Vigilance against nativism, xenophobia
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Michael Ragland
Published: June 9, 2008
Once again Prince William County is in the news. I heard on Channel News 4 on June 3 that a proposal by Corey Stewart, Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, to check for illegal immigrants under the more “flexible” reasonable search rather than where the illegal is “discovered” i.e. arrested, is in place. Then, later I saw a clip of Prince William County Police Chief Charlie Deane summing up the new police law (I’m paraphrasing) — all those arrested in Prince William County irrespective of whether they’re a legal county resident or illegal will have their immigration status checked. This was seen by advocates of immigration reform as a positive way of getting around “reasonable search.” What was not mentioned is how much this additional red tape would cost.
Why all this ruckus in Prince William County and not Fairfax or surrounding counties? Does it have anything to do with the continued pace of construction/rezonings and the mid to high housing market values in Prince William County driving out illegals to make more room for the affluent market? Or is it because of how many illegal immigrants are availing themselves freely of public services? Or the level of illegal crime in Prince William County? All the above?
I’ll say this: If “reasonable search” is partially circumvented, then without the transparency of the camera it is reckless and absurd to be checking on the immigration status of anybody who is arrested — this is fancy footwork to fit a preconceived policy.
It seems to me that Stewart is purposefully exploiting this issue for potential political gain. Imagine a nation checking the immigration status of anybody arrested as well as using reasonable or probable cause.
This has the contour of a police state.
My own view is this is a matter of political expediency and political ambition and I hope it will flop and other measures will be found which reflect a more sound policy. If Prince William County’s new illegal
immigration policy became “national” it would induce more nativism and xenophobia — two things which should be vigilantly guarded against.
MICHAEL RAGLAND
Triangle
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( RonCharest ) on June 16, 2008 at 10:55 am
MikeG,
I’m not sure, but I think PHDee was employing scarcasim to make a point about the police demanding proof of citizenship for any reason.
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Posted by ( MikeG ) on June 16, 2008 at 9:14 am
“wHY DOES ONE HAVE TO HAVE COMMITTED A CRIME (OR ALLEGEDLY) TO HAVE LEGAL STATUS CHECKED? wHY NOT JUST CHECK ANYONE ON THE STREET (EVERYWHERE), AND IF HE/SHE IS ILLEGAL, THEN HAUL HIM/HER IN. wHY ONLY ALLEGED CRIMINALS. iF THE ALLEGED CRIMINAL TURNS OUT TO BE INNOCENT, THEN WHAT? If we are to implement facisism, let’s do it fully.“
PHDee, I copied your post above, only because I didn’t want to have to keep scrolling back and forth, and lose the connection to another of your humorous, yet irrelevant postings. I wanted to garner the absolute maximum amount of mirth and enjoyment out of what has become so typical in your posts. Total irrelevance, and total B.S. from an apparent master of the genre.
By the way, you obviously need a little refresher reading in the U.S. Constitution. Pay particular attention to the Bill of Rights, OK?
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on June 12, 2008 at 4:48 pm
When you are pulled over for a traffic violation, you must produce a drivers license. No one complains about this as we’ve been conditioned to expect it. Taking it one step further to check immigration status or citizenship status is not that big of a deal. If we issued a Documented Illegal Immigrant card, these traffic stops and arrests would go smoothly and quickly and the parties could be on their way.
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Posted by ( jm6811 ) on June 11, 2008 at 9:41 pm
checking the immigration status to anyone arrested in PWC is an excellent idea, I just imagine if a white or black citizen is arrested and does not carry a driver’s license, a social security card or any other ID, he or she will be detained until a birth certificate or a passport is provided, all this trouble just to prove to PWC that they are US citizens or legal residents and they are not “illegal aliens” so, I will recomend to every citizen of PWC to carry proper documents and not to lose their birth certificate, otherwise you are in the risk of being in the US illegaly and may get deported to Canada or somewhere else. it sounds good from C. Stewart and his supporters point of view, but once US citizens and legal residents start being questioned about their legal status by police it will be very uncomfortable,I’ll bet my brown skin that this resolution will backfire. PWCBOS are not cracking down on illegals they are cracking down on themselves in the long run. why don’t we
push to get this illegals temporary visas so they can work and pay taxes? maybe they’ll get tired of supporting many Americans that live on welfare and they’ll go back home voluntarely. we never know, maybe they will never return.
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Posted by ( Equality 7-2521 ) on June 11, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Barnun, I never meant to imply you were a racist. If I came off like that I truly apologize. I was merely trying to point out an inconsistency, but I guess my prose was poorly chosen.
Truth be told, I think nothing could be further from the truth. Your arguments are always well reasoned and never made in bad faith.
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on June 11, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Sorry barnun and RonC, I posted on my salesman’s laptop under his mongoose name. But as I said, the horse is dead and ready to be left to the buzzards. A year from now these same discussions will still be going on and no progress will have been made. Cheers guys, its been fun.
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Posted by ( phdee ) on June 11, 2008 at 2:25 pm
wHY DOES ONE HAVE TO HAVE COMMITTED A CRIME (OR ALLEGEDLY) TO HAVE LEGAL STATUS CHECKED? wHY NOT JUST CHECK ANYONE ON THE STREET (EVERYWHERE), AND IF HE/SHE IS ILLEGAL, THEN HAUL HIM/HER IN. wHY ONLY ALLEGED CRIMINALS. iF THE ALLEGED CRIMINAL TURNS OUT TO BE INNOCENT, THEN WHAT? If we are to implement facisism, let’s do it fully.
