Author: Elena

Since the “crackdown” on illegal immigration began a year ago, our respected and beloved Chief Charlie Deane has been placed on the frontline of an ugly political battle. He is a good soldier and has tried to carry out this ill-conceived order with as much integrity and intelligence as possible. Without Chief Deane at the helm of the police department, I’m certain that the morale of the department would have slumped during the turmoil and the county would have experienced real disorder. I have been very grateful to him for not quitting the job even when he was attacked by Chairman Corey Stewart and nativist blogger Greg Letiecq for the stupid charge of committing “treason” for attending an information session about the immigration policy organized by the Mexican consulate. He tried his best to warn the Board just before the first vote on the Immigration Resolution on July 10th that the Resolution would lead to “unintended consequences.” In his brief speech, he pretty much predicted what’s happened to our county in the past year since Corey Stewart and John Stirrup decided to use illegal immigration to get themselves reelected.

Kristen Mack has written an extensive profile of Chief Deane published on the front page of the Washington Post Metro section today. It’s full of good personal details about the Chief, but there are enormous holes in the story. It fails to address the crux of the matter. Chief Deane is in the “uneasy position” that he is in because of Stewart’s leadership tactics: grandstanding, lying, and bullying. The Chairman, bless his heart, has no real regard for the wisdom and expertise of professional public servants in the government such as Chief Deane or County Executive Craig Gerhart. As long as Stewart engages in governing according to the Rovean principle of a “permanent campaign,” many good people in our government will be in “uneasy positions” and will consider leaving. We must find a way of containing the damage done by Stewart’s failure in leadership so that great public servants like Chief Deane can thrive in his job instead of being stymied by having to spend their time ducking and dodging Corey’s crap and Greg’s army.

What I have always respected about Turn PW Blue, is the reasonable and logical way he approaches problem solving, while still taking into consideration the human perspective.  What PW proposes are solutions that are not only fair BUT can be implemented. I believe this is an approach that most people could support. Let’s talk about it!

Turn PW Blue, 23. July 2008, 10:05
OK, this is going to be long–not apologizing, just warning…

This issue, like so many others facing our nation today, has been brought down to a sound-bite level that does none of us any good. We want to boil it down into simplistic terms and arguments–you either “get the problem” or you’re an illegal alien sympathizer…if you question cracking down on illegal immigrants, you’re racist…you’re either with us or you’re against us.

Well, folks, it’s not that simple. There are shades of grey and nuances of position.

I have a problem with illegal immigration. I don’t think it’s right. I don’t believe there should be a blind eye to what is, after all is said and done, an illegal action. But I also don’t believe that rounding up everyone without proper documentation is the answer. I empathize with those who have risked an awful lot to try to make it to the United States simply on the ideal that a better life will await them. Isn’t that, after all, the message we try to send about America? It’s the land of boundless opportunity. Further, the economist and free-marketer in me sees the value of the ready flow of labor in the economy.

So I’m torn.

On one hand you have a group that has violated the law. They are here illegally. The law and order side of me says all else is not germane to the discussion. They broke a law. They should not be here. But the human side is not irrelevant. In fact, it is the very core of who we are as a nation. Are we not a nation of immigrants? Were we not founded by people seeking to escape persecution and to live free? Is that not the very premise upon which we founded this great republic?

So here’s my plan…my modest proposal, if you will.

One, our current immigration laws are broken. The quotas we have established are arbitrary. The process to become a legal citizen is overly complex and too restrictive. We need to reset our quotas and institute comprehensive immigration reform that includes temporary worker programs. We can look to the EU for some ideas on how such programs might work.

Second, we need to establish a path to citizenship for those who are already here and have been productive, law-abiding members of our society. It is all well and good to say that they are tainted by their first act of lawlessness and not fit for citizenship, but let’s be realistic. There are at least 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. It is neither rational nor feasible to even ponder a course of action that does not include some way to legitimize those who, except for the “original sin” of entering the country illegally, have lived model lives. We cannot deport 12 million+, so let’s not muddy the waters by even trying to contemplate how we can do that. So who qualifies? One, longevity counts. Show proof you’ve been in the country more than five years and you can enter the program. Been here less than five years? You can apply for a temporary worker visa or go home. Two, law breakers are out. Drive drunk? You go home. Steal? You go home. Any misdemeanor or felony is a ticket to deportation. Three, pass the naturalization exam.

