The other day, I got an email from Delegate Jackson Miller, trumpeting all the work he is doing to stop illegal immigration. I expected to read that he had taken up personal vigil down on the border considering all the fanfare. Such was not the case. In part, his email stated:
During the 2011 Virginia General Assembly Session, we will be debating many issues that are important to the Commonwealth, but one issue of particular significance to me is illegal immigration. As a former police officer with almost two decades of experience, I have seen firsthand the effect that illegal immigration can have on a community. As your Delegate, I am working hard to find solutions to the many issues and challenges that illegal immigration has presented in our communities and in our Commonwealth.
Recently, I appeared on Fox News Channel’s morning program, Fox & Friends, to defend a bill on which I am a co-patron. This bill, HB1465, (click for full text) stipulates that illegal aliens will not be eligible for admission to Virginia’s colleges and universities. Higher education is a privilege, not a right, and placement in Virginia’s colleges and universities has become increasingly difficult for legal residents of our state to obtain. This bill will require that all prospective students submit appropriate documentation showing proof of citizenship or a student visa for eligibility for enrollment.
The Virginia legislature which started up its short session today, will deal with more issues involving illegal immigration. This time, several legislators are targetting the children of illegal immigrants. While these kids were often brought to the United States as infants or young kids, and many went through American schools k-12.
Had the Dream Act passed, the legislature would not be wasting its time on this question.
Del. Christopher Peace’s bill would amend state law to explicitly prohibit people who are in the United States illegally from being admitted to Virginia’s public two-year or four-year institutions.
Several previous attempts to pass similar legislation in Virginia haven’t succeeded.
Federal law prohibits such people from paying in-state tuition at colleges and universities, but they can still pursue a public college education. Virginia’s public universities currently have the discretion to decide whether to admit illegal aliens as long as they charge out-of-state tuition.
South Carolina bars undocumented students from enrolling in public colleges, as have some Georgia institutions, and Alabama’s two-year colleges.
I seriously doubt that this bill makes it through to the finish line. Too many people understand that these are extremely good students who will one day add to our work force. Why not reward kids who do the right thing?
“This is the defining civil rights initiative of this decade,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. “Congress has taken an extraordinary step on behalf of men and women who’ve been denied their rightful integrity for too long.”
Being gay has for decades been grounds for discharge, and tens of thousands of service members have been expelled after their sexual identities were exposed – sometimes under questioning. An estimated 13,000 troops have been discharged under the “don’t ask” policy that President Bill Clinton, after failing to reverse the policy, authorized as a compromise in 1993.
What people don’t remember is that Clinton put in DADT as a last resort. He would have preferred to make being gay a non-issue. however, Congress had threatened to make the rules stricter if Clinton issued an executive order. Much has changed in 15 years.
The years-long legislative debate over the policy came to an end Saturday as senators voted 65 to 31 to send the repeal legislation to President Obama, who campaigned on a pledge to eliminate the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly. Eight Republicans joined 57 members of the Democratic caucus in the vote; four senators did not vote.
Good for those 8 Republicans and shame on those who voted no.
As for the Dream Act, to me, it is a waste of human resource. A country that continually complains about social security not being sustained should try to get all the high paid workers it can. If students work hard, keep out of trouble and have superior grades, they should be entitled to complete for college, regardless of the status of their parents. I am tired of this sins of the father business when dealing with children.
On Saturday, that strategy was in ruins after Senate Democrats could muster only 55 votes in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a measure that would have created a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Under Senate rules, Democrats needed 60 votes to overcome Republican opposition to the bill. The House of Representatives had passed the measure this month, 216 to 198.
The irony of the DREAM Act’s failure is that it had strong bipartisan support at the start of the administration, and advocates thought it could generate momentum for more policy changes.
But as the country’s mood shifted on illegal immigration, support among Republicans and some Democratic senators evaporated, with many decrying it as backdoor amnesty for lawbreakers. Even a former co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), voted against it.
