children_on_border

From The Sheriff of Nottingham BlogSpot:

The Sheriff has learned that Chairman Stewart gave permission to Youth for Tomorrow, a taxpayer-funded non-profit serving at-risk youth in Prince William County, to open their doors to house children for Homeland Security that have been flown to Prince William County from Texas and other areas on the southern border.

This statement is an outright lie.  It is not up to Corey Stewart to give permission or not give permission to Youth for Tomorrow.  YFT is a private organization.  YFT is also not a tax-payer funded organization.  Does it get a grant like many other organizations in the county?  Probably.  So do lots of agencies and clubs that meet the criteria. However, most of the county money received by YFT is for services rendered.

One such  example  of these services would be if a child needed residential placement because Prince William County Schools could not provide the appropriate educational setting for this child.  PWCS would pay the residential /educational fee to YFT, the same as it would pay to any other 24 hour facility.  The court system, in conjunction with social services, might also place a child in the YFT setting.  Either the state or the county would pay for those services.  That to me, is not “tax-payer funded.

We get that The Sheriff and all he represents is out to excoriate, skewer, embarrass, and beat Chairman Corey Stewart by any means possible, regardless of who else is damaged in the process.

Stewart failed to disclose that Prince William County was a very “welcoming place” for illegals if housing them benefited his deep-pocket donors to his political campaigns. The Youth for Tomorrow leaders have done nothing wrong.  They contribute to Corey Stewart on their own volition, and have the right to do so. The Youth for Tomorrow is rooted in deep Christian values, and needy children are their mission without regard for their immigration status.

Good job, Sheriff.  In your glee and zealotry to put Stewart in his place, you have just exposed our community to the disharmony and discord we experienced back in 2007/2008.  Perhaps your readers didn’t mention the thread and accompanying video,  Story of America: Lawrenceville, filmed by Eric Byler, that we put up about a week ago about Lawrenceville, Virginia  where a town hall meeting full of angry citizens bellowed, shook their fists, and went on diatribes for hours over the possibility of children being placed in an abandoned school there in that community.  It was an incredibly ugly scene and we were shocked at some of the vitriol.

No, we didn’t know about Youth for Tomorrow providing a temporary home for some of these poor kids.  Now everyone will know.  What good does that do?  These are CHILDREN.  Little children far away from home and often far from their parents.  These children are refuges, fleeing violence and a horribly uncertain life.  Our hats are off to Joe Gibbs’ Youth for Tomorrow for providing this humanitarian assistance to children in crisis, regardless of country of origin or immigration status.

Shame on The Sheriff or whatever your names are, for throwing a spotlight on this organization. They  are just trying to do the right thing, according to their religious values.  Shame! Shame! Shame! Take your fight with Corey elsewhere.  Don’t use  children as your pawns to gouge at Corey and other board members.  If there are protestors out there, guess who we will blame.  You.

Let’s talk about what really happened.   Another leak to The Sheriff.   Although the information wasn’t private, it wasn’t  necessarily in the public domain. Dr. Jones, CEO of Youth for Tomorrow paid a private call to each PWC supervisor advising that YFT was planning on providing respite for some of the immigrant children involved in our current border crisis, while they await a hearing.  He wasn’t asking permission.  He didn’t need to.  YFT is a private organization.  The community didn’t need to be involved.  His call was a courtesy call that I feel certain was to keep PWC leadership abreast of events that could possibly be controversial.  Good for Dr. Jones.  He did the right thing.

What people fail to realize is that the LAW requires these children to be detained at the border and they must be allowed into the country to be processed.  They then have a hearing.   Children other than Mexican will all be processed.  Why not Mexican children?  Mexico and the United States  share a border.  Mexican children coming to a checkpoint from Mexico can be turned back and placed immediately into the hands of representatives of their country since there are Mexican border agents right there  (Same with Canada).   Children coming in from another country such as Guatamalea, Honduras and El Salvador don’t have agents there to assume responsibility for them.  Therefore, by LAW (remember RULE OF LAW), children must be temporarily admitted, processed, and have a deportation hearing.  There simply are not enough federal deportation judges and other required personnel available for such a huge overload and backlog.