Third, in conjunction with reform to our immigrations laws, we need to put some teeth in our immigration enforcement. So long as a viable worker visa program exists and quotas are set reasonably, there is no reason not to tighten up the border and crack down on those who attempt to enter the country through illegal means. Additionally, we need to go after those who provide the very incentive for people to risk everything to come here–employers. As part of our immigration reform, we need to put in place substantial penalties for those who hire and exploit undocumented workers. Large fines and jail time are appropriate for the most egregious and habitual violators. Eliminate the demand for cheap, immigrant labor and the supply will dry up. Put in a system to check immigration status that actually works (the current eVerify is a disaster).

At the local government level, get out of the immigration debate. All Corey Stewart has done is pawn off the problem on someone else, create a sense of ill-will with surrounding jurisdictions, and paint PWC as intolerant (at best) and bigoted (at worst). Local government should be dealing with local issues. With all the talk about illegal immigration and the time and effort expended on this issue, other core responsibilities of local government have been ignored (to our peril). Our roads are crowded and our schools are bursting. Our tax base is too reliant on residential. Far too many of our citizens are on the road 30 minutes to several hours a day commuting outside of PWC to find gainful employment. You want to make a name for yourself in PWC politics? Find a way to fix those issues and stop looking for cheap publicity by latching on to the newest “hot topic” in confrontational governing.

Notice that no where in this proposal do I talk about language or culture. We are a nation in constant flux. Our culture is an agglomeration of the cultures of our own ancestors with some homespun spice. You cannot legislate culture. You cannot legislate acculturation. Our “American” culture has survived past influxes of immigrants (who were, at the time, considered “undesirable” and a “threat” to the American way of life). We will survive and prosper through this one as well.

We would love to have your input for the next venue for an economic party. If you know of a restaurant that would welcome the event, please feel free to share. Everyone is welcome to particpate, especially those who feel we focus too heavily on one particular type of restaurant.

I understand that there are legal issues with this case.  I know that many some will say “She got what she deserved, after all, she was in this country illegaly, and was given prior deportation notices.”   To the men who have NO clue what childbirth entails, this was cruel and unusual punishment, her 8th amendment rights were violated in my mind.   No woman, in the midst of labor, is going to  be a  flight risk out of a hospital.  Furthermore, she was kept chained AFTER she gave birth, for six hours, and was denied her G-d given right to breastfeed her newborn.  I am sickend and appalled by this case.    

p.s. hyperlink located on the word “case”, click on it and it leads you to the video

Maybe there is a part of me, still, that hopes Corey will also experience such an epiphany as Robb Pearson. What was clear to me, was that Robb Pearson expressed the feeling that he wasn’t he even sure how he had been caught up in this anti immigrant frenzy initially. Anti Defamation League and others, have said consistently said, that people’s concerns about immigration are being exploited by hate groups, and somehow, their message of prejudice is becoming mainstream. That is what troubles me the most about this issue, that good people are being misled, without even knowing that the words and messages they are using can easily be found on any hate group website.

(p.s. thanks casual observer for the link!)

Robb Pearson, who previously endorsed Cresitello’s call to deputize local police for federal immigration enforcement, said he underwent a personal evolution after a “rapid financial decline” and other hardships led him to relocate to Muhlenberg, Pa.

“If I had the mindset as I have now, I never would have had the rally,” Pearson said. He explained that his own challenges had given him greater empathy.

“I was caught up in the ultraconservative fervor that surrounds the illegal immigration camp,” Pearson said.

“I think we should let them stay,” Pearson added of those in the United States illegally.

