Police chief, Mexican consul to discuss immigration policy
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By Lillian Kafka
Published: March 26, 2008
Prince William's police chief and the Mexican consul are teaming up tonight to host an informational meet-ing on the county's 25-day old illegal immigrant crackdown.
Chief Charlie T. Deane is going to talk in an attempt to dispel "misinformation" in the community, said 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn, police spokeswoman.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Hi Mart, 13412 Jefferson Davis Highway in Woodbridge.
It comes four days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 34 men on immigration charges at a Ma-nassas-area concrete company. It's also 25 days after the county adopted federal authority to arrest someone who is without proof that they are in the U.S. legally.
"There's a lot of people in the middle and there are groups who are on the polar opposites on this issue and there's a lot of misinformation," Chinn said on Wednesday. "And we want people to under-stand this. It's very complex. It's not easy."
Although police say Monday's ICE raid is unrelated to the first weeks of the county's immigration crackdown, one immigrant rights group said fear is sweeping the Latino community.
Nancy Lyall is a member of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, a group that opposed Prince William County's illegal immigrant crackdown.
"The community doesn't necessarily separate ICE and the police department at this point," she said. "But every time people turn around and see someone getting picked up, it's a blue uniform doing it. How do you tell people it's really OK to talk to folks if this is what they're seeing every day?"
She said she's worried when she hears stories from people who say they had to provide proof of citizenship when they were passengers in cars.
"A lot of concerns they get are about passengers in vehicles, but it depends on what they find in the car," Chinn said. "The best thing we can do is tell you our focus is on the criminal illegal alien."
Still, Lyall said hundreds of people have felt the impact, including citizen children of parents who are not in the country legally.
"These are families when often the man is the primary breadwinner and the wife and the children are left here without means," Lyall said of some of the 34 men arrested earlier this week.
She said children of these men go to school in fear as their mothers cannot contact the men who are being trans-ported to jails in other time zones on their way to deportation.
"It's these very personal examples when you look at these policies—this woman cannot provide for her child now," she said.
Chinn said the county did not actively participate in the ICE raid, although it did provide uniformed officers at the scene.
"ICE does this all over the country," Chinn said. "It just happened to be in Prince Wil-liam."
Staff writer Lillian Kafka can be reached at 703-878-8065.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on March 28, 2008 at 9:31 pm
The positive aspects of the PWC Illegal Resolution are obvious with declining public school enrollment of anchor babies and 6 million saved on ESOL’s decline in enrollment of at least 600, maybe more since more illegals and their families are leaving. Business is down at businesses that cater to illegals. That is another positive as well as the continuing arrests of illegals committing more crimes other than being illegal of course. I know, i know illegals committ less crimes, of course thats what they want you to believe. LOL. Chris Cummings
Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on March 28, 2008 at 9:01 pm
JAGOMEZ everyone must follow the law including illegal immigrants. I have only seen the benefit of the Illegal Resolution which only helps in the enforcement of laws already on the books. Dropping ESOL as well as public school enrollment as well as dropoffs in business at businesses that cater to illegals. I read in the Washington Post a wonderful story about some illegals that had to go to Pennsylvania to find work and their families were living in fear in PWC because they were here illegal. I believe that story also had a beautiful piece about a man and his daughter who had to go to the store to buy candles because the father bounced a check that was to pay for his legal visa and the power had been cutoff, They were catching rainwater for showers or something pleasant like that. It was the most bleeding heart piece i have ever heard from The Washington Post and that is a publication known for its many pro illegal apologists and sob stories about illegals having it so tough. I say who cares, citizens are the ones who deserve goods and services. Chris Cummings
Posted by ( articlewatcher ) on March 28, 2008 at 8:57 am
Should I choose to live illegally in another country and get in trouble, I accepts some of the risks involved. Choosing to live here illegally and have children, you accept the risk that you can be separated. It’s no ones fault but your own.
Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on March 27, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I would be willing to bet that some members of La Raza are here illegally and as such are subject to the rules and laws of deportation, and yes being here illegally is a crime even if no other crimes have been committed. I feel sorry that they jeopardized their families by being here illegally. If you don’t follow the rules and laws, suffer the consequences. Chris Cummings
Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on March 27, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Or the same bigoted feelings of Mexicanos Sin fronteras, Meche, and La Raza. All races practice bigotry, doesn’t make it right though. As for illegals and groups that support them, you have no rights because you are here illegally. Better yet you are not a citizen and you aren’t native to these lands since you crossed into the USA. It’s true that the Indians were here before European explorers came. Nonetheless they were immigrants when the landbridge between Asia and North America existed. We are all immigrants to this land, subject to the rules and laws of the country in the region we choose to go. Just because some want to do it illegally does not make it right. Chris Cummings
Posted by ( Calisto ) on March 27, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Here’s food for thought from Maryland:
ThisAmerican wrote:
Illegals have no one but their OWN countries to blame for the anger felt by Americans at their presence. They have proven, over the last 30 years that they have no respect for American laws or citizens. They are constantly told by their governments, go to the US and rip off every social service you can, all the while working illegally so you can send as much money as possible home. It has been estimated that the outflow of ill gotten “wages” sent home by illegals is in the BILLIONS, annually, with Mexico reporting that monies from their illegals in the US is it’s second largest source of “income”. That alone should infuriate all tax paying Americans. But that is only the tip of the iceberg that is illegal aliens.
In the 80’s I worked with 200 illegals at a commercial landscape company. All were paid cash, none paid taxes. All drove the company trucks with no licenses but at least the owner did have auto insurance. He didn’t have Workman’s Comp, however, and weekly some employee or another had to be taken to the Emergency Rooms for treatment. None ever paid a dime for the hospital’s services, nor did the employer. The American tax payer was forced to pick up the tab then AND now. When Amnesty rolled around, not ONE applied. They told me that they were Mexican, would NEVER become American citizens and would continue to work under the table, drawing social sevices for their children and sending money home for their retirement. In twenty years nothing has changed. Illegals don’t want citizenship, they don’t want to follow the laws of the US, they don’t want to pay taxes, assimilate or learn the English language. For 20 years, the unscrupulous employers, the Latino/Hispanic legislators and our own Federal government has allowed this to continue, with the illegal population rising from approximately 3 million in 1986 to an estimated 38 million, today. And that is NOT counting the millions of “American citizens”, aka Anchor Babies, they have produced. Via the anchor baby, they have done well in destroying schools, bankrupting hospitals and communities with the scamming of BILLIONS of social services from the tax paying American.
In 2006, their obvious disrespect and horrifying numbers were made clear to the American public when they took to the streets on May Day, flying their native flags and demanding more rights in America, whose laws they had flagrantly broken. I actually thank them for their audacity, because it proved to the entire country that they are a real threat to the continued sanctity and sovereignty of this great nation.
Illegal advocates continue to spew their anti American hypocrisy, while never mentioning the corruption and despair fomented by their homelands, causing them to flee to the US for the taxpayer to support. Groups like LaRaza, MEChA and LULAC scream “racism” and hatred of immigrants and xenopobia and nativism at/to any American who opposes the continued presence of ILLEGAL ALIENS in a country that already allows more immigrants than the rest of the world combined.
Americans need to continue in their demands to stop illegal aliens from entering and staying in the US. I suggest a three pronged plan: 1) STOP giving citizenship to children born of illegals. A strict interpretation of the 14th Amendment is all that would take. An illegal parent is under NO jurisdiction in the US by the very nature of their illegality. NO ONE forced them to come here, no one forced them to have children in the US. The 14th Amendment was written for slaves and their children, those who were under the juridiction and yet still had no citizenship. No more anchor baby citizenship, period. 2) when citizenship is revoked to those here illegally, no benefits to any non citizen. The constitution says ALL children must attend school, but doesn’t mandate any other social service to the non citizen. Cut welfare, housing, medical, dental, food stamps and WIC to all non citizens and their children, saving the American tax payers billions a year. 3) Sanction any business who continues to hire and employ illegal aliens. Fine them for all taxes not paid on/by their employees, fine them for all social services received by their employees, fine them for all incarceration and deportation expenses incurred by their employees. Those same companies who scream they will go out of business or charge exhorbitant prices for their goods and services should be forced out of existence if this is the case. For 20-30 years they have experienced record profits via the illegal employment of slaves who they pay illegally low wages, pay no taxes and provide no insurance. Several states have begun certain portions of these ideas and have been successful in ridiing their communities of illegal aliens. This article proves it.