I wonder how McCain ended up voting? Shame on those senators who voted nay. Kids are once again victims. Its a sad day when we crap on kids who have grown up American because of their parents. No one is asking anyone else to pay the bill. Just let the kids into college.
It’s R on R. The Stewart/Cuccinelli saga plays on.
Corey Stewart, head bloody but unbowed, takes another poke or two at the Attorney General of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli. Actually, it was a bit more than a poke. He compared the AG to a first year law student. This comparison is before he paints the AG as a ’pro-Amnesty liberal.’
The opinion showed that that provision had the potential to “run afoul” of federal law.
The memo also stated that Stewart’s proposal also contained provisions similar to those found in Arizona’s illegal immigration law that were enjoined by federal court.
“He said that the federal district court’s decision in Arizona was binding on Virginia. That’s simply untrue. Any first-year law student would tell you that that’s incorrect,” Stewart said.
Ouch. Moving right along, one has to figure out how Corey Stewart, a mere county supervisor, is going to get legislation passed on an omnibus illegal immigration package after another state, Arizona, has brought on national attention, lawsuits, and injunctions from the federal courts. Perhaps, after all this, Stewart, who is not a state legislator, wasn’t planning anything really happening with the Virginia Rule of Law Campaign anyway.
That’s what we’re trying to do is take Prince William County’s policy and adopt it on a statewide basis,”Stewart said.
Stewart’s latest proposal contains considerably more provisions than the Prince William County resolution and Cuccinelli objected to many of those provisions, including one that allows a person’s immigration status to be allowed in any court.
So what is the Virginia Law of Rule Campaign then if all Corey is trying to do is find someone to pass the Prince William County resolution?
… the additional provisions were a list of various pieces of legislation introduced by various states across the nation.
“It was never meant to be introduced as legislation,” he said.
Stewart said he was surprised at the opposition from Cuccinelli’s office.
“I’m very disappointed. I run into a lot of opposition in fighting illegal immigration and almost all of that opposition comes from either pro-amnesty and the Washington Post and other liberals. I certainly didn’t expect this attack from the back by Cuccinelli,” Stewart said
So what is the Virginia Rule of Law Campaign really? What is Corey objecting to? Why is he sporting it around? If it wasn’t supposed to be legislation, what was it supposed to be? Perhaps it was just a fund-raising tool for Corey. If he put a bunch of BS and bluster out there, got people hooked and donating money, then he didn’t have to do anything with it at all. He could just take people’s money and keep feeding them bull.
So why the mock fighting with Cuccinelli? It’s just a plain ole pissin’ contest.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio swore in his new “illegal immigration posse” this past week. Latino activists are crying foul for fear of minuteman mentality being exercised against immigrants. They fear the mentality of ‘Lets go hunt Mexicans.’
The group of mostly middle-aged or older white men dressed in brown uniforms with gold badges will assist Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies in such duties as “transporting illegal immigrants arrested for potential immigration violations,” “crowd control during demonstrations against the sheriff’s immigration policies” and “searching for load vehicles and drop houses.”
Sheriff Joe also positioned his new posse near props that hinted of war — a helicopter, an off-road vehicle, and an armored personnel carrier with a long gun. Over half the 56 posse members were cleared to carry weapons, and all had received training in illegal immigration enforcement, Arpaio announced during the ceremony.
Latino activists accuse Sheriff Joe of trying to take the attention off some of his legal problems which have arisen from some of his extreme measures in dealing with illegal immigrants. He is currently under several on-going investigations.
In early November, Maricopa County deputized 6 federal agents to look into other abuses of power such as funneling money from one account into cash strapped operations like immigration enforcement. Sheriff Joe is being investigated now for keeping 2 sets of books. Arpaio is already under investigation for abuse of power and civil rights violations.
Danny Ortega, a Phoenix attorney and chairman of the board of the National Council of La Raza fears that the possee will attract those who are ‘emotionally attracted’ to immigration enforcement and the volatility that such an attachment could give rise to.