Pearson’s July 28 rally near town hall drew hundreds of people, including a counter-protest in support of all immigrants.

Cresitello, who accepted an invitation from Pearson to speak, was jeered by counter-protesters and responded by deriding them as communists and Marxists.

Shortly afterward, Pearson wrote a letter to the Daily Record thanking Cresitello and vowing to press on against illegal immigration.

“I thank Mayor Donald Cresitello for his boldness in standing up against illegal immigration and in seeking to uphold the American rule of law,” Pearson wrote at the time. “I give you a promise: This is only the beginning.”

Pearson said he now believes that “prejudice or political expediency” motivates politicians — including Cresitello — to speak out against illegal immigration.

“They’re not really about solutions. They’re about building rifts. I was part of that, unwittingly or otherwise,” Pearson said.

http://dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/COMMUNITIES34/807160442&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

The family that planted corn in the front yard of their $500,000 home is gone from Carrie Oliver’s street. So are the neighbors who drilled holes into the trees to string up a hammock.

Oliver’s list goes on: The loud music. The beer bottles. The littered diapers. All gone. When she and her husband, Ron, went for walks in their Manassas area neighborhood, she would take a trash bag and he would carry a handgun. No more. “So much has changed,” she said in a gush of relief, standing with her husband on a warm summer evening recently outside a Costco store.

A short distance away, across the river of retail commerce that is Sudley Road, Norman Gonzalez spoke of change not as renewal, but as a kind of collapse.

Business at his restaurant, Cuna del Sol, has declined 50 percent. Worse still, his extended family’s slow, steady relocation from the Guatemalan town of Jutiapa to the bustling Prince William suburbs has imploded. “A year ago, I had the biggest family in all of Manassas, maybe 100 relatives,” he said.

Now, Gonzalez, a legal U.S. resident, has his own list: Langley Park, Chantilly, Fairfax City. That is where his brothers have scattered, and they will not visit him. “There’s too much fear here,” Gonzalez said.

Since the day one year ago when Prince William County supervisors launched their crackdown on illegal immigration, the gulf between the Olivers’ relief and Gonzalez’s dejection has narrowed little, and possibly widened.

At least there is one thing partisans on both sides agree on: Hispanic immigrants are leaving Prince William. Whether their departure has improved the county’s quality of life, or pushed its already strained economy further downward, is the new topic of contention driven largely by views of whether the presence of immigrants was a good thing in the first place.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070902173.html

For all the speculation about a “surprise” in the 9500Liberty preview screening scheduled for tomorrow night at Casablanca, what I found most compelling was the clarity and precision with which it explained some complicated truths I already suspected, as well as a few I didn’t suspect. There are indeed some surprises. In fact, a few of them were bigger than I was expecting, but no, none of them included Corey Stewart at 7 Eleven with Greg Letiecq. The most striking thing about the film is that, taken as a whole, it depicts the Chairman in battle mode as only his colleagues know him, and as the average citizen has never seen him before.

Some of the scenes inside the BOCS chamber have the feeling of a showdown at high noon, with John Grisham style dramatic tension, only the suspense in this case is not dramatized; it’s real! I don’t want to give anything away. I really recommend you see it for yourself. If you do, I predict you will be on the edge of your seat, squirming with suspense, EVEN if you already know how the story turned out.

By getting perspectives from Board members, the Police Chief, the County Executive and others, the film illustrates the consensus view of recent PWC history, from a fascinating perspective inside the county government. Specifically, it explains what went down behind closed doors, so to speak, during the budgeting process, the long recesses and closed sessions, and how the risk of racial profiling lawsuits, and the high costs of avoiding them, led to the scaling back of the county’s illegal immigration policy.

I felt like Corey Stewart was treated fairly. At times I actually sympathized with the impossible situation he faced as the champion of this unfortunate “experiment” (yes, the word “experiment” comes up again but I won’t spoil it by saying who said it this time).

