Promises not kept by Republicans
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Hannah M. Senft
Published: April 13, 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 ( barnun ) on April 16, 2008 at 1:10 pm
phdee, isn’t this what the guest worker program would provide if it was Ever implemented? Ray, how can we give illegals any kind of legal documents and rights when basically all along it has been said that illegals can only be dealt with by the feds ? I think the only real solution is to keep pressure on the feds to deal with the issue. And yes I do consider dealing with the issue to include a simplified guest worker program. The hispanic community as a whole is currently suffering do to the illegals. What is going on right now is unfair to Everyone involved.
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Posted by ( phdee ) on April 16, 2008 at 11:44 am
godsaveus. You avoided my point. Those citizens sure did well with housing by exploiting cheap hispanic labor, didn’t they? It was honey while it lasted, so succulent, delicious, and sweet. And now they must go. Disposable, like yesterday’s newspaper.
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Posted by ( scottfree ) on April 16, 2008 at 10:19 am
raywilliams: Your definition of amnesty must be interesting, because letting people stay here when they are here illegally IS amnesty. Not letting them have a license is a disincentive. We need as many of those as possible. Like the crackdown, for example. Your “solution” is just another non-starter that would never be acceptable to American voters. And the idea that the Feds would ever do anything without the local level action that we are seeing now is pure fantasy. They would like to ignore the problem. If forced to address it at all, they would like to cram an unacceptable and preferably ineffective bill down our throats because it would be easier. The only way the Feds will ever do anything is if enough local support for actual enforcement convines them that they will still get votes even after the illegal alien lobby has attacked them with the dreaded charge of racism. In other words, it’s the bravery of localities and states that will eventually enable our “leaders” to stand up for American sovereignty. Your posts on thiss issue all seem to lead back to the status quo, where we talk about the difficulties of this issue but nothing ever actually gets done.
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Posted by ( scottfree ) on April 16, 2008 at 10:07 am
I completely disagree. The crackdown is obviously working despite it’s flaws. 1) We are sending larger numbers by far than we expected to ICE. 2)Under the old system there was no guarantee that ICE would have been informed at the jail level. AFTER the crackdown began they started finding criminal aliens who were already in jail. 3) It allows us to put more pressure on the federal government by drawing media attention to the problem. We had so many criminal illegal aliens that ICE is having to field complaints from the state level about their pickup rate. 4) The boarding houses are slowly going away, the loiterers are going away, the ILLEGAL ALIENS are going away! What the crackdown has done more than anything is to signal intent and political will. I will continue to vote for those who support the cracdown in PWC, because I see it working.
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on April 15, 2008 at 5:38 pm
While PWC has every right to crack down on illegal immigration, the plan of action they chose to implement is flawed in my humble opinion. The Resolution will never be successful as long as our Federal borders are wide open and funding for ICE related programs lag. So I say document the willing illegals to get the criminals off the street - or at least easier to separate, develop a Tax ID program to collect taxes to offset their social burdens and make drivers license available once again to qualified drivers so they drive with insurance. Millions spent on solving issues rather than pouring the money down the drain. As soon as the economy comes back, the workers will be back in force also. This is not an amnesty program or a legal documention process, just a program to make an illegal a Documented Illegal. When the Feds step up with funding, Phase II can be implemented.
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Posted by ( barnun ) on April 15, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Equality, I’m saying the cops pull over 1 out of 20 people speeding, agreeing with your point on that. out of the people they’ve pulled over, only a few of them are illegal, in which case that cops now pick them up. The manassas cops are not out on a hunt to find mission looking for illegals. If they intentionally wanted to round up as many illegals as possible, we’d have to have a fleet of ICE buses ready and waiting. I do think it is fair that if the police do arrest someone for breaking the law and they turn out to be illegal, they should be given to ICE.
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Posted by ( Godsaveus ) on April 15, 2008 at 11:36 am
phdeeYou are missing the point again, I am against employers hiring illegal immigrants because they abuse paying cheap rates and denying benefits to their employees. I am trying to aware to illegal immigrant to come here legally so they can enjoy a free life; instead, they are living in inhumane condition.
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Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on April 15, 2008 at 12:10 am
As far as i am concerned the elected supervisors kept their promises and the Va. Senate which is controlled by Democrats is the one which keeps killing the illegal bills. What is the justice and fairness in that? Chris Cummings
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Posted by ( phdee ) on April 14, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Godsaveus. those illegalsd who came to Va. to do construction work sure were good for the county’s taxes, economy, housing property values, etc., weren’t they? Lots of long time citizens were able to “move up”, extract enormous “equity” frrom houses, buy SUV’s, take vacations, etc.—really enjoy the good life - on the backs of illegals and cheap labor. It was heaven on earth. Then… well, the bubble burst. Now the illegals were an expense that had to go, so you racists thought up the resolution. I’ll bet you lots of local residents made those exotic profits from selling houses to illegals. Maybe you could go after those wholesome citizens.
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Posted by ( Grant Gary Jacobsen ) on April 14, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Prince William County residents need to see the movie, “Under The Same Moon” to get a better understanding of the immigration issue.
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