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Posted by ( barnun ) on June 11, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Ron, checking the legal status of everyone that gets arrested is by no means racial profiling. it will also cost money to monitor, track down, enforce and fine big companies. I agree we should do that as well. If you fine a large company for employing illegals and not paying taxes on them, it would only make sense to charge the the illegals for their part.
Mongoose, it is never time to give up trying to do the right thing. we haven’t given up on ticketing people that break the speeding laws, arresting murderers and rapists, ticketing those without proper papers for the vehicles etc. In all other aspects everyone expects the laws to be enforced.
Ragland, the PWC policies are not aimed at hispanics but if the hispanics are the largest group of law breakers, they would then be the largest recipients of this policy.
Equality, you are correct in pointing out my oversight. BTW, I have met many hispanics that are very nice people and very hard working. I dont knock them for that. I have always agreed that the US should provide a simple port of entry at our southern border to provide a simple work visa process. If the feds did their job, none of us would be arguing about this here. If someone wanted to argue that they didn’t like the legal hispanics or the legal asians etc, they could then be called out as racists.
Alex, stewart began his campaign during our mini boom. Immigration issues have been a hot topic since Reagan.
urf8, I’ve spoke with many legal immigrants that fully oppose illegal immigration and support all efforts to enforce it. They worked hard to get here legally and those who bypass the system only demeans their accomplishments.
I want PWC to keep up their efforts, I want PWC to make national news to put pressure on the feds to resolve the issue. That would benefit everyone and in the long run it would benefit the illegals the most. The illegals should not march on washington trying to say they have rights. They should march on washington saying they want a visa and they want rights. I’d support their efforts for that.
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Posted by ( urf8 ) on June 11, 2008 at 7:28 am
barnum, you misunderstood my posting—I did not say that the PWC policies were for Hispanics, I said that they were meant to target them, as they are the largest immigrant group in the county. There are likely plenty of illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa here in PWC as well. Have you ever noticed there seems to be more Chinese resataurants and Korean-run dry cleaners than Pizza parlors and grocery stores? I don’t hear PWC BOCS or residents asking questions about the legal status of the people working in these places… The PWC policy was recently amended so that the police are not accused of racial profiling, now I believ ethat they only check a person’s legal status if they are arrested for something else instead of checking tehir status if they are stopped by police “if the officer suspects they are illegal.“ I would like to know how they would have determined that—perhaps an accent, skin tone, not speaking English, very dangerous ground. If they had stopped my naturalized citizen wife, who is from South America and a near-senior federal Government employee with a security clearance, she would have either spoken with the strongest accent possible or only used Spanish in order to see if she would be detained by police on “suspicion” of being illegal; then sue the county for racial discrimination.
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Posted by ( AlexGG ) on June 11, 2008 at 1:27 am
based on everyone’s comments, i believe it is safe to assume that none of you are on the losing end of this debacle. as an american citizen of mexican-american decent, i can tell you first hand that this situation is not as black and white as your views have made it seem.
first off, simply because stewart, stirrup, arpail, or deane say it is not about racial profiling-doesn’t make it so. if it wasn’t profiling, anti-hispanic in particular, why is that all that is discussed. none of the comments in support for the new laws mentioned any other ethnicities as reasons for your support. all have focused on hispanics. you know, people don’t have to drop the n-bomb to be a bigots.
second, displacing an entire subsection of our community for political gain is an atrocity. stewart is a prejudice ‘good-ole boy’ and proud of it, there nothing that can change that. did anyone step up during the recent economic boom when they were building our mini-palaces, cleaning our houses and raising our kids? no, of course not, but now that things have changed and we can no longer afford to employ them-they’re a nuisance. if stewart or any of his sheep use the current situation to their advantage, oh well, that’s politics. there’s no winning that argument.
third, maybe they are illegal, you know many of the people who settled virginia were immigrants, illegal ones by todays standards. either way, the problem is not whether or not they are legal, because it makes no difference. the real problem is what to do about the contribution, or lack there of, provided to our community. personally, i could care less if a person is a citizen. as long as they work, don’t put my family in danger, and provide a gainful contribution to the community in which they reside, ‘it’s all good’ as they say.
lastly, and most important, it is not prince william’s responsibility to patrol our borders, whether they be land, sea, or air. it is expected that the federal government maintian its own regulations. if local governments were to be responsible for federal laws and mandates, then what would be the point of a federal level of government? granted, i do believe we have a serious ‘situation’, but not one that requires us to lose so much. why can’t we reach a positive resolution. would it not be beneficial for both sides to come to an agreement of some kind. why can’t they county and city governments employ these laborers for a fixed period of time, allow them to complete the naturalization process, pay their debt to society, and allow them to earn their citizenship. we get low-cost labor, cleaner safer neighborhoods, and not to mention boost to our local economy. remember, prince william is one of the worst foreclosure markets in the country. it has been pointed out that the hispanic community has played a large part in that, but not for the reasons mentioned. they are not abandoning their homes because they can no longer afford them. they are leaving because we are forcing them out.
well, now i’m babbling, enough i suppose.
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