Thread: MD: Interview with Help Save Maryland director

Brad Botwin of "Help Save Maryland"

Before the interview began, Brad Botwin offered a three-page statement about his organization which began with the following: "My name is Brad Botwin and I'm the Director of Help Save Maryland, a multi-ethnic, grass roots citizens' organization with hundreds and hundreds of members across 12 Maryland Counties and growing. We are Democrats, Republicans and Independents: Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Indians and more. Our main goal is to eliminate the use of our tax-dollars on programs and services for illegal aliens in Maryland." Attached to the statement was a recent Washington Post article on the group, a HSM membership form, one flier asking readers to "Host a Baseball Player" this summer for the Rockville Express, a local baseball team, and another flier from the National Voters Alliance & Citizens Above Party urging readers, "STOP the Annapolis 'Cash Pinata' for CASA of MD," referring to CASA de Maryland, the state's largest Latino and immigrant advocacy organization.

Help Save Maryland has come into conflict with County Executive Ike Leggett and the County Council on a number of issues, but never more so than during a recent public hearing regarding Bill 2-08, legislation for domestic workers that would require their employers to provide basic protections such as written contracts, minimum wages, overtime pay, and vacations. Council members state that the bill is not aimed at immigrants, and most community members and activists at the hearing gave testimony that was supportive of the bill. However, Botwin and fellow HSM member Matt Seubert gave testimony that vehemently opposed it, insisting that it provides protection for illegal immigrants.

"What is most disturbing to me," Botwin said during testimony, "is the fact that your former compadres at the taxpayer-funded CASA of Maryland, the illegal aliens' non-profit of choice, can still pull the marionette strings to get bills like 2-08 considered." His testimony was aimed at Council member George Leventhal, a co-sponsor of the bill who formerly served on the board of CASA of Maryland.

"How can our citizens take this council seriously," Botwin continued, "when elected officials state publicly that, 'All our constituents deserve basic protections, basic rights,' and include in that mix the CASA of Maryland pampered and coached illegal alien domestic workers." His testimony drew sharp criticism from Council members who took offense, particularly from Roger Berliner. Seubert's testimony grew particularly heated, calling the Council, "tyrants and cowards." We continue our discussion with Mr. Botwin that we began last week.

The Sentinel: Don't you feel that all people deserve basic health care, regardless of immigrant status?

Brad Botwin: We're at a stage right now; we've got a county government that's $400 million in the red. We have a state government that's - God knows how much red ink is flowing down in Annapolis. So when anyone just shows up in our county, in our state, we cannot take care of them. With our aging population here in Maryland, the school population should be dropping. It's not. Why? Because we have people coming in here that are not citizens. We need to be like Prince William where we need to start checking facts. Who are you? Where did you come from? We have our own citizens. I mean, my group is made up of every color under the rainbow, every political party here.

These are citizens who want to take care of our citizens, and not provide health care [for illegal immigrants] - I mean, if I want to provide health care, I can give money to Feed The Children, or my tax dollars go for foreign aid. I just don't need to have foreign aid in Montgomery County, or fund groups like CASA of Maryland that attract more and more illegal aliens into the area. We allow ... the federal government lets in one million legal - let me repeat - one million legal immigrants every year. What we have here in Montgomery County is above and beyond the million. These are people, we don't even know who they are. Ike Leggett [and] Mike Knapp refuse to ask for IDs at the day labor centers. They refuse to ask for IDs at these health clinics. They refuse to ask for IDs at the schools. So, of course, you're attracting more and more people that are taking these services and not paying taxes.

I have members who have lost their businesses--Hispanic businessmen, construction men, workers and companies--who have shut down because they can't compete with companies hiring illegals. I have black construction workers who can't get jobs at sites anymore because they want to pay taxes, and the companies are not interested in paying taxes. I've had people almost killed in car accidents with illegals who drive on our roads without driver's licenses and then disappear before they go to court. So we have some real problems here. We need to turn it around.

[In the] paper today in Arizona, there seems to be a net decrease in the illegal alien population because they've toughened up requirements for working. You don't have a right to work because you showed up at the door here. You need a Social Security number. Are you here rightfully? Have you overstayed your visa? Have you just walked across the border?

