Thread: Groups to Fight Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants in VA

Groups to Fight Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants
Activists Organizing Against Loudoun Supervisors' Plans to Cut Off Services, Increase Deportations

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 12, 2007; PW05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... tml?sub=AR


Immigrant advocates and civil liberties activists in Loudoun County are developing plans to fight a proposed county crackdown on illegal immigrants, saying that they hope to dispel widely held misconceptions about the issue.

The Board of Supervisors voted last month to move toward cutting off county services to illegal immigrants where possible and to step up deportations of those who commit crimes.

Opponents of the board's resolution say such measures will encourage racial profiling and engender fear among all immigrants, legal or not. The supervisors say their intent is not to scare legal immigrants but to protect county taxpayers from supporting those who are in the country -- and the county -- illegally.

Two of the groups leading the charge against the board's efforts are La Voz of Loudoun, a Hispanic outreach and advocacy nonprofit organization, and the Cascades-based Virginian Muslim Political Action Committee. Both are organizing events in the next few weeks to promote their cause.

La Voz is sponsoring a panel discussion Thursday about undocumented residents and the issues they present for law enforcement and employers. The group's executive director, Laura Valle, said that the meeting will be strictly informational and that participants will not espouse any political viewpoint.

But she said she hopes that Loudoun residents attending the event, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Ida Lee Recreation Center in Leesburg, will come away with a better understanding of the complexities surrounding the immigration debate, including the nature of immigration status. She also hopes it will persuade supporters of tougher enforcement policies to "take all of this passion and redirect it back to the federal government, where it belongs."

Among the panelists will be Loudoun Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson, a labor union official and a United Methodist Church representative who provides legal services to immigrants. The panel will take questions from the audience. Valle said she hopes to organize a similar meeting in Spanish later.

Supervisor Eugene A. Delgaudio (R-Sterling), the main sponsor of the board's July resolution, said he will not be able to attend the discussion because it is not in his district. He said he tends to stay in Sterling because he is busy serving his constituents. "I wish I could go to everything I'm invited to. I can't," he said.

Delgaudio also said that "special interest groups" with ties to national organizations based outside Loudoun are behind the criticisms of the board's resolution. Those groups are distorting the board's "well-meaning effort to curtail our complicity in defrauding the taxpayers of Loudoun," said Delgaudio, adding that he has received an overwhelmingly positive response from his constituents about the board's actions.

Delgaudio is up for reelection on Nov. 6, as is the rest of the nine-member board.

Mukit Hossain, president of the Virginian Muslim Political Action Committee, said voters are not in favor of an effort that at its core is a "question of fundamental human rights."

"People don't walk around with signs on their backs that say 'illegal,' " he said. The board resolution "almost seeks to dehumanize immigrants in general in the name of targeting illegal immigrants."

His group organized a meeting for national and local activists last month to develop a strategy to fight the resolutions passed by Loudoun and by Prince William County, whose board of supervisors took a similar vote last month. The group, which Hossain said draws its support from the state's Muslim community but sponsors political action on a variety of issues, also has plans for "civic picnics" in Loudoun and Prince William next month to which local political candidates will be invited.

He said the events will focus on education and voter registration, as well as offer the candidates an opportunity to speak to voters.

"We are trying to see if we can create a strong force to become seriously engaged civically leading to the election in November," said Hossain, who also was instrumental in starting the controversial day laborer center in Herndon. "At the end of the day, the real response will be in November."

Hossain's group and La Voz are rallying supporters to attend the Loudoun supervisors' Sept. 4 meeting. At that meeting, the board is expected to hear from county staff members about which services can be cut off to people without legal status and what the financial effect on the county might be.

Two of the groups leading the charge against the board's efforts are La Voz of Loudoun, a Hispanic outreach and advocacy nonprofit organization, and the Cascades-based Virginian Muslim Political Action Committee.

Both need their non-profit status yanked!

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

Two of the groups leading the charge against the board's efforts are La Voz of Loudoun, a Hispanic outreach and advocacy nonprofit organization, and the Cascades-based Virginian Muslim Political Action Committee.

Both need their non-profit status yanked!

Dixie

You are right... It will never happen.....

The supervisors say their intent is not to scare legal immigrants but to protect county taxpayers from supporting those who are in the country -- and the county -- illegally.

It's the ILLEAGALS who are being targeted!!

I don't understand how they can fight this. Do we already have anarchy in this country?

Added to home Page
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=2456

La Voz is sponsoring a panel discussion Thursday about undocumented residents and the issues they present for law enforcement and employers. But she said she hopes that Loudoun residents attending the event, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Ida Lee Recreation Center in Leesburg, will come away with a better understanding of the complexities surrounding the immigration debate, including the nature of immigration status.


There is no "better understanding" of immigration status: You are of legal status, or you are here illegally. There is no gray area, nothing further to understand. However, I do agree that Loudon residents should go away with a very clear, and accurate, picture of the "issues" illegal aliens pose for law enforcement, employers, and every other facet of our society, right down to the taxpayers of Louden county who probably have no idea of how much of their money is being stolen by illegal alien criminals. Hopefully, those opposed to illegal immigration will show up with the cold, hard, undeniable, facts and statistics gathered from local, county, and state sources, and let this bunch answer, and try to justify, those.



Virginian Muslim Political Action Committee

Oh goodie....another example of intelligent thought and strategy brought to us by the illegal advocacy movement. Why do I have the feeling that by allying themselves with a group more radical and hateful than themselves, that they have managed to guarantee a hastened unwinding and demise of their "cause"?



Hossain's group and La Voz are rallying supporters to attend the Loudoun supervisors' Sept. 4 meeting.

Translation: Another mob of thousands of illegals being bussed in from all over the place to disrupt the meeting and try to intimidate the county into backing down. Only this time, IMO, the cause for concern is through the roof. All we need is for the radical Muslim element to start getting into the mix and we might be looking at what happened in France.

Opponents of the board's resolution say such measures will encourage racial profiling and engender fear among all immigrants, legal or not. The supervisors say their intent is not to scare legal immigrants but to protect county taxpayers from supporting those who are in the country -- and the county -- illegally.

Alright; what legal immigrant is going to be fearful? Nothing will happen to them except maybe a possible ID check once and they will be noted by the town police and never bothered again unless they break the law. The only real fear will be amongst the illegal immigrants who should be fearful; and not receiving tax paid benefits by Americans and legal immigrants.

Profiling; sorry if your running you look guilty and if your papers are false you did a crime. I don't think checking to see if your a legal worker is profiling when you speak no English. It seems strange that you would be a real American citizen without being able to speak the language. Though I know a few who are legal and struggle. A proper ID check will clear this up quickly and no harm done; at any traffic stop; or checking employment records.

So why shouldn't the county taxpayers be protected from being scammed? There is nothing to discuss here; but a rational solution to fraud at the county's expense. Those that are committing a crime will be worried. Those not; will have no problems.

La Voz and Virginian Muslim Political Action Committee should be on board with doing what is lawful. Unless what they really want is anarchy and illegal immigrants protected.

Originally Posted by saveourcountry

I don't understand how they can fight this. Do we already have anarchy in this country?

A case could be made that we do:

an·ar·chy
1. a state of society without government or law.

2. political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control:

3. a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society.

4. confusion; chaos; disorder: Intellectual and moral anarchy followed his loss of faith.