And if there weren’t enough of a show with the Sheriff and his newly formed posse, The Beast further reports:
Two new posse members are actually minor movie stars—action figure Steven Seagal and Lou Ferrigno, the former Incredible Hulk, who doesn’t even live in Arizona.Arpaio had named Ferrigno an “honorary deputy” in May so the Hulk could “bodyguard” the sheriff when he spoke at a friendly Tea Party rally. The bodyguard gig boosted publicity for both the sheriff and Ferrigno, who sells t-shirts and exercise equipment on line. Ferrigno says he’s signed on to the illegal immigration posse because he wants to support Arpaio’s efforts to curb illegal immigration.
So now the Incredible Hulk is part of the posse. All we need is a green beef up suit to make things completely bizarro-world.
Sometimes it isn’t a real good idea to draw negative attention to one’s self. Now that the UVA Report on Illegal Immigration has been finalized, it will somehow be interpreted and reinterpreted as the Chairman feels necessary.
First off, YOUR UVA report that YOU, the taxpayers of PWC paid almost $400,000 for is now residing on the Chairman’s Virginia Rule of Law Act website. You can even download it from there. I suggest that the Corey Stewart read the report cover to cover because he is getting some of the information wrong–dead wrong.
Here is what the report actually say about serous crime:
Crime and arrest statistics reported by PWCPD do not, on the whole, show reductions that might be associated with the immigration policy, but they do show that serious violence, particularly aggravated assault, has dropped sharply in recent years. Considering that illegal immigrants account for only 3% of offenders currently arrested for aggravated assault, it seems unlikely that the policy was a major cause behind this trend, but it could have been a contributor. Finally, the views of officers, as measured in interviews and surveys, are somewhat mixed. Most feel that the policy has been effective in controlling crime and disorder related to illegal immigrants, but they are split as to whether the policy has reduced crime overall, and their general view is that immigrants do not contribute heavily to serious crime in PWC.
Additionally upon inspection of the crime statistics from the Prince William County Police website:
in 2007, there were 310 aggravated assaults committed by both adults and juveniles. In 2008 there were 197 aggravated assaults committed by both adults and juveniles. That is a reduction of 113 aggravated assaults or a 36.5% decrease. Yet the chair tells us there was a 47% decrease.
Mr. Stewart needs to tell the truth and stop reworking the numbers to suit his own personal goals and agenda.
Finally, in the BOCS meeting yesterday, Mr. Stewart and the other supervisors who voted in the affirmative seem to want the state to adopt PWC”s illegal immigration policy of status check post arrest. The model legislation bill (click to download) tells another story. It is an IRLI form with Virginia Rule of Law Act written on it also. It goes much further than the Prince William current model and has the thumb print of F.A.I.R. and Mike Hethmon all over it. It permits probable cause stops to check for immigration status as well as other things that just might get the state sued.
I think most of us don’t want to end up like Arizona. If Corey Stewart, Ken Cuccinelli and F.A.I.R. have their way, that is exactly where the state of Virginia will end up.
We commend the Prince William County police for the job they do, under the leadership of Chief Deane. The PWC model that questions status of all people post arrest is a workable solution to the problem. What works for our community might not work for another. Let’s not dictate what others should do. Millions of dollars were spent to get to where we are now. Its time to move on without going through all of this again. And Virginians certainly don’t need to be F.A.I.R. lab rats again.
That’s one thing you can count on. Corey didn’t leave us in suspense for long. Here’s what it was all about:
Dear Subscriber,
I will appear on Fox & Friends this Thursday morning at 6:20 a.m. to discuss exciting developments in our fight to curb illegal immigration in Virginia. I need your help. Please let me know if you have any stories of how illegal immigration has hurt your community by replying to this email.
I’m going on Fox & Friends on Thursday because I have exciting news for the Virginia Rule of Law Campaign. For the first time, a neutral third party has confirmed that states and localities can combat illegal immigration through law enforcement. I’ve included some highlights from the report for you below. It is important we start telling our local and state elected officials about this report. You can click here to read the report that was presented to the citizens of Prince William County.