For the record, the law was enacted in 2008, under the Bush administration and was a provision of a human trafficking law  that requires U.S. Border Patrol agents to turn the children over to the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services and guarantees them hearings  Because of the backlog, it could be  a long time to get to each child.  President Obama has asked Congress for $2 billion in order to hire additional personnel, judges, social workers to help facilitate what needs to be done as quickly as possible.

A few asides:

Only ignorant people  say “illegals.”  The constitutionally correct term is “illegal aliens.”  Those of us who want to be a little gentler, especially when talking about children might say, immigrant or migrant children, or undocumented migrants, or a host of other terms less judgemental.

Corey never mentioned that he wanted children removed on the Laura Ingraham Show.  He was speaking of people who had been arrested.  We don’t particularly like what he said but let’s be accurate and not make up stuff that he didn’t say.

How did The Sheriff just happened to get hold of this information right after Corey was on Fox News and Laura Ingrahams?  Hmmmm…don’t you just wonder whose lips were singing like a bird?  We know. The Supervisors were apprised a while back.  Which one, closely connected to that blog, spilled his guts?  Obviously a certain blogger then  disclosed the information  at a politically  opportune moment,  Shame on all concerned.  Using children as political poker chips is just plain wrong!

So now that a match has been thrown into a can of gasoline,  who is going to put out the fire?  This was not information that needed to be blabbed all over the place.  Really, it isn’t any of our business.  This is a humanitarian crisis.  Period.

 

 

77 Thoughts to “Lies, leaks and children in crisis”

  1. Elena

    Well then Charlotte, with your “common sense legal training”, Derecho clearly states he has not seen the SUP. He is referencing the police reporting criteria. NOTHING there stipulates status, NOTHING. Furthermore, I imagine, that there is Federal language that would allow for such a temporary placement. You want to fight giving these kids a humane place to stay? Do you REALLY want to do that?

    I hope that clarifies how important it is not assume what the SUP says about the ability of YFT to accept these kids.

  2. Charlotte

    @Elena
    Elena: Perhaps you were reading a different post than I referenced. You specifically stated “Derecho clearly states he has not seen the SUP.”

    Derecho contradicts this directly:

    “That being said, as some have asserted that the Youth for Tomorrow question is also a land use question due to their SUP, I took up the challenge elsewhere and reviewed the SUP application and proffers. ”

    So were you just blinded by your bias on this issue — that runs strongly counter to the majority opinions being expressed on other blogs — or are you just lying (I am not suggesting that, but Moon-Howler certainly draws a very firm line about people who say things that are not accurate that she defines as being a “lie” – so you have to decide that for yourself)?

    Derecho has, at least as he claims, read and analyzed the SUP and has determined it has some specific requirements that YFT cannot and is not meeting.

    So now I am going to buckle in for the blowback that will surely be coming. Obviously, I cannot besmirtch the leaders here without getting smacked.

  3. I just looked. Those are easy to circumvent using a Tax Indentification Number rather than a social. Its done all the time in the schools.

    Someone already listed how to fulfill the stipulations.

    You really are sensitive. How would you like to be Marty Nohe and his family over on the Sheriff blog? Now that is some smacking around on a weekly basis. No one has called you a bobble head, insulted your womanhood, or made fun of how you talk or anything mean like that. We differ in opinion and present facts. Facts aren’t a spanking. Warning!! Don’t go on that blog or you will really have hurt feelings.

    So let me see if I understand. You don’t want the immigrant kids in your county even though the local government has nothing to do with supporting it. Do I understand your position correctly?

  4. Charlotte, I have no fight with Derecho. Why fight with a Virginian who drinks fine liquor? That makes the Derecho sort of a soul mate.

    We might not agree on much opinion-wise, I do respect his knowledge of policy and procedure.

