NRI Raj Bhakta, nominee for the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania, October 15, 2006
Gary Singh
NRI press

NRI Raj Bhakta is the Republican Party's nominee for the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district. The election is to be held on November 7, 2006; he will face incumbent Democrat Allyson Schwartz.

His Political Philosophy: America was born through immigration, though today too much of our immigration is illegal and unchecked. Both the Democrat and Republican parties are ignoring America’s border security crisis. Republicans don’t want to anger big business and stop the flow of cheap labor, while Democrats don’t want to turn away potential voters. Astoundingly, five years after 9/11, we do not have an immigration policy to meet our security needs.

More security fencing along the border and a more stringent visa policy for those coming from terrorist states are badly needed. In Congress, I will fight to see that this is done. He focused on traditional American principals such as individual responsibility, liberty, and small government."

Bhaktra is stunned that our border security is so lax, it allows US Citizens to pull large-scale stunts in South Texas. He filmed a campaign ad on the Mexican border and that campaign ad will feature him sneaking three live elephants across the border into the US accompanied by a mariachi band.

Border Patrol authorities discredited Bhakta’s endeavors since he, the elephants and the musicians didn’t actually cross the border illegally. Protocol was followed because the elephants ultimately were quarantined at a checkpoint and dipped for fever ticks, said Edinburg-based spokesman Roy Cervantes.

Circus producer James Plunkett of rural Van Zandt County near Dallas said he thought he was renting out three elephants for a private party at a ranch east of Brownsville near Boca Chica beach and the mouth of the Rio Grande. He didn't know until ... Wednesday that the guy riding one elephant was not a birthday boy, or that the camera crew was not shooting a family video.
"These animals are treasures," he said. "To put them in jeopardy or use them that way -- that's not something we would be party to." Dallas Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“To our knowledge there is no problem with bringing three elephants and a mariachi band to a private ranch along the border,” Cervantes said.