I know I am being vague, but I am determined not to give too much away. Let me just say THE BEST THING about the film is the inside view it provides us into the Supervisors’ approach to this controversial issue. There were several times when I was shocked at how honest people were being, and how comfortable they were just telling the truth, when we’d lived with so much confusion the past 2 months about what really went on.

There will inevitably be grumbling from the extreme right saying this is not their version of reality. No surprise there. But despite all the confusion, it’s a relief to know there is a consensus about what really happened. And, if you watch this film, it’s very possible you’ll understand it in great detail. If not, you will have a hard time discussing local politics with someone who has.

Casablanca 7:00 p.m.
7911 Centreville Rd
Manassas

It is time now, time to move towards community solutions for Prince William County. I have said this before, we will not fix the immigration reform debate from a local standpoint. There are many diverse views on illegal immigration AND immigration, but at some point, we have to come together and find what will work in our own communities, our own neighborhoods. Let’s use this thread to talk about community solutions, ones that WE can implement here, in Prince William County, solutions that will unite us as opposed to divide us. Part of the solution must involve the Latino community, so I hope that people will come up with some innovative ideas. Please, I urge everyone, leave the name calling behind and instead, focus on positive solutions. Some of the issues that need to be addressed are day laborer sites and a more dignified location for people to look for work, overcrowding issues, language barriers, community healing, immigration education, and a host of other issues that need to be addressed. I know I haven’t named them all, so please, feel free to add to the issues and solutions within the thread. I am hoping this will foster some great dialogue and bring us out of a “cyber world” and into “real life” idea implementation!

From Cindy B on a previous thread:

If you want to do more than just debate, take part in a webinar being hosted by the Center for Voter Deliberation of No Va (www.cvdnva.org) on July 9 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm.

This fall the Center plans to convene one or two pilot circles, of up to twenty people each, for an afternoon on one or more Saturdays in October. The goal for the pilot circle(s) will be to attract a diverse group of Prince William County participants, i.e., to include people who have concerns about the problems of immigration from the immigrant and non-immigrant sides, and who seek a way to discuss and do something about those problems.

So either register for the webinar if you’d like to be in on the planning, or go to the website to leave an e-mail that you’d like to be in the pilot study circles in the fall. The more diverse the viewpoints, the more valuable the study circles will be.

9500Liberty will present a special screening to mark the 1st anniversary of Prince William County’s Immigration Resolution.

Thursday July 10th, 7:00 PM
Casablanca Restaurant 7911 Centreville, RD, Manassas, VA

9500Liberty is cutting together an hour-long presentation featuring recent events, many of which are too politically sensitive to share on YouTube. The screening will challenge some of the misleading rhetoric that has been circulating in recent days and weeks, and will include some surprising footage that could shift Prince William County’s political landscape for the better.

We hope to see you there! Make sure to invite your friends!

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them”
Galileo

July 4th, in my opinion, is the defining moment in American History, and is my most revered “holiday”. My first “experience” on BVBL was as “John Locke”, for he is the real father of “natural law”, which gave us this most powerful statement of freedom and democracy, “all men are created equal. ” The Declaration of Independence, although not considered a “legal” document, is the very soul and conscience of our Democracy. I am guided by those simple, yet awe inspiring words. It was a revolution not only in deed, but in thought, and I honor my forefathers for their bravery and wisdom on July 4th.

In one vibrant paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson managed to compress both a résumé of American constitutional theory that justified the struggle for independence and a précis of a revolutionary, republican theory of government. “All men are created equal”; they enjoy “unalienable Rights” (this repudiated arguments by Thomas Hobbes and William Blackstone that people surrender their natural rights when they leave the state of nature); these rights include “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (a liberal and literary improvement on John Locke’s triad of life, liberty, and property); governments exist to protect those rights; governments are created by “the consent of the governed” (the compact theory); the people retain the right “to alter or to abolish” government when it violates its ends, “and to institute new Government” to secure the people’s “Safety and Happiness” (the commonwealth theory). In their totality, these concepts provided a comprehensive statement of popular sovereignty.

full text http://www.answers.com/topic/the-declaration-of-independence

Wednesday, I had a great opportunity to go for a “ride along”  with a police officer in the Woodbridge area.  Expecting to see horrific neighborhoods, having been described by Greg and other posters, I WAS shocked.  Shocked, because, for the most part, the only lawns I did not see maintained were the ones with the foreclosure signs on them.  Sure, the homes were older, several had garages that were turned into separate entrances, but they are all in good shape for the most part.  We visited shopping centers, once vibrant, now deserted. 

