Thread: N&O {SOB}:Human kindness missing

Sheehan: Published: Jul 25, 2008 12:30 AM Modified: Jul 25, 2008 01:24 AM
Human kindness missing

Ruth Sheehan, Staff Writer
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Could it be that Tim Sutton, the Alamance County commissioner who has led the charge against illegal immigration in his county and the state, finally sees the harsh flip side of his cause?
Maybe. Maybe not.

On Wednesday morning, the plain-spoken Sutton reflected on what many view as an outrageous case of immigration enforcement gone heartlessly awry.

In this case, a mother and her three kids, along with an acquaintance from church, were traveling Interstate 85 through Alamance County when they were stopped for an out-of-date tag decal.

Turns out the mother didn't have a valid driver's license -- illegal immigrants never do.

Next thing you know, the mother was hauled off in handcuffs while the kids were left with a man they barely knew -- a man who called the children's father in Maryland and then took off, fearing he would be rounded up next.

The kids ended up spending more than eight terrifying hours on the side of the expressway, waiting for their father to drive from Maryland.

Even Sutton admits it was not the high point of his pet initiative.

"The question you have to ask is: Would we have done that with a family of any other ethnic group?" Sutton said. "Would it have happened if they were white? Or black?"

And the answer is no.

No way.

Imagine me, in my dusty ol' minivan, three kids strapped into their seats, getting stopped in the middle of the night on I-85 for a similar set of offenses.

Would a sheriff's deputy have whisked me away to jail? In handcuffs?

I doubt it.

More important, would he have left my three kids with a friend by the side of a busy interstate in the middle of the night?

Absolutely not.

Sutton said he would not have left those children, or any children, unless he knew with great certainty that they would be cared for appropriately.

And while a spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff's Office defended its deputy's handling of this case, Sutton said he thinks the office needs to revisit its policies.

At the same time, Sutton said, he would hate to see an "error in judgment" cast a poor light on the 287(g) program, which trains local officers to start deportation proceedings against inmates in the United States illegally. Alamance and Wake are two of seven North Carolina counties that have this federal program.

It's working well in Alamance, Sutton said. Currently, 80 people thought to be illegal immigrants are being detained at the Alamance jail. No better proof than that.

Besides, Sutton said, it was the mother who put her children at risk.

"I'm sorry I don't have any sympathy," said Sutton. "If you're in this country illegally, I want you out of here."

But what about the children, the younger of whom are U.S. citizens?

Did they deserve to be left like trash on the shoulder of an interstate?

This incident is further evidence that when you arrive in this country without the proper documentation, you surrender the basic human right to be treated with decency.

Sutton asked a good question: Would we have done that with a family of any other ethnic group?

I have a better one: Where is the humanity?


ruth.sheehan@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4828
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I'm getting bored with this story.

Fact: the mother was stopped for a legitimate reason....as anyone else would have been. Of any ethnicity.

Fact: The mother did not have a driver's license and was identified as an illegal alien.She was taken into custody because she is an illegal alien. Just as any other illegal alien of any ethnicity would be.

Fact: The officer, with the mother's permission, left the children in the custody and care, of an adult known to the family

Fact: This so called friend of the family AND church assistant, who quite frankly, should be held to a higher moral standard, is the one who took off and ran away. HE and HE ALONE abandoned said children on the side of the road.

Fact: The father of the children had been notified that this person was leaving the scene. As a parent, it was HIS responsibility to notify the local police and ask them to go pick up his children, take them to safety, and he would pick them up. He did not do that.

So, does somebody want to remind me again where all of this is the fault of the police officer or the 287g program in general?

But what about the children, the younger of whom are U.S. citizens?

Did they deserve to be left like trash on the shoulder of an interstate?

This incident is further evidence that when you arrive in this country without the proper documentation, you surrender the basic human right to be treated with decency.

These children were not left like trash on the interstate! The police asked the mother if it would be alright for friend to watch the children, and she nodded her head to indicate yes. In agreeing to allow the friend to watch the children the mother basically gave the friend temporary guardianship.

Ruth Sheehan totally fails to acknowledge the mother and friends responsibility for what happend. Yes, it's my contention she is wrongfully assigning the blame. Heck, we turn over de facto temporary guardianship of our young children every time we allow them to spend the night at a friends house. What's the difference? Bottom line, the mother could have said no when the officer asked if it would be alright to leave the children with the so-called friend. The mother and friend are to blame for this unfortunate incident, not the police.

Fact: The father of the children had been notified that this person was leaving the scene. As a parent, it was HIS responsibility to notify the local police and ask them to go pick up his children, take them to safety, and he would pick them up. He did not do that.

Of course he didn't do that, he valued his own skin more than his kids welfare. The father is also an illegal alien and would have been caught too. He probably told the kids not to call the cops and to wait for him.

Originally Posted by miguelina

Fact: The father of the children had been notified that this person was leaving the scene. As a parent, it was HIS responsibility to notify the local police and ask them to go pick up his children, take them to safety, and he would pick them up. He did not do that.

Of course he didn't do that, he valued his own skin more than his kids welfare. The father is also an illegal alien and would have been caught too. He probably told the kids not to call the cops and to wait for him.

You are right on the money Miguelina....he was looking to save his own skin.

When I first joined here I related an incident where a little girl had been left alone by her IA parents and then been found, after crossing a major, busy, and dangerous street, at a store up the street where she had taken herself to buy candy.

Long story short, the police spent hours out here contacting everyone and anyone we, the child, and the neighbors could think of to come take this child and avoid her being turned over to state custody. Every last relative and family friend was an IA themselves, refusing to come for this child for fear of being deported. Her OWN PARENTS would not even come to get her because they were willing to sacrifice this little one to state custody before they would run the risk of deportation. This was, mind you, well before AZ had cracked down on illegal immigration and the police were participating in 287g.

Instead, they contacted the grandparents in Mexico to deal with the police and CPS, this ended up in court as a child abandonment case and the child is now living in Mexico with the grandparents.......her parents will not be bringing her back here because...get this.....all of the trouble SHE caused THEM

It was beyond my comprehension how any adult, let alone PARENTS, could do such a thing but the officers told me that it happens all the time and they have a hard time understanding it themselves.

That's when I, for the first time, witnessed first hand just how little these anchor babies mean to these people except for in terms of what USE they are.

It is really just disgusting and sickening.