Thread: MD Rep. to speak in town hall tomorrow

I figured that I should post this in this forum too for anyone in the general area...MD supports taxpayer funded day laborer sites and I intend to tell my Rep. that allowing this is more than a dereliction of his duty..it is a misappropriation of state funds and is criminally negligent.

To any "constituents" of Rep. Van Hollen 8th Cong. Dist. (Montgomery County) this "patriot" (I say that with a most extreme level of sarcasm) will be speaking in Bethesda at the Westland Middle School 5511 Massachusetts Ave. from 7:30 - 9:00 PM tomorrow May 8, 2006 for a TOWN HALL MEETING! I will be there and hope to see you there...look for the most surly faced guy in the audience!

By the way, this yahoo has an unfavorable voting record regarding illegal immigration so he needs to know our displeasure and to get a taste of his future political misfortunes if our good neighbors across the Potomac from here are any indication of regional popular will (i.e. Herndon, VA).

Don't forget that MD and especially Montgomery County have STATE funded ILLEGAL ALIEN sites (CASA of MD) these people have threatened the minutemen publicly and I hope to get a public admonishment of the practice of using state funds to support the commission of crimes (hiring these illegal alien invaders) from Van Hollen. If he doesn't then we will at least be able to write him off and keep him from reelection.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/02220...54_31988.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...022501495.html

So Torres or whatever the CASA director's name is threatening the children of the Minutemen! They are not doing anything illegal at their homes unless being a concerned citizen is illegal. Many in MD and the government are absentee for these fellow Marylanders and I for one am LIVID. How dare this person virtually embezzling state funds for the benefit of illegals say MOST even now have their papers!... So some still don't and others now do..(likely forgeries [another crime]) Why would a civil servant threaten the sanctuary of private homes and no political uproar no demand for apology!

I hope Van Hollen can explain this to me! I also hope I'm not the only "extremist" or "xenophobe" there.


here is a quote from the above cited article.


‘‘They [Minutemen] don’t come on the property or come close to the workers’ center, so I have heard no complaints. Things have been quiet.”

While the Minutemen are taking a stealthy approach, Casa’s response will be quite the opposite.

‘‘We are going to target them in a specific way,” said Executive Director Gustavo Torres. Casa representatives will go out with cameras and video cameras to record the Minutemen, but that will only be the first step, he said.

‘‘Then we are going to picket their houses, and the schools of their kids, and go to their work,” Torres said. ‘‘If they are going to do this to us, we are going to respond in the same way, to let people know their neighbors are extremists, that they are anti-immigrant. They are going to hear from us.”

Torres also takes issue with the notion that all of the men who wait for work at official and unofficial pick-up sites are in the United States illegally. ‘‘I have a big surprise for the Minutemen: We know for a fact that many of our workers already have documents.”

Keep on digging that hole Torres! This guy is truly showing through his words how self interested and out of touch these pseudo civic centers are with reality. Proof too that these kinds of agencies must be exposed nationwide! This is all just a few blocks from my house and I know people here who dont know about it.


You won't believe the audicity of their homepage advocating with taxpayer funds the boycott of taxpayers!!!

http://www.casademaryland.org/

http://www.casademaryland.org/annualreport05.pdf
FY'05 $1.42 Million dollars in government contracts!!!

http://www.gazette.net/stories/03080...02_31943.shtml

CASA de Maryland

Press Advisory

Jaime Contreras (301) 775-0202

Eliza Leighton (240) 354-0765





Immigration Leaders Decry Attempts to Weaken Immigration Bill –

Call on Senate Allies to

Protect Legalization Provisions









The National Capital Immigration Coalition (NCIC), the immigration coalition representing the diverse immigrant communities of DC, Maryland , and Virginia , voices strong opposition to the Senate Republicans’ “compromise” proposal which would divide undocumented immigrants into three categories and treat each group differently.



“Not only does this compromise violate our basic American principles of fair and equal treatment, it would be completely unworkable,” said Jaime Contreras, President of the NCIC. “Immigrants with less than five years of residency would never choose to participate in a program that provides no guarantees and thus would be driven even further underground and hyper-exploited.”



The NCIC urges Senators to vote for a comprehensive immigration reform plan and not a watered down proposal that treats millions and millions of people without respect.