The police officer pointed out areas with high gang activity, and pointed to some taggings.  Still, having grown up in Fairfax, having lived from  North Arlington to Centreville, having seen first hand the poorer apartments and houses in the Baileys Crossroads area, even these parts of Woodbridge, overall, looked well maintained.   I am not suggesting that the houses all perfect, there were a few that stood out, but this was not a “third world country”, not by any stretch of the imagination.  I asked the police officer “is this as bad as you could show me ?”, and he replied that it was.   

Stopping briefly, we had some conversations with a few day laborers.  They were cordial and friendly, sharing their thoughts, describing their desire to work during these tough times.  Some had families here, some had families in their country of origin.   Although, a few admitted to be undocumented, several said they had visa’s to be here legally. 

Driving home, I recalled the conversations I had with this very kind, considerate, and thoughtful(as in full of thought), police officer.  He can see the totality of immigration impact in Prince William County, we were able to debate our ideas and I certainly came away with a new appreciation of his job and the struggles of these neighborhoods, struggling to absorb such a large influx of new and different faces. 

To me, the glaring elephant in the room, has been the lack of county leadership, dealing pro-actively with the changing face of Prince William County to a more urban environment.   Instead, we have community in fear of the police, and that fear is counter productive to the safety of everyone in Prince William County, including me, you, and the immigrants. 

Being that I believe our focus on illegal immigration takes us away, as a nation, from more serious crisis’, I thought this article was very appropriate. The full article can be found here: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid:356664

Page Two: The Politics of Distraction
In the face of failure at home and abroad, the right turns on immigrants
BY LOUIS BLACK

Imagine a modern Rip Van Winkle, someone who, a year and a half to two years back, had sunk into a deep sleep. Now, months later, RVW awakens and turns on the television news to see what he’s missed. The current, news-dominating debate over illegal immigrants and immigration comes as a surprise.
Certainly, immigration is and has been a major issue. But what about Iraq, al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden (has he been caught?), Social Security reform, national security, tax-cutting budget balancing, AIDS in Africa, spreading democracy, and battling the axis of evil, as well as reactionary political and social reform?

The intensity and sense of urgency around the immigration discussion seems disproportionately overwhelming. Even if you have been awake, but just not paying much attention, this ferocity is disconcerting. What catastrophic incident has caused this issue to be moved to the front burner, with the maximum possible heat?

Have terrorists been caught crossing our southern border? Has the drain of that population bankrupted and shredded our already shrinking, ever more flimsy social safety net? Have illegal immigrants gone on a Days of Rage-style urban rampage, leaving cities aflame? Are their numbers reaching epidemic proportions?

Some would say “yes” to all of those. They claim that illegal immigrants are “invading” the U.S., parasitically devouring public-education and health-service funds with the intent of subverting and destroying Western civilization and the American lifestyle.

Illegal immigration is a complex issue, one for which with any kind of movement is almost impossible because of the intensely concerned constituencies’ radically different agendas. Yet those opposed to open borders offer only easy answers: Implement strict border enforcement and build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico now. Drive those already here home by denying them employment (by outrageously fining any American employer hiring them), education, driver’s licenses, and any public services. Concurrently, round them up to send them back home, with no possibility of returning.

There are any number of logical refutations of the above positions. It is estimated that illegal workers contribute about $10 billion to Social Security that they never collect, though they cost about $2.2 billion a year in government health services. They are crucial to the marketplace’s filling many low-level labor and service jobs Americans won’t. (Note: This is not to argue that there are no Americans who will take these jobs or even that they won’t take them at the same pay. Those are straw-man arguments – there is not a large enough American work force to do the jobs, especially at prevailing wages.) But even this brief discussion dignifies the current immigration debate.

