Candidates for the Republican nomination to oppose 11th District U.S. Rep. Bill Foster in the November general election recently met via Zoom for a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Naperville.
The forum included two of the three candidates listed on the ballot: Charlie Kim of Aurora and Michael Pierce of Naperville. Candidate and Elburn Mayor Jeff Walter did not attend. But Tedora M. Brown of Palos Park did.
Brown’s name was removed from the ballot for 11th District Republicans in the March 17 primary by an Illinois State Board of Elections decision that ruled her nominating petitions fell one signature short of the number required to be listed.
The forum did not address Brown’s signature issue or her legal challenges to be reinstated to the ballot.
Instead, it focused on topics chosen by the League of Women Voters to help 11th District Republicans make an informed choice in the primary.
Immigration enforcement
Kim tackled the league’s immigration question first, answering “how should Congress balance border security, economic needs and humanitarian considerations in immigration policy?”
Kim is a businessman who has served as a U.S. Department of State Fulbright Specialist in international security. He said Congress should ensure ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officers have the resources they need for proper training, vetting of immigrants arriving in the country and asylum or deportation.
“There have been issues with ICE,” Kim said. “I do blame ICE to a sense, but I blame the leadership and Congress members for not doing the proper thing — not the people who are trying to work as law enforcement officers.”
Pierce, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, said it’s important to treat people with “dignity and respect” if they need to be taken into custody, that way enforcement can be achieved without agents or immigrants “trying to be obnoxious or intentionally hurt” each other.
“I believe we need to make sure the rules of engagement, and how raids are conducted, is done in a humane, fair, impartial and just way that meets the standard set by Americans and American law enforcement,” Pierce said. “If local officials allow ICE officers to go in and remove the people who are criminals, I believe that would be a much easier and simpler process.”
Brown describes herself as a homeschool mom and businesswoman who is fed up with career politicians. She said she supports stopping “all entry” for immigrants into the country because “we’ve gotten to the point where we don’t know who’s in our country.” She said politicians with sanctuary policies are contributing to immigration problems.
“When you talk about the raids, none of this would happen if the people would just follow the law and if the governors would do exactly what the law says — and that is to turn over the illegal immigrants,” Brown said. “You have people harboring these illegals and not allowing them to self-deport.”
Health care
Brown shared her thoughts on improving the health care system first.
She called the Affordable Care Act “tremendously crazy” and said politicians are forgetting the challenges faced by everyday Americans.
“We need to do exactly what our president is trying to implement, and that is to turn it back over to the actual citizens,” Brown said. “We need to give ourselves the responsibility of choosing what health care provider we need.”
Kim said he worked on health care when he was an advisor to Congress, and he said policies need to avoid making “a lot of insurance companies rich.”
“We have a selection of only certain so-called lobbies and groups that are controlling what we could choose as citizens,” Kim said. “We need to have a choice.”
Pierce said the Affordable Care Act has been “a failure from the beginning” and said the government needs to “stop subsidizing these insurance companies.” He said the government should create a plan providing health savings accounts to citizens, which they can use for their choice of providers.
“We need to get out of the health care business and go back to taking care of our economy,” Pierce said.
Regulation of AI and emerging technologies
Kim shared his thoughts first about regulating AI as it develops into new technologies. He said improved verification systems need to be created, so people can know which images are technology-generated.
“I support President (Donald ) Trump in his initiative to make us America-first in the technology area with AI,” Kim said.
Because AI uses the internet, which crosses state lines as interstate commerce, Pierce said the federal government has regulatory power over it. He said the first priority needs to be protecting people from harm.
“People are very concerned on the danger to children or mentally fragile people who may be vulnerable to AI conversational tools, which befriend them,” Pierce said. “Congress needs to take seriously the dangers that posses.”
Brown said with privacy protections, consistent government oversight and building trust, AI can be something that increases collaboration and creates new jobs.
“We can’t shy away from it, and it’s not going away,” she said. “We have to learn to integrate with AI.”
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