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Yassney wants city to take action against illegal aliens

By Chris Cooper-Managing Editor chriscndl@hotmail.com

Russellville Mayor Shirlee Yassney has written the President of the United States along with federal and state officials asking them to work towards a solution in regards to illegal immigrants.

Her letter and intensified concern comes at the heels of recent controversy surrounding two Logan County judges and their disagreement on what can be done with illegals when they are charged with crimes.

“I can understand both sides of the issue,” said Yassney, who expressed it wasn’t the judges’ fault that they don’t know what to do about illegal immigrants that enter into the judicial system because there are no laws practiced to govern the problem.

District Judge Sue Carol Browning recently incarcerated 17 immigrants, most of whom had no identification and one with a false ID. Browning denied bale and contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) informing them of the situation. According to Browning, an INS agent told her it wasn’t a priority of the department to be concerned about misdemeanor offenses. Most of the immigrants incarcerated were charged with minor traffic violations.

A petition was filed in Circuit Judge Tyler Gill’s court for Writ of Habias Corpus, which is unlawful imprisonment. Gill granted the petition that released the immigrants, saying Browning should have set a bail amount and that by not doing she created and “in door” with no “out door” for the defendants.

Mayor Yassney said this is a growing problem in the United States and in Logan County and she feels it is time to speak up about the issues and work together to find a solution.

“I am concerned about illegal immigrants and the fact that no one seems else seems to be concerned about it in this part of the country,” said Yassney. “There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. We at the city have been talking about this problem for a while now because we have been finding them asleep in houses with so many in a room and in unsanitary conditions sleeping on the floor.”

Yassney claims she has information on people bringing illegals into the county. She said they are no better then “Pimps” or “Flesh Traders” and are supplying the illegals to some farmers who don’t care about green cards or work visas.

Yassney claimed some farmers are paying the illegals slave wages and then the illegal has to pay back a percentage to the people who bring them. Yassney said there are farmers in the county who are legitimate, who are in programs which utilize immigrant workers legally and even deduct taxes. Then when the jobs are done the workers go back to their homeland.

“With 12 million aliens we are now spending $36 billion annually for education and social programs the illegals are sneaking into. There is no real law enforcement going on,” said Yassney who said there is only one INS agent in Western Kentucky and that is a problem.

“We need to spend the $36 billion to build holding facilities, hire more INS agents to handle the job and run a bus running one way— right back to Mexico. They are spending a lot of money on these fences on the boarder but it’s not taking care of the ones who are already here and it is the tax payers of this country who are having to pay the bill,” said Yassney.

Russellville Police Chief Barry Dill is discouraged about the issue as well, saying, “We have been having problems with immigrants sleeping under bridges, staying in overcrowded housing and driving without licenses. We put them in jail and they don’t have any kind of identification (for us) to know exactly who they are.”

Dill said he understands what Judge Browning was doing by detaining the illegals, “You can’t just let them go because most are not going to come back to court.”

Dill said he has been in contact with the INS in Louisville and inquired about the guidelines of what it takes to get someone to come down and deport the illegals. “They told me that basically if they didn’t murder or rape someone or do something severe or if they had been deported before that they couldn’t really do anything. How do we know if they had been deported before if they have no ID?” asked Dill. “The INS basically told us it all came down to money because it costs so much money to send somebody back. They said unless they did something that was really bad they have rights just like we have.”

Yassney said she wants the INS to be involved with the state as well as local officials to ensure that illegals are not here but she also wants more than that. “I think the solution lies in supply and demand. If there are no jobs here they won’t come. I am going to ask the council to pass an ordinance that anyone caught harboring illegal immigrants or employing them, they will be subject to fines by the city. I am also going to send a copy to the Logan County Fiscal Court for consideration as well,” said Yassney.

“You have to take away the incentive to come here and you’ve got to punish the ones who harbor and bring them here and give them the jobs,” said Yassney. “The types of workers we are seeing with these illegal immigrants are illiterate and unskilled labor, and Kentucky doesn’t need that. We have enough of that type of labor now.

“I have nothing against any nationality. It’s not that we are so closed minded about others’ needs. I welcome any immigrant into this country who does it legally. Way back when, our ancestors all came from other countries, but they did it legally.”

“The federal and state government is not providing enough INS agents to take care of the job and are not providing more laws to help,” said Yassney. “Something is going to have to be done.”
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