Highlights from the Report:
Aggravated assault declined 46.7% as a result of the policy (while increasingly dramatically in neighboring counties, 75% in Loudoun, and 37.5% in Spotsylvania)
Hit-and-run accidents declined 41% as a result of the policy
Substantial numbers of illegal immigrants did leave the County
Prince William County is viewed by its residents, regardless of race or ethnicity, as inclusive and as a great place to live
That neutral third party he is speaking of is the UVA Report that our supervisors willingly allowed to be attached to our legislative package. We, the taxpayers of Prince William County, paid almost $400,000 for that report, according to news sources,.
I rest my case. He was sure in an all-fired hurry to have that press conference and to vote on that attachment to the legislative package. How does it feel to have contributed almost $400,000 towards Corey’s Virginia Rule of Law Act?
I hope everyone writes to John Stirrup, Maureen Caddigan, Mike May, John Jenkins and Wally Covington to thank them for giving it all away. Expect county supplies, technology and personnel to follow suit and be spent on this initiative. He can now use his office and OUR resources to pursue his own personal goals.
I am totally disgusted. Corey couldn’t even give it 24 hours, could he? Any time someone needs immediate need fulfillment like was exhibited yesterday by Corey, be suspicious.
You might also want to ask who Corey’s Faux News link is. I guess he had to speed things along locally so he could make his date with destiny on Faux News Thursday morning.
Since the Board of County Supervisors’ controversial illegal immigration resolution was passed, thousands of illegals have left Prince William.
However, crime, for the most part, has not changed significantly.
So says a two-year study conducted by the University of Virginia’s Center for Survey Research and presented to supervisors Tuesday.
Originally passed in October 2007 and revamped in April 2008, the resolution states: “Officers shall investigate the citizenship or immigration status of all persons who are arrested for a violation of a state law or county ordinance when such arrest results in a physical custodial arrest.”
Overall crime — with the exception of a near 30 percent drop in aggravated assault cases — has not changed significantly since the resolution was adopted. Partly because of the police department’s efforts to quell robberies before the resolution, violent crime has been trending downward in the county for the past decade.
On the other hand, based on several statistical analyses, the study showed between 2,000 and 6,000 illegal immigrants left Prince William after the resolution’s approval.
From 2006 to 2009, the Hispanic population (which accounts for nearly three-fourths of all non-citizens in the county) increased 18.8 percent in Northern Virginia but just 3.6 percent in PrinceWilliam
I am fairly flummoxed by the report on the report, found in Insidenova.com. Then I read the Washington Post report and it took a similar stance:
The county’s police and elected officials requested the study to look at the implementation and effects of a policy – adopted in 2007 and modified in 2008 – that requires police officers to check the immigration status of all people arrested on suspicion of violating state or federal law.
The original policy directed officers to check the immigration status of people only if there was probable cause to believe that they were in the country illegally.
The study indicates that some changes in the Hispanic population can be attributed to the policy, but the researchers make it clear that the policy’s implementation coincided with the economic downturn, the mortgage crisis and the decline of the construction industry.
Because of those factors and others – for instance, the county’s having modified its policy to be less controversial and the county’s having a well-funded police department – the lessons of Prince William’s experience should be applied with “great caution” in other places and other times, said Thomas Guterbock, director of U-Va.’s Center for Survey Research.
Walking away, it looks like there was a great deal of angst and money spent. Perhaps now I see why the great rush to vote on attaching the Prince William model to the legislative package to the state. See bold above. Lucy once again pulls the football out from under Charlie Brown. Tsk Tsk. They were warned. Did Frank and Marty know something the others didn’t?
Perhaps the best move would be to take our report, cut our losses, thank our lucky stars that cooler heads prevailed in 2008, hope our house values return, encourage businesses to come to the county, and move on. Perhaps we shouldn’t advise others to do what we did here in Prince William. But of course, it was all about an election. And unless leopards have changed their spots, todays legislative action was all about an election also, we just aren’t sure which one.
Just out of curiosity, does this now mean that Corey can work on his Virginia Rule of Law Campaign on company time using company employees?