These are punishable crimes, and we want our police force - we want the corrections department, and we want the Montgomery County Police and Sheriff participating with the federal government in 287(g) training. I don't want rapists, criminals, etcetera, etcetera, wandering our streets freely. And neither do my members.

The Sentinel: By referring to rapists and criminals, do you feel that might unfairly characterize the majority of immigrants who have no intention of breaking the laws of this nation?

Brad Botwin: Let's, again, go back to your usage of the word, "immigrant." You're talking about illegal aliens. An immigrant, a green-carded person, I have no problem with. Other people commit crimes too. The fact that you're here illegally, you have already committed a crime. Okay? And even [in] Montgomery County, if you get pulled over, and they check your name, and you're wanted for overstaying your visa, if you're in the federal system, you will be arrested. But other immigrants? There is a process to come in, as my grandparents did, as the million a year that come in did. These people have gone around that, so there is no letting them stay. There is no amnesty. That got voted down a couple times in Congress. We're now starting to slowly enforce the law, city by city, county by county, and I'm looking for self-deportation. Didn't invite them here. Not going pay for them to go home.

The Sentinel: A number of illegal immigrants have risked life and limb, escaping sometimes abject poverty or persecution from their home countries to get here. What do you say about those illegal immigrants that face those kinds of hardships?

Brad Botwin: There are multiple ways to come into this country, through State Department and Homeland Security, if you're persecuted. Abject poverty? We would have a billion people on our door if that was a way to come in. That's not a way to come in. In fact, the government screens--you know, we're looking for people obviously with skills. When you bring in, or you allow in all these uneducated, unskilled workers like there are at the day labor centers, what's happening is that you are affecting... the 60 million Americans [who] have no high school education. So you are now affecting wage rates, and income for that very large group of people, [covering] different industries: construction, truck driving, you name it. Our first priority has to be to our own citizens.

And some people have said, "Well, are you after the Hispanics?" Well, I truly believe that if India was on the border instead of Mexico, we would be having a large population of Indians; if China was on the border, we'd be having a large population of Chinese coming across, trying to get jobs and work. So it's just luck of the draw who was on our southern border. Clearly you don't see Canadians coming down and staying. They have a system where their economy works up there. It does not work - the corruption in Mexico - just does not work so people are coming across here.

But priority: American citizens; new immigrants - legal immigrants; and frankly, that's about it. I think a million a year is a lot of people coming in here. You need to let the melting pot work, and if you have too many people coming in too quickly, you can't assimilate all these people

The Sentinel: Is it logistically possible to enforce the current immigration laws?

Brad Botwin: Sure. I'm not one who believes that it's broken. It's not broken. The enforcement is lacking. The fence is lacking. Clearly, tomorrow - well, maybe with a little training - the Montgomery County Police could be an extension of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in months. Like the Frederick Sheriff is doing. Like Prince William County is doing. Like Herndon is doing. Like more and more jurisdictions around this country are doing. You can't rely on a small group of federal agents to try and enforce all this. If a bank was being robbed, I don't see Chief Manger saying, "Guys, that's a federal crime," which it is. "Don't - don't go near the bank. Don't stop these robbers." Or drugs, that's also federal. "Don't stop these drug dealers. Don't do anything." I mean, that's ridiculous. So Manger has put the line down. It's a political decision in not enforcing immigration laws, and that has to change. And we're working to make that change.

The Sentinel: Would you still support tougher enforcement of current immigration laws if it meant raising taxes to fund it?

Brad Botwin: Sure, and in fact, over the long haul, when you cut out the taxes that I'm paying for hospitals going bankrupt, school systems, my car insurance because people are driving and killing and maiming, crime, detention, gang violence ... I mean, let's go down the list. At the end of the day, this is a good investment. The way the press has portrayed Prince William County, it's like "Oh my goodness, they're laying out a couple million dollars." That's going to pay for itself in spades after, because these people are going to leave, and you don't have to provide all these services. So, of course, yes. They should enforce the law.

The Sentinel: The National Voters Alliance and Citizens Above Party, a group that you support, has advocated among other things, adopting English as the official language of Maryland. Is that something you would support?

