Promises not kept by Republicans
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Hannah M. Senft
Published: April 14, 2008
Republicans on the local and state level really demagogued the illegal immigration issue in this past election. They raised expectations about what is possible and they made promises they could not keep.
Yes, we have overcrowding in our schools and yes, we spend a significant amount of money on ESOL classes. But Republicans misled voters about the number of illegal immigrant children in our schools; they failed to mention that the exact number is not known.
They ignored the Federal and Supreme Court rulings which mandate the educating of all children (Lau v. Nichols, 1974, Castaneda v. Pickard, 1981, Plyler v. Doe, 1982, Gomez v. Illinois, 1987,
Edgewood Independent School District v. Kirby, 1989).
And yes, we all want to get criminals off the streets. But instead of the more cost effective method of checking those already incarcerated, Republican firebrands promoted immigration checks done at the point of the traffic stop. This prompted residents to think that everyone stopped would be sent away. All to gain votes! ICE only accepts a small number of illegal immigrants for deportation each month and only after they are convicted and have served their sentences. They do NOT deport all the people identified as illegal immigrants. This could have been done by ICE trained officers of the jail.
We need police officers patrolling the streets, not tied up with a lot of paperwork.
Manassas, Manassas Park and Prince William County do not have the funding for this added enforcement. Prince William County just emptied their contingency fund and that still wasn’t enough money.
Increased funding for law enforcement will not be coming our way from the state. Republican delegates to the General Assembly won’t vote for dedicated funding for our transportation crisis, so they won’t be providing any new sources of revenue to help law enforcement. It’s disrespectful to law enforcement to expect them to do more and more with fewer resources. But that did not matter to Republicans who wanted to win their races at whatever cost to the community.
Call your elected officials and tell them to stop making promises they cannot keep.
HANNAH M. SENFT
Manassas
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on April 19, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Ray any way you slice it amnesty doesn’t work and would require illegal individuals to pay a back tax, it didn’t work in 1986 why would it work now. As an end result of 1986 more illegals came causing further tax burdens on legal taxpaying immigrants. Look at the ballooning budget debacle in California as prime example. So we get papers for some of these individuals, soeme would still have to go back home. Of course the criminals who committ crimes other than being illegal should be deported, be that as it may how many will actually apply for amnesty? 40-50% tops, and you are still faced with a major problem. Google Beck on immigration and learn some interesting solutions to a real and major problem about continued high levels of immigration illegal or legal. Chris Cummings
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on April 17, 2008 at 7:57 pm
barnun, now that would be focusing on the issue and bringing attention to real problems in a constructive way. Best idea I’ve seen here. A real old fashion grass roots protest WITHOUT throwing mud at the other guy. Newspapers would love it because they like stories that are new and interesting and they don’t have to work for it. Don’t let that idea die off.
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Posted by ( barnun ) on April 17, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I also really like the idea that the state of Virginia should send a bill,(an invoice not a law), to washington for all expenses our state feels like it incurs do to the immigration problem. it should include all costs, education, medical, law enforcement, etc. We should send this bill monthly, and alert the media. what a great story. Other states would soon follow. they could also file papers to succeed from the union so our state would then have the right to deal with laws that our federal government chooses to ignore. this would have no teeth but would also generate media attention to the issue.
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Posted by ( Equality 7-2521 ) on April 17, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Ray, Barnun, thank you both for the comments. I think there’s commmon ground there, and I find it hard to disagree with either of you.
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on April 17, 2008 at 1:47 pm
barnun, you sum it up in a nutshell. The Resolution is a good first step and does create a focus (hence the weeks of banter on these pages) BUT it is not the only answer and more needs to be done. I break it down as this: One, a federal problem to secure the border. Other than attention, not much we can do. Two, the issues of security, documentation, unlicensed drivers, social burdens etc born by PWC. The Resolution will not cast a wide enough net to SOLVE the problems, so let’s look for other answers to augment the Plan, and yes, let’s think outside the PWC box. Three, focus on educating immigrants on our traditional social behaviors regarding housing, parking, litter, respecting property and all the other myths and stereotypes that need to be included. How? I’d be all over Mexicans w/o Borders and the Mexican Cousul telling THEM we got a task they can sink their teeth into. Let them hold marches and town meetings with a new subject line. If we ALL work together, we can return peace to our community.