Please, Americans:ACT NOW AND DEMAND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. Illegals MUST go home!!!
Posted by ( ltg5 ) on March 27, 2008 at 7:37 pm
PWCMOM--- You are wrong where you fix the blame. The blame is with the Federal Government and in particular Congress. As for decades they have neglected to enforce the borders and immgration laws for their own political reasons (and we let it happen). If you were in the same position as these people you would have done the same thing and crossed the border in hopes of a better life. I believe what PWC has done was the wrong thing. Not because of, as all are saying, Illegal is Illegal, but because county by county resolutions is not going to solve the problem. This needs to be solved as a nation especially since this is all under federal laws. First, spend the money and secure the borders. Every citizen should be demanding this be done immediately using tax dollars. Then and only then can you address the issue of who is in this country illegally. The PWC resolution (law) is only adding to the counties problems in taxes and in the economy. Yes you can say you are driving illegals out but take a look at it fully. In some cases there are gains to what the county pays out, but there are illegals that have developed lives over decades which were paying taxes, owning homes, and shopping in the county daily that are now fleeing and abandoning their homes. Take a look at the abondoned properties which will not be kept up by anyone in PWC. This is going to hurt many parts of the PWC economy. Never mind the taxes that are going to be needed on a yearly basis to enforce the PWC resolution in a downward spiraling economic climate. The big picture is what was needed and is not what is being produced by local governments enacting patch work laws. Yes you can tell me the gains less medical service and more jobs available, but when you have to pay more taxes for your homes that are worth less and work on your homes costs more I do not think you should ask why for it will partly be due to the PWC resolution.
Posted by ( Calisto ) on March 27, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I applaud Vic, Ziggy & PWCMom, who bring valid reasons to the debate of Illegal Immigration - no nonsense cold hard facts. It shows that there are some smart people in PWC and they don’t want to see the county trashed, abused and left a ghost town once the well runs dry.
I believe Mexico has very strict immigration laws and are not swayed by “not fair” cries. I don’t have any pity for somebody, who knowingly puts his own family in danger and by the way it wasn’t PWC that pushed them into the Rio Grande. After all, everybody has a choice.
I want to see all of these pro-illegals once their jobs are in danger (after all even: the “uneducated” jobs are gone after a while and once this well runs dry something else will have to do)and the business owners who employ them, not knowing that the illegal person they hire will be their competition in the future..... Greed usually does that to people.
I respect every American, who doesn’t accept unfair wages for slave labor. Where’s the equal opportunity?
And just to be fair: Does anybody honestly believe that the hispanic population is here to stay? I don’t think so, they will return to their countries and live happily ever after with money they made here and live like kings. After all,pro-illegals made it easy.
Posted by ( PWCMom ) on March 27, 2008 at 5:42 pm
JAGOMEZ, just where do you think that certain groups are exempt from identifcation, including address and other information if stopped for any reason? All the rest of us legal citizens have to, so what makes you think others shouldn’t have to? As long as it is applied across the board, then where is the complaint? And it is-research policies and procedures for stopping, arresting and investigation!
As far as the “poor women and children” being left behind as a result of deporation, I remind everyone that their detained relative first made the conscious decision to come here and thereby break the law. No one forced them to do it, and the women and children now have to pay the price for it by either leaving or finding another way to support themselves. Would La Raza or MWB support them financially? I suspect not-our own social, educational and health programs are doing that, and we are funding it! Those “organziations” won’t-have their own political agendas to fund.
Place the blame where it starts-the illegal coming here in the first place.
Posted by ( ZIGGY ) on March 27, 2008 at 4:33 pm
The key word here is ‘illegal’. Are you the same people that turn your backs if someone is pushing dope on your street corner? Do you just keep going if see a girl getting beat up by her boyfriend? Would you just stay clear of that drunk driver and not worry about it as long as he doesn’t hit you? Illegal is just that. Illegal. Gangs support drug dealers. Lawyers protect abusers and drunks. And now ‘The Race’ protects illegal immigrants.