Brad Botwin: Yes, I do believe that. When my grandparents came over, they spoke Yiddish and Russian, but the kids were totally immersed in English. And I am proud to say that every one of them went to college, and became doctors, lawyers ... and this is very important to this assimilation, this melting pot. The melting pot works when there's one system. When everyone is working toward the same goal, and that goal has to be English. [It] can't be Spanish, Russian, Chinese - you can't have a society with 22 different languages. It just will not work. [People] can't speak to each other, can't communicate. So yes, I'm very much in favor of English as a national language.

The Sentinel: There are a number of other countries in which the inhabitants speak several different languages. Canada, for example, is a country where French and English are both in use extensively.

Brad Botwin: Delays the hockey game when you've got to do it in English and in French, so I don't think it works. I really don't think it works. And Quebec tried to break away for a long time. So I don't think it works. I don't think people assimilate. My grandparents lived in Brooklyn. Every block seemed to be a different group of people, but at the end of the day, everyone spoke English. You go to the United Nations, people are speaking English. The Chinese want to speak English. The fact that we're pushing Spanish here is not good competitively, and it's not good for the society.

The Sentinel: Why do you feel that illegal immigration has become such a hot button issue after all this time?

Brad Botwin: I really do think that people are just tired of having to pick up the tab for people that don't belong here. For people that are in your face. For example, God forbid you were unemployed tomorrow. We have an Unemployment Office for you. It's not the day labor center. It's the State of Maryland Unemployment Office. We have unemployment insurance for you. But to set up a separate track for people that shouldn't be here in the first place, why am I paying for that?

Why do I want men loitering--and this is another failure of Ike Leggett and Mike Knapp at the County Council. When Leggett put this day labor center in ... all the workers who've been standing on the streets up and down in Gaithersburg, we'll just get them down to the center, people will drive in, hire them, problem solved. Well, you know what? I now have another day labor center here in Derwood, and I still have masses of men harassing people on the streets up and down Gaithersburg. [Our] family has stopped shopping in Gaithersburg. We don't go to Gaithersburg anymore, because they refuse to crack down on these men loitering. Why do I have to walk the gauntlet when I want to go to 7-Eleven? I don't want to do it, and I certainly don't want to subject my wife and daughter to this. Same thing is happening in Wheaton, by that day labor center. There are men at 7-Elevens, gas stations, etc. I don't know who they are. They're doing not-nice things in the parking lot. We need the law enforced. Then we can find out who these guys are, and I want them sent home.

The Sentinel: What do you say to detractors who contend that your group's actions are racist?

Brad Botwin: The only group that has called us racist is CASA of Maryland, and I find that CASA of Maryland is a very ethnic-centric group. As I mentioned to you, my group - black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, I just found out I have an Israeli immigrant today, Bangladesh - I mean, you name it, I have members from all over. So to say that we're racist ... hardly. Hardly the case. And ...I'm Jewish. I find a lot of anti-Semitism in these remarks coming from CASA of Maryland and other groups. We're talking issues here. It's either you're here legally or you're not.

A number of my members are legal immigrants; recently got here, have green cards, moving towards citizenship, want to be Americans. When you have a group that is called "Mexicans Without Borders" - that's a great name; when you have a group that's supporting them called "La Raza," - the race; when you have groups ... that are trying to take back the Southwest of the United States, I really wonder who the racists are, and who's being militant. It's certainly not my members.

Right now, I find groups like CASA of Maryland are more of a problem than these illegal workers. They are telling these workers to hand police a card. I should have given you a copy. I have one of these things upstairs. It's a card, and it basically says, "I want a lawyer. I am not talking to you." To the policeman. Okay? So if you get pulled over for going through a red light ... you hand him this card. My children read this. They were like, I would never do that to a police officer. This is basically [saying] "buzz off." We've asked the police what they're going to do. They're going arrest these people on the spot. You're not going tell them who you are? You're not going show any ID? You get arrested, and that's probably worse for these people.

I find groups like CASA and these Mexicans Without Borders really abusing these people. Bussing them in; they don't even speak English. They're holding these signs up that are in English. They don't even know what they're doing. But they're telling them, CASA keeps saying, "This is the way to go." This is the way to get yourself deported. To get arrested and deported. And I think that's a big mistake, and I think Gustavo Torres and his little group of lawyers, who are not Hispanic, need to stop doing this, need to stop taking tax dollars.

The Sentinel: Do you feel that these groups are exploiting illegal immigrants?