    I don’t know why everyone is so surprised that Republicans and nothings (<—–that would be me.) often disagree. I can't believe we would have the same opinions on most things.

  5. Charlotte

    Moon-Howler: Thanks. I would not want to be in any of their shoes, but they chose that arena and I guess much of that comes with the territory.

    My point, and it is lost in the back and forth, is that this is about our inability to be the funder of last resort for every refugee in the world. The starfish poem is cute, but not reality. While parochial, I prefer to take care of needy citizens who are currently shortchanged by lack of funding in government programs. That applies equally to local AND federal program funding.

    My estimation of Derecho went up if he imbibes in fine liquor.

  6. Elena

    I did misread, he did look at the proffer. I am quite confident that the US government can meet ALL the criteria on that proffer.

  7. Elena

    Charlotte,
    You are right, we don’t care enough for our own, but that doesn’t preclude following the law in this case.

    I am sure you would have fit right in during each immigration influx, bemoaning all the newcomers. The Johnson-Reed act would have caused you no second thoughts I’m sure. You must be native American by birth, surely you’re ancestry must not include immigrants.

    And actually, the starfish story is quite a wonderful tenant in which to live your life, it can apply to many different circumstances. I guess that’s too cute. Let’s hope you never find yourself needing a helping hand, karma can be a bitch.

    I am not suggesting I know the solution to this crisis, but I sure as hell would advocate treating these kids humanely until we find one.

    Your premise would mean no one should ever do ANYTHING if you can’t do it for everyone. That is not a society I would want to live in, nor is that the lesson I teach my kids.

  8. Starry flights

    I have no problem with YFT and will donate money for their worthy cause. Kudos to the Sherriff for publicizing their good works.

  9. @Charlotte

    I think that politicians run for office shouldn’t have to put up with character assassination. Many decent people who would make good leaders simply don’t run for office because of the vicious attacks on them and their family. Yes, they are fair game but should they be.

    As for those who go to blogs that smack you around. You are right. It is your choice whether to go or not. We try to keep debate vibrant and vigorous but we also discourage name calling and character assassination. Does it always work? Nah. But it’s a goal.

    So that’s a no? You don’t want them here? I guess I can respect that if you don’t want them in the country. I would have a difficult time if it was a NIMBY thing as in fine for them to be in Stafford, but not so much in Prince William.

    I feel differently. I see it as a humanitarian crisis and that the children are refugees. I would rather spend my tax dollars (I know…I don’t get asked how to spend) in the western hemisphere rather than building up Afghanistan or Iraq. We can’t save the world. I would like to give these children a chance. If we send some of them back, they will not survive.

    1 in 14 chance of being murdered in Honduras. Those aren’t good stats towards growing old. It makes for bad odds.

  10. Scout

    I think it’s absolutely great that charitable organizations around the country, including in Northern Virginia, provide shelter for these kids. Does anyone really have a problem with that? I find that very hard to understand, if true. When you have an influx of these proportions, it makes very good sense to disperse the kids and to use resources of church and other private charities to take care of them until they can be granted the asylum determinations to which our law entitles them.

  11. Censored bybvbl

    Isn’t YFT an example of the private sector stepping up and doing a job that would otherwise cost the taxpayers even more money?

  12. Elena

    Stop talking rationally Censored, people hate that 🙂

  13. Confused

    The BOCS has jumped the shark. Really? They’re going to file ANOTHER FOIA request? Good luck with that! Oh, and they’re going to ask ‘the federal government’ what jurisdictional authority the county has? Ha! Did they forget to talk to Richmond?

  14. Wolve

    Is it not against federal law for the USG to accept freebies from private organizations? Something to do, I believe, with not bypassing the power of the legislative purse strings. I have seen a report that YTF has “contracted” with the USG to take in these kids. Therefore, I suggest that YFT and any other charitable organization doing this sort of thing will get reimbursed for their costs. At least, I sure hope so. This could get expensive.

    1. I expect fees are involved, even though this organization has a lot of donors.

  15. Wolve

    Yep……Antideficiency Act.

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