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Posted by ( barnun ) on April 17, 2008 at 12:13 pm
we do know there is a huge cost in doing nothing. Arizona has been screaming at the Feds for years. california has suffered. I think the best thing the resolution will do is to keep attention drawn to the issue. How else can you force the feds to do their job ? show them that people willing to step up to the issue are the ones that will be elected. I wish national media would make this a daily primary focus just to help keep pressure on the feds. congress has failed on this issue Since reagon comprimised with them. Bush attempted a fair plan. It was to liberal for the right and to conservative for the left. both sides used those excuses to continue to do nothing. “ A good plan today is far better than a perfect plan at some indefinite time in the future” - Patton
(that is not word for word )
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on April 17, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Equality - what I’ve been saying all along. Focus on the criminal criminals, not the paper criminals, document who is here and generate some tax revenues from them if possible UNTIL funding is available to first solve the open border issue and then tidy up the rest as we go along. Alas, not a well supported position.
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Posted by ( Equality 7-2521 ) on April 16, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Barnun, thank you for the honest and well-thought-out dialogue (something that a few others on this board seem to be unable to do).
I agree with a lot of what you said. I also don’t think the police are out to get anyone. And I agree that turning “illegals” over to ICE is not necessarily unfair (the double negative is intentional).
I guess my biggest problem with the resolution is that I think it casts too wide a net. I think we should get the big fish (the bad guys), and throw all the little ones back (by that I mean do something other than hold them up in the PWC jail system at the local tax payers expense).
I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I do think that in these lean times PWC will be unable to sustain the costs associated with enforcing this resolution for the duration (if the numbers reported by the PN and the Wash. Post are correct, that is). While I hear a lot from others on this board about how this resolution will pay for itself, I hear no mention of facts to back this up.
In the end, I think this resolution is a gamble, and I hope we, the tax payers, are not the ones who end up losing. We’ve all worked too hard to make this county one of our nation’s best, and I don’t want to see it end up like Orange County California in 1994 (although they made bad financial decisions of a different kind).
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on April 16, 2008 at 4:01 pm
scottfree, if you want to wait for the feds to provide funding for border security and ICE then go right ahead. If you’re not open to discussing other options then continue on the path you’re on. I don’t have immigrants in my neighborhood and don’t see them stepping up in this economy. But if you think for a minute they are leaving because of Cory Stewart and not because the construction job market evaporated, well, wait for the market to come back and see if anything changed. Again, immigrants here or not have no impact on my life or lifestyle. Until the border is secured, we’re bailing the boat with a teaspoon.
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on April 16, 2008 at 3:54 pm
barnum, someone opend Pandora’s Box years ago by turning a blind-eye towards immigration. No administration wants to spend money for border patrol when that money could be spent on projects the taxpayers sees and uses. I agree there is no one fix, but most likely will require hundreds of little fixes to get the toothpaste back in the tube. I am not suggesting giving “rights” to illegals, just documenting those here, sorting out the real criminals from the paper criminals and we might as well get some tax revenues until we can sort everything out. All steps are in the right direction, but relying on the Resolution only is not going to solve our problem - not by a long shot. As I don’t really have a dog in this fight, I’m now happy to sit back and wait to see what happens. Sorta like watching the Super Bowl this year, interesting game but who cares about the outcome. If somewhere along the line we could put down our poisoned quills and start discussing what we’d really like to see change and see how as a group we could work to effect that change, people like cobra would have their issues solve sooner rather than later. But again, I got no dog in this fight.
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