 

Dana also said he had a problem with how the U.S. Census asks certain respondents to either identify themselves as "White" or "White non-Hispanic."
 

Foxx said she would "look into" that matter.
 

A caller named Lessie said she is troubled by "seeing all these illegals streaming into the country" from "Mexico" and "Afghanistan." She wondered "how many of them are terrorists."
 

Lessie said a solution would be to use a "drag net and round them all up."
 

Foxx told Lessie the sentiments she expressed are "very much in the majority."
 

Another caller spoke of "anchor babies," which, the caller explained, are born of women who secret their way into the United States when they are "eight and a half months pregnant" so they can be born here and, therefore, be endowed with U.S. citizenship.
 

"That's not fair," the caller added.
 

Foxx said that if the opportunity arose she would sponsor a bill that would end that practice by making it a requirement of automatic citizenship bequeathed to newborns be that at least one parent already be an American.
 

A caller named Tom said the problem is not with all immigrants only "Hispanic ones who break the law and reflect badly on their fellow Hispanics."
 

Foxx said the reason people flock from Latin American countries to this one is because the U.S. lives by "the rule of law" and the other countries are steeped in traditions of corruption.
 

"And no matter how hard you work," she said, "you can't rise above that corruption."
 

Foxx's call-in event was organized in conjunction with America Speaking Out, a conservative organization.
The group was formed, according to its website, "as part of an official effort to increase the dialogue between Americans and their Congress."
 

Foxx encouraged callers to visit the website -- www.americaspeakingout.com -- and post suggestions on how to improve that dialogue and ideas about other facets of government.