Dennis Ross at Lutz town hall meeting

U.S. Congressman Dennis Ross held a town hall meeting Tuesday, July 2nd at Lutz Elementary School.  A good sized crowd, mostly Lutz residents, attended. Congressman Ross made his opening statements, and addressed his positions on immigration and the NSA.

Here are Congressman Ross's opening statements.

If the video does not play, try here.

Congressman Dennis Ross addressing attendees

Several attendees asked questions from their chairs, as well as from the microphone.  Questions from immigration, tax policy, spending, evil bankers, the IRS... and of course, a few rambling speeches and rants.

Lutz attendees readying their questions

Some of Congressman Ross key positions he stated are:

• Addressing immigration in a incremental fashion, addressing border security first
• Linking e-verify with a guest worker program.  No e-verify without the guest worker program
• Tightening up the NSA surveillance 
• Tax reform, where he co-sponsored the FairTax, and spoke of a possible consumption tax
• Support for the farm bill, with its massive food stamps subsidies.  He was for splitting the farm subsidies separate from the food stamps, but House leadership would not agree to the split
• Return student loans to the competitive marketplace rather than remain under federal government control

Things did get a little testy at one point, as both sides of the immigration debate were present and asked questions.  Ross had to calm things down during one exchange between the two sides. Ross answered consistently even when challenged by the pro-immigration attendees that he was not in favor of the recent Senate immigration bill.  It appeared those that asked questions or made speeches as proponents of the Senate bill were a small group representing Mi Familia Vota (one was spotted wearing a Mi Familia t-shirt, taking pictures of their speeches, and they sat together), which we introduced here.

UPDATE:  Some information on the Brandon meeting, which apparently had a 50-50 split on the Senate immigration bill, is here.