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Novemeber 16, the final UVA Report on illegal immigration will be presented during the BOCS Meeting. Dr. Guterbock of UVA will present the final report to the BOCS tomorrow afternoon.
There are a few irregularies. The report was not available at the time the agenda was published on the county website. If one clicks on view, there is just the title sheet and no report. As much as UVA has been paid to do this report, not having at least a draft available is simply unacceptable.
To add to the irregularities, a recess as been added to the order of business and a press conference has been scheduled following the formal presentation by Dr. Guterbock. Whoever heard of interrupting a Supervisors meeting for a press conference? Perhaps Corey is afraid that the Chief is going to schedule one also and steal his thunder. We feel certain Corey wants to put his own spin on things, especially if the UVA report says something he doesn’t like. In Prince William County, the spin does not necessarily stop here.
Why would a press conference be scheduled in the middle of a meeting? Why was no draft available to preview? Tune in tomorrow afternoon. This ought to be quite a show. Does Corey’s entire rule of law campaign hang on this report?
CORRECTION: The supervisors had a copy of the report delivered to their house on Saturday afternoon. This is getting more mysterious. Why was a copy NOT posted on the agenda?
Robert Fred Mejia will probably be going to jail for about 10 years. Someone else will be driving his Ferarri. Mejiea tooled all over Montgomery County while trying to impress others. According to the Washington Post:
Stretching over at least two years, Mejia would slip into the disguise of federal immigration agent “Jimmy Rico.” He wore combat boots, a thigh holster, and a shirt and hat bearing the letters ICE, for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He used a different car, one that looked like a police cruiser.
And for the right price – generally thousands of dollars – he and his conspirators offered citizenship and legalization papers to at least 90 people who thought they were getting the real thing.
Old “Jimmy” Rico seemed to forget his roots. Judge Weinstein reminded him of what he had done to his own people. This scumbag will be put on hold for 10 years and he will have time to think about his misdeeds. A fake ICE agent indeed! Actually I have heard several people laughingly suggest they get T-shirts made up that say I.C.E. Perhaps these jokesters might want to reconsider that dumb idea.
Chandra Levy was a young California woman working as an intern in Washington. She became a missing person in 2001. Unfortunately for one congressman–Gary Condit, it became public knowledge that the 2 were having an affair. Condit was married which complicated things.
Condit was in the hot seat and a suspect in Chandra’s disappearance. It appeared that he was almost rescued by 9/11. The focus went off him. More than a year after she went missing, her remains were discovered in Rock Creek Parkway. The Levy family of Modesto, California hired their own investigators when DC investigations proved to be inept.
In 2009, Ingmar Guandique, a 29-year-old Salvadoran immigrant was charged with her murder. Guandoque was apparently linked to her murder after he and other gang members ran on at the mouth. Ingmar Guandique was in prison for other crimes when arrested for the murder of Chandra Levy. Condit will testify at the trial.
Condit was trounced in the primary that fall and is no longer a congressman. Had the Levy family not kept the pressure on, he might still be. Condit is writing a book. It will be interesting to see what he has done with himself.
More on the story at the Washington Post. There is a very heart-rending video from the Levys as well as a time line. Meanwhile, the Levys go on each day without their daughter.
John McCain has flip-flopped more than a fish recently. Gone is the moderate Republican. McCain has probably learned his lesson after being challenged by far right contender Hayworth. McCain has now jumped on the Tea Party express and has voted against the Dream Act and the repeal of DADT. 2 years ago he supported both of these initiatives. Not only did McCain flip flop on DADT, he led the charge. What’s more defense than gays in the military?
The Dream Act would have been a boon to the military also. According to Salon.com:
For the fifth time in a decade, the Dream Act died in the Senate. It’s one of those rare policy ideas that would benefit both the military and the budget — and it’s one that Tea Party-type deficit-hawk/hawk-hawks should have rallied behind. It was even a boon for states’ rights. Yet, it became the latest victim of xenophobia and partisan politics.
