Open Letter to the Chatham County Commissioners
Chatham County Commissioners,
I represent the national organization ALIPAC, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, which represents over 25,000 Hispanic, black, and white Americans as well as many LEGAL immigrants on immigration issues.
I am writing you today to insist that you reconvene and reconsider your votes on the measure instructing local law enforcement not to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last night, on January 27, a room full of 35 people including members of the media indicated that they had no prior knowledge that your board was going to consider or vote on such a resolution. I was informed that you stuck this measure on at the end of some kind of planning workshop and each person who gave input was in favor of the resolution.
How dare you make such a dramatic policy decision, which is contrary to the wishes of over 80% of your constituents, without adequate public notification or public comment. Politicians should not make decisions that could cost North Carolinians their property and lives without allowing the taxpayers to have input before you vote!
It appears that your intent was to deprive your constituents of due process and open government. If this was not your intent, then I challenge you to reopen the issue with adequate foreknowledge and access to the public and the media.
If you fail to take immediate action to rectify this injustice you have perpetrated against the fine people of Chatham County, then your silence will speak volumes and it will indicate that your maneuvers were an intentional effort to deprive our citizenry of having a voice in local government.
Furthermore, I must advise you that according to many certified polls, your decision on immigration matters is contrary to the wishes of over 80% of Americans. From a Zogby poll in April 2006 to the polling data from the JWP Civitas Institute in Raleigh, NC, Americans have made it clear that over 80% favor local police enforcing immigration laws.
I would like to know, what each of you will have to say to the families in Chatham County when their loved ones are injured, maimed, or killed by illegal aliens who had been in and out of your custody many times beforehand? You cannot say that there was nothing you could do. The honest truth will be that you prevented anything from being done and you will therefore share a high degree of culpability in the crimes of the illegal aliens you let run amok in Chatham County.
Your degradation of the political process by passing this measure without public knowledge and participation is deplorable. The decision you made is contrary to your responsibility to represent the views of your constituents. The decision you made will cost some Chatham Country residents their very lives.
You have made Chatham County our state's lone Sanctuary County, and illegal aliens, especially the ones involved in criminal activity, will come flooding into the area quickly and your crime rate will rise. In areas of the state and nation where 287g has been implemented, crime rates have fallen. In surrounding areas that did not implement 287(g) crime rates have risen.
Of course, you did not have access to any of this information before you made a very bad policy decision because you did not allow anyone opposed to the measure to know about the vote or to speak out.
I look forward to hearing of your decision to rectify this injustice and affront to open government by calling for a new vote on the measure during a normal County Commission meeting, where business is conducted with full citizen and media oversight and input.
William Gheen
President, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC
www.alipac.us
PS: I have attached links to videos of our meeting in Pittsboro last night for you, since you decided not to attend the event. I hope you will listen carefully and understand that we will be organizing to demand better government responsiveness to Chatham Citizens from your board.
Cc: Chatham County Sheriff's Office
NC Attorney General's Office
Governor Beverly Perdue
All Members of the NC General Assembly
All Members of the NC Media
All Chatham County elected officials and law enforcement chiefs
My email to Chatham County representatives
I am writing to you all to express my dismay at your decision to prohibit participation in the 287(g) program by your county law enforcement agency. As protectors of the public, I find it beyond comprehension that you would decide to make Chatham County, in effect, a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, especially those with criminal backgrounds. It is bad enough that our federal government has abrogated their responsibilities in securing our borders, but for a county government to encourage such immigration and attract those who ought not be in this country to begin with and offer safe haven for known criminals is a violation of the public trust.
One of the few positive things that a government can do is actively protect its citizenry. There are some county Sheriffs that are attempting to secure such for their jurisdictions, such as Sheriff Steve Bizzel over in Johnston County. Instead of capitulating to politically correct twaddle, he actually gets support from his county commissioners to work towards securing that county from undue criminal influence.
I urge you to reconsider your breach of responsibility in your recent decision to fail to allow your county servants to participate in one of the few programs that makes sense any more in this country, the 287(g) program for dealing with immigration authorities, policies, and immigrants. Should you fail to do so, the future of your county safety and financial stability will be in serious jeopardy. You are going to attract the criminal element to your county as well as those who drain economic resources.
Please do the right thing for Chatham County and the entire State of North Carolina and reconsider your faulty decision, do so in a public spotlight rather than stealthily as you took your original decision.
Sincerely,
Troy M. LaPlante
A citizen that is very uneasy about your decision taking and reasoning abilities