“We urge our representatives who have shown leadership on this issue, such as Senators Edward Kennedy, Dick Durbin and John McCain, to stand strong for what they know is right and not compromise with the fate of millions and millions of hard working, contributing members of our country by tearing their families apart,” said Reverend Christy Swanson, Ordained Minister of the United Church of Christ.



The looming battle of a weakened Senate bill reaching a conference committee with the Draconian H.R. 4437, will drive millions of immigrants into the streets this Monday to demand that their children and families be treated with respect. The NCIC will host the Washington , DC rally at 4:00 on the Capitol Mall.



Meanwhile, Americans across the country are saying clearly that they want comprehensive immigration reform – immigration reform which treats all immigrants the same and provides a path to citizenship, unites families, deals with the future flow of immigrants in a legal and compassionate way, and ensures workplace and civil rights protections for all.

Gaithersburg Officials Back Day-Labor Center
Workers Currently Gather in Parking Lot

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page GZ03
After a candlelight vigil for immigrant rights outside City Hall, a majority of the Gaithersburg City Council this week spoke in favor of opening a county-funded center to help day laborers find work and fair pay.

At the crowded council meeting Monday night, several Latino immigrants spoke -- some in Spanish, some near tears -- to council members and asked them to allow a worker center similar to those operating in Silver Spring and Wheaton.

"We need this country in order to better our lives, in order to better our families," said Dario Nunez, 28, who has been in Gaithersburg since 2001. "We need to be a united family and take this city forward."

Mayor Sidney A. Katz and four of five council members said they supported some type of day-laborer center as a way to disperse daily gatherings of workers in a church parking lot. But details such as where the center would be located, who would run it and what services it would provide remained undecided this week.

Katz directed city staff members to return in two weeks with more information for a proposal that the city could forward to Montgomery County for final approval. Last year, the county appropriated funds to lease a building for a day-laborer center on North Frederick Avenue, but the plan was abandoned in the face of neighborhood opposition.

"We need to facilitate a center. Local government is the government that's closest to the people. We're here to help real people with real problems," said council member Geri Edens. "I don't think we should allow the national debate on immigration to overshadow what our job is, and that is to help the people in this city."

In the interim, City Manager David B. Humpton said the city would ramp up police patrols past Grace United Methodist Church, where the workers gather. "We're going to immediately increase security on the site," he said.

Some opponents of the day-laborer center said they were concerned it would attract illegal immigrants. The other day-laborer centers in Montgomery, run by the social services organization Casa of Maryland, help match employers with workers, provide legal assistance and offer English classes.

"It's patently a criminal activity . . . aiding and abetting the hiring and transportation of illegal immigrants," said Stephen Schreiman, state director of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, an anti-illegal immigration group. The Minutemen have deployed volunteers to take photos of day laborers in an effort to identify them to immigration authorities. Such centers "are encouraging people to sneak across the border," Schreiman said.

Clark Day, a resident who lives near the Grace United Methodist Church, said his wife has been ogled by "guys grabbing themselves or whistling" as she walked past. Day, along with other opponents of a day-laborer center, said he was concerned that county funds would support a service that might help those who are not U.S. citizens.

"I don't think it's the city's job spending taxpayer money on something that could be construed as being an illegal operation," said Day, who was on the 15-member task force that outlined the options to the council. "There are employment agencies for people who need work. If [day laborers] don't have the paperwork to use the agencies that are here, they shouldn't be here."

The lone Gaithersburg council member who opposed the center, Henry F. Marraffa Jr., said that legal immigrants could go to a nearby employment agency, Labor Ready, to find jobs. Marraffa also criticized Casa of Maryland, saying "they want to control all the immigrants."

"That is one of the reasons why I am totally opposed to having Casa [of] Maryland involved in Gaithersburg," he said.

Before the council meeting, hundreds of people, most of them Latino, gathered in a grassy amphitheater outside City Hall for a rally in support of federal immigration reform, international workers' day and the proposed day-laborer center. For about two hours, the crowd listened to speeches and songs and raised small white candles as they expressed solidarity for improving the lives of immigrants.

"This country was built by immigrants, and now they're trying to push us out," said Angelica Pinedo, a housekeeper from Gaithersburg who moved from Peru 25 years ago. Her two children, Steven, 13, and Natalie Fernandez, 16, walked out of school to attend the gathering. In the front row, Natalie held up a sign: "Today we march. Tomorrow we vote."

"We're not criminals, we're not terrorists, we're doing this in a peaceful way," Pinedo said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01298.html