Ron Speakman, candidate for the Republican nomination for Loudoun County Sheriff, has announced a set of policies for dealing with illegal aliens arrested in Loudoun County.
For detailed coverage of Mr. Speakman’s proposals and some good discussions, see:
If anyone serving in the Virginia state house truly should be considered a “statesman,” Delegate Jackson Miller of Manassas fits the description. Click here to watch his speech from this morning.
He asks the key question which should be in everyone’s minds regarding the series of horrific crimes committed by illegal aliens in the Commonwealth:
Could it have been prevented?
As LI succinctly describes our public policy challenge:
With still too-high unemployment in this country and increasing levels of crime, it is far beyond time for government at all levels to seriously crack down on this problem.
The time has passed for Virginia’s residents and elected officials to be hoodwinked or bamboozled by those who would attempt to mitigate illegal alien crimes by conflating “immigrants” as a whole with illegal alien criminals. The time has passed for our public safety officers to be cowed when faced with the prospect of detaining a criminal illegal alien.
There was an illuminating article posted at BVBL a couple weeks ago about the illegal alien who raped a local 8-year-old girl. Like each instance mentioned in Delegate Miller’s speech, this perpetrator had been detained previously by local law enforcement but had been set free.
The blame for this catch-and-release policy toward criminals who happen to be in the country illegally does not fall solely on our justices and local law enforcement agencies. They are under serious pressure from elected officials and from outside “civil liberty” advocacy groups. It is even possible that one of our local government agencies could dedicate itself to enforcing laws already on the books, regarding matters such as zoning, and find itself the target of a lawsuit simply for attempting to enforce the rules.
Consequently, we have the current situation in which crimes committed by illegal aliens are glossed over by public officials – even when similar offenses by legal residents would be prosecuted according to the law.
In Delegate Miller’s words, the upshot of this arbitrary application of the law is communities “on fire” in Virginia. This is not going to play out as a verbal joust between advocacy organizations. The solution is not even going to depend on what our lawmakers accomplish in Richmond this month. What is going to happen is that the residents of Virginia are going to ask why our laws are applied selectively.
We should not give in to the temptation to diminish the role that immigrants play in our local community and our local economy. The solution to illegal alien crime is not so simple as pointing a finger at “the other” as the source of our problems. We especially should not paper over the fact that our prestigious Anglo-Saxon society has aborted 40 million people since 1973 yet somehow expects there to be a sufficient working population to haul the freight to pay social security expenses for all the baby boomers who will be retiring over the next 20 years and expecting benefits for 40 years. Without delving into a “he said, she said” between the white people and the brown people, it is safe to say one group has done a much better job replacing itself than the other, and those on the low-birthrate side should be exceedingly grateful for those still having kids, and should be welcoming the latter into American society with open arms. We should be grateful for those who are willing to enrich us, and we should think hard about how to make American values understandable and accessible to the newcomers – and we should not be surprised if they carry banners saying “What part of ‘childless’ don’t YOU understand.”
Demographics is purely a numbers game. It is murdering Western Europe, Russia and Japan, and things look very dicey for China 50 years hence. The only reason the United States maintains a replacement-level reproduction rate of 2 kids for every couple is because of our Hispanic immigrants. The next time you see a Latino mother with several kids you should mutter “gracias” under your breath. [For more on this topic, peruse Ken Gronbach's Web site and read Mark Steyn's excellent book America Alone.]
Immigration has been immensely valuable to our country. As Delegate Miller states, the problem in Virginia is not with immigrants, but with an officially-sanctioned blind eye to crimes committed by illegal aliens. There has been a notion circulated that ANY focus on crimes committed by illegals will make those in the U.S. illegally afraid to cooperate with law enforcement. This wrongheaded idea needs to be recognized as bogus. When someone commits a crime they need to be held to the absolute standard of local law. And local judges and law enforcement authorities need to have as their highest priority the safety of the residents in their communities. It is going to take a concerted effort by the community to allow this to happen – to allow the local police and sheriff’s departments to treat all the bad guys equally. If I got a DUI tomorrow you can bet I would be punished, incarcerated and tracked accordingly; there is no reason an illegal alien should be given a free pass for the same offense.
If the reason our public officials are afraid to apply the law to illegal aliens is because they are afraid of “civil liberty” organizations, then we all need to do a better job exposing these organizations: who they are, how they are funded, and where they impose their influence on our local governments. As our communities burn, there should be more and more of us taking an active interest in public policy.
Important post by Loudoun Patriot last week:
Bravo to Commonwealths Attorney Jim Plowman and Chief Deputy James Fisher for their help seeing this issue through …
Yesterday’s unanimous decision by the Virginia Supreme Court was a huge win for the law-and-order crowd, firmly rejecting the defense’s argument that these cases be allowed to be reopened under the Padilla decision.
The gist of the problem is that criminals who are in the country illegally had been able to take advantage of a loophole whereby they had to be informed of the possibility of deportation before entering a plea. Even for cases decided years ago, defense attorneys have been able to get verdicts set aside and the cases set for new trial. This is in essence a rule of engagement for prosecutors that makes it harder to convict an illegal alien than a U.S. citizen, and one which has nothing to do with guilt or innocence. Thanks to Jim Plowman’s office for taking a strong stand against this miscarriage of justice, and thanks to the Virginia high court for closing the loophole.
I encourage you all to visit the blog of my friend Nathanael Snow.
We were at the public meeting about the proposed day labor center in Centreville, Virginia.
Nathanael Snow is a rather intense liberal – which those of you who know me know, is how I like them. He made a bit of a name for himself tonight. I had a discussion with Nathan in which I explained the problems we experienced in Sterling from the boarding houses run by landlords renting to illegals, and Nathan asked me – “why don’t you just pay the landlords out of your own pocket so they do not have to rent to illegals?” My response to Nathan was:
…………
I described the problems we had in Sterling with houses converted to industrial complexes.