The Dream Act (short for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) was designed to solve one of the most heart-wrenching injustices in our immigration system. Some 2.1 million undocumented immigrants were brought to the United States, through no fault of their own, as children. And despite having spent their entire lives here, their parents’ illegal status prevents them from obtaining legal residency. The Dream Act would give these children a chance to “earn” their green cards, allowing them to apply for temporary legal status; then, if they maintain “good moral character” (at a minimum, keep a clean criminal record), graduate from high school, and either complete two years of college or military service, they’d obtain permanent residence.
Right now, there are stories aplenty of children who discover the cruel fact that they are deportable when they apply for their driver’s license. Or of high school valedictorians who are snatched off planes and threatened with deportation because their parents never sorted out their paperwork.
Right now, these children, who are Americans in all ways except having papers, cannot serve in the military without legal residency paperwork. To reject the Dream Act is just foolish. We need good American residents. We need people who work hard and want to serve their country. Passing the Dream Act would be win/win.
McCain flip-flopped on this issue. First he was for it before he was against it. Shame on him. Do campaign promises not count if you don’t win?
According to the the Pew Reseach Center undocumented immigration is down since mid-decade. (see above)
The annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.
This sharp decline has contributed to an overall reduction of 8% in the number of unauthorized immigrants currently living in the U.S. — to 11.1 million in March 2009 from a peak of 12 million in March 2007, according to the estimates. The decrease represents the first significant reversal in the growth of this population over the past two decades.1
The Pew Hispanic Center’s analysis also finds that the most marked decline in the population of unauthorized immigrants has been among those who come from Latin American countries other than Mexico. From 2007 to 2009, the size of this group from the Caribbean, Central America and South America decreased 22%.
By contrast, the Mexican unauthorized population (which accounts for about 60% of all unauthorized immigrants) peaked in 2007 at 7 million and has since leveled off. The number of unauthorized immigrants from the rest of the world did not change.
Even though the size of the Mexican unauthorized population living in the United States has not changed significantly since 2007, the inflows from that country have fallen off sharply in recent years
.
What is the cause? Better border enforcement? The economy? Random?
Senate Judicary ranking Republican Lamar Smith (R- Texas) wants the Department of Homeland Security to start tracking the illegal immigrants who are convicted of drunk driving. He then wants to deport every last one of them, according to the Washington Times.
Current law doesn’t require DUI suspects to be detained, thanks to a 2004 Supreme Court interpretation, but Mr. Smith said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can detain illegal immigrants in such cases anyway, and he wants that to become the policy.
“Doing so will prevent these aliens from again getting behind the wheel of a car and killing or maiming innocent Americans,” he said in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. “Sadly, such a new policy would come too late for Sister Mosier. However, many other lives can be saved.”
Matt Chandler, a spokesman for Ms. Napolitano, said Homeland Security would not respond to Mr. Smith through the press, though he said the department is conducting a review into why Mr. Montano was not detained in 2008.
Last night, Greta Van Susteren interviewed the chief I.C.E. director, John Morton:
It’s all about money and limited resources. All of I.C.E. funding comes from Congress. If you want them to do more, write to your congressman and throw more money their way. Morton says they will do what they can with the resources available. He is trying to make the money work more sensibly. Nothing much has worked in the past, you have to admit.
New guidance telling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to focus on apprehending terrorists and criminals has many of ICE’s rank-and-file agents wondering who then is responsible for tracking down and detaining the millions of other illegal border-crossers and fugitive aliens now in the country.
The new guidelines are outlined in a June 29 memo from Assistant Secretary John Morton, who heads the agency, to all ICE employees regarding the apprehension, detention and removal of illegal immigrants, noting that the agency “only has resources to remove approximately 400,000 aliens per year, less than 4 percent of the estimated illegal-alien population in the United States.”
Mr. Morton said ICE needed to focus wisely on the limited resources Congress had provided the agency and would “prioritize the apprehension and removal of aliens who only pose a threat to national security and/or public safety, such as criminals and terrorists.”