If our Rip Winkle, a mere 18 months earlier, watched the FOX network or listened to talk radio, Iraq was overwhelmingly the predominant topic. In so many ways, it validated all of those attitudes: how right the U.S. was to be in Iraq, and how successful the occupation, as we brought democracy to the Iraqis. At the same time, this country had returned to our rightful place as the sole, dominant national power of the modern world. Democrats (read: leftists/communists/socialists/suicidal pacifists) and other anti-war activists had been proven wrong, exposed as America-haters, racists, cowards, and impractical dreamers who wanted to embrace the terrorists rather than destroy them.

Now, this might seem cheap and too convenient – a neo-leftist, misguided attempt to shift the debate away from the real problem – but, right now, go turn on talk radio. Illegal immigration is the dominant, and almost only, topic. The invasion of the country and corruption of American civilization is lamented. Americans, especially our elected leaders, are chastised for doing nothing. For the part of our population that is dependent on easy answers and needs an identifiable enemy to hate, illegal immigration is the new Iraq.

This issue certainly fits the bill, not only providing an outside “enemy,” but allowing an attack on clueless, apathetic (if not traitorous) citizens (read: liberal Democrat, anti-American, anti-moral-values, communist, socialist, fifth columnists). There are no problems that can’t be solved by attacking other Americans.

Illegal immigration is not a major problem facing the United States, though it is of genuine and contradictory concerns. The reason for its prominence is a need for enemies on the part of those who vow undying love to this country while evidencing not even limited affection for its principles.

This is 1984. Turn on talk radio. You will hear endless gibberish about illegal immigration. Iraq will be hardly mentioned, if at all. Socialist George Orwell saw this coming, as right-wing America still does not. The response to terrorism can’t be terrorism; the response to fascism can’t be fascism; and the response to anti-American rhetoric and values can’t be the destruction of the Constitution.

FAIR and IRLI are clearly very busy orchestrating their long term strategy. With McCain and Obama, advocating some form of legalization, immigration reform, and enforcement, FAIR’s appetite to stop immigration, legal and illegal, just won’t be satiated. Once again, we see Mike Hethmon, I.R.L.I/F.A.I.R. attorney, using unsuspecting localities for the ultimate immigration legal experiment, so far they haven’t won, but they keep trying.  Isn’t compromise the most reasonable and humane response to our immigration dilemma,  compromise that the majority of Americans will find themselves willing to support?   Why is FAIR so vehemently opposed to reaching a consensus?

Excerpts below, full article link posted at the bottom:

Although heavily supported and highly organized, those who oppose illegal immigration suddenly find themselves without a champion.”That’s the reality we’re dealing with: a choice we don’t consider a choice,” said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, which advocates stricter controls on legal and illegal immigration. “These two guys were pretty much at the bottom of all the candidates. They’re the worst, the bottom of the barrel, that ended up winning.”

The picture looked much rosier a few months ago, as far as these groups were concerned. The field of Republican presidential candidates included two — Reps. Duncan Hunter of Alpine and Tom Tancredo of Colorado — who ran campaigns based largely on their opposition to>illegal immigration. But Obama and McCain are seen as generally indistinguishable on the issue. McCain, while toughening his stance recently, has backed proposals providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Obama favors a similar mix of enforcement and legalization.

The staff of the Immigration Reform Law Institute has been working since 2002 to aid state legislators concerned about illegal immigration. Every step of the way, there have been legal challenges to the bills they have written, said institute director Michael M. Hethmon, and with each challenge, they’ve found ways to make their bills stronger.”We were constantly learning,” Hethmon said.

“We’ve spent the last seven years separating the Republican back bench from the party leadership with tremendous success,” said Beck, who said his sights are now on the Democrats. “We’ll continue to push that line hard.”

>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig23-2008jun23,0,6052440.story?track=rss