I told Nathan why this was generally a bad thing. Here is the conversation we had:
Nathan Snow: “I don’t think anyone has a right to feel safe walking down their street.”
Joe Budzinski: “You’re an idiot.”
Here is Nathan at tonight’s public meeting in Centreville, Virginia.
Nathan Snow At Centreville Immigration Forum from Joe Budzinski on Vimeo.
Now Nathan said afterwards:
I made the statement, “I don’t think anyone has a right to feel safe walking down their own street.
First, everyone has a right to protection of person and property. SO, what I am not saying is that “no one has a right to be safe on their own street.” The key to my thought is “feel.”
What makes me feel safe may not be what makes you feel safe. Sam may feel safe knowing that his neighbor Bob owns a 12 gauge shotgun. Bob might not feel safe knowing Sam owns a Bazooka.
But where does the law begin?
How can we know what law should be?Many people do not feel safe walking on the sidewalk in front of Centreville Library. But the actual number of incidents of physical harm are few and far between. Sure some men make cat-calls at women. That’s uncouth and rude and inappropriate. But it is not illegal.
FYI “Haymarket” in Fairfax County is akin to my friends from Ashburn and Lovettesville who would lecture us in Sterling about neighborhood quality of life issues. I hope Nathan sees the irony.
This topic has pretty much disappeared around here lately, which proves my point. What point? Why, Joe’s Maxim On The Illegal Immigration Controversy, of course.
Which is: If there are illegal aliens causing trouble on your street, you are concerned about illegal immigration. If they ain’t there, you ain’t so concerned.
I don’t know about your neighborhood, but I can tell you that thanks to the foreclosure tsunami, lots and lots of illegals have left Sterling. Guess much of that whole streamlined mortgage phenomenon was being conducted in Spanish, eh? Pepe’s closed a couple months ago. As far as I can tell, we may have one or two boarding houses left on our block but they are very discreet and it is a hell of a lot better than when we had five, three of whom were decidedly obnoxious.
Personally, I think a bunch of illegal migrants decided they stand as good a chance economically trying to make a go of it back in their own countries as here. To which I say: Good on ye, mates.
Zogby now reveals that voters in last week’s election were overwhelmingly in favor of immigration enforcement as opposed to amnesty – but the entire issue was not a factor in their vote:
– Only 32% of Obama voters considered his support for amnesty as a factor in their decisions to vote for him. 67% said it was either not a factor at all, or they voted for Obama in spite of his stance on amnesty.
– 60% of voters said reducing illegal immigration and cracking down on employers who hire them is important to them, while only 21% supported “legalizing or creating a pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens.
– 57% of voters stated that amnesty would harm American workers and further strain public resources, while only 26% believe amnesty would aid economic recovery and ease public burdens.
And needless to say, McCain voters concerned about illegal immigration were obliged to take the clothespin-and-vodka route in order to pull the lever.
But many illegals have left. Construction has slowed. Winter is approaching. The issue has become less salient, even for Latinos, according to the research.
What this boils down to, for me, is more positive potential for the incoming Obama administration. The most egregious problem caused by illegal immigration is the negative impact on American workers – the downward pressure on salaries. Problems on our neighborhood streets run a close second, but these are much more difficult to quantify.
As the unemployment percentage creeps upward in this country, it will become more and more evident that allowing illegal workers to take American jobs and drive down American salaries is simply wrong.
Ten years ago Americans could make a living hanging drywall, doing rough carpentry, and a host of other forms of manual labor. When the opportunity to work picks back up, when housing starts are on the upswing, there is no reason that work should be going to illegals.
I have a strong hope – and faith, even – that President Obama will not turn his back on America’s blue collar workers.
Guest Post By Nancy Matthis at ADMC
The election of 2008 promises to be an all-out battle throughout the country for the soul of America. Will we continue to be a nation of individuals who pride themselves on personal responsibility? Or will we keep sliding deeper into increasing government entitlement programs (and meddling) on the path to socialism?
The answer will largely be determined by the outcomes of the 435 hard-fought Congressional races throughout the United States. And in many of those races, the margin of victory or loss on average may be less than three percent. Which is to say that illegal aliens may decide the future of our democracy.
Our voting processes are deeply flawed. For quite some time the problem of voter fraud has been discussed, but tolerated. The website Illegal Aliens US comments:
Those ‘undocumented’ are actually ‘highly documented’ with fraudulent documents our government readily accepts.
Thank goodness for the Washington Post. If it did not exist, we would have to invent it as a plot device for narrative purposes.
Some of you may recall the Post’s unwittingly ironic 2006 human interest story about Latin American men who come to the DC area to play soccer and work in jobs that Americans just won’t do, like carpentry.
Which, incidentally, explains why we in Sterling were all living in mud huts before the Salvadorans and Mexicans arrived to build houses for us.
The focus of the story was entrepreneur Jorge Morales, semi-pro soccer coach, owner of J.K Carpentry of Sterling, and also owner of numerous local houses which serve as “dormitory style” residences for his player/workers. Interestingly, the print version of the August 7, 2006 edition of the Post featured a photo of a number of players in the front yard of their “dormitory,” which was also a house across the street from one of Help Save Loudoun’s members. This HSL member remembered fondly the time when that dormitory was a single family residence – but that was another era, thanks to the Loudoun County Zoning Enforcement Team.
Today, the Post has another priceless, unwitting stunner, detailing how Male Latino Workers Find Domestic Skills Are Survival Tools (below the fold):