Brad Botwin: Oh, of course. Of course. You wouldn't do this. I know I wouldn't do this. It's not a "get out of jail free" card, it's a "go to jail" card. And they are just abusing these people. They re absolutely abusing these people. I can fully understand that they want to come here, they want to work. There's a process to go through. You can't everyone who wants to come here, come here. We'd have a billion people here. Just can't handle it. The system will fall apart. But you just can't allow groups like CASA, and La Raza, and all these other Hispanic radical groups to push the agenda. They can't push the agenda, and we need to stop funding them.

The Sentinel: You referred earlier to the "horrendous" treatment you received from the County Council when you offered testimony at a recent public hearing on a proposed domestic worker law. What has your relationship been like with County Executive Ike Leggett and the County Council?

Brad Botwin: Our group had filed a state-level freedom of information request with County Executive Leggett and the County Council. About two months after we sent it in, we got--I think I gave you more paper tonight. We wanted to know everything they were doing with CASA from a funding standpoint, from relationships. They completely blew us off. They thought we were a bunch of fifth-graders here. It was re-filed with Judicial Watch, which is a nationally known law group that files lawsuits here and there on day labor centers, and other assorted things. And miraculously, they've recently turned over boxes of information, not three sheets of paper, but five, six, seven boxes of information and I understand there's more coming.

So again, we have to question, who works for who? Does Ike Leggett work for me, work for the citizens, or do we work for him? How could he not provide the information under this legal request? People use this freedom of information request system all the time. We were just stunned that we had to bring a law group in to get the County Council and the County Executive to respond. This is just poor government. Why do I have to spend time and go to a group like Judicial Watch and show them these ragged pieces of paper that [the Council] gave me?

[Regarding] my testimony the other night, where I ruined the party, because they had CASA of Maryland in the audience, and they had other groups that they fund in the audience, and everyone was supposed to say, "Great!" It's like a Politburo vote from the old days of Brezhnev; 100 percent "We're all in favor of you, sir. Yes, yes!"

We went in there and we said, this is wrong; we don't like this; we don't want you spending [our] tax dollars like this, and this is just the beginning of it. I had to unfortunately use a rope-a-dope strategy there while they refuse to ask me a question but try to belittle me on the panel. They just didn't like my statement. Well, I don't agree with you. I'm sorry, that's my right as a citizen to come here and testify and say, "I don't want you having illegal aliens sign contracts with homeowners because it's illegal." Like I said, I found it quite abusive.

The Sentinel: What do you think of the Bush administration's current policy on immigration?

Brad Botwin: I think there needs to be a little more focus. The American people stopped amnesty in Congress. The American people wanted and they voted for a border fence. What I'd like to see is a little follow-through on these things. Am I calling for rounding up everybody who's here illegally and bussing them down? No. I mean, let's be real here. That's a lot of people. It would be a very difficult thing to do. What I would like is--you know, you wouldn't start a plumbing project unless you turned the water off first. I want the border sealed, and I don't want any more people coming in, and then we can decide what to do with the people that are here.

The Sentinel: Do you also believe that there needs to be stricter enforcement of immigration laws for local businesses who hire illegal immigrants?

Brad Botwin: Our friends in Anne Arundel County are actually holding on the 15th of March, 13th of March, a very large session out at BWI Airport for businesses on this "eVerify." It's one of these programs that Immigration and Customs Enforcement runs, where you basically can check: what's your Social Security number, put it in, aha, this is not real, we've got a problem. This is something we would like to see. One of the magnets [for illegal immigrants] is the fact that you can be employed here illegally by giving 999-99-9999 as your Social Security number, and you'll never be caught. So if that gets tougher, if the services are cut off, if we stop funding groups like CASA of Maryland, which attracts more illegals here, I think that will help the problem.

The Sentinel: Who do you support in the 2008 Presidential election?

Brad Botwin: My people fell out. [laughs] On the national level, my candidates are gone, so I'll just wait and see what's on the ballot in November. I don't really get involved in political campaigns.

The Sentinel: What about the election for the Fourth Congressional District?

Brad Botwin: I was very shocked to see [Congressman] Wynn lose. He's been here awhile. Miss Edwards, she ran a tough campaign. She's good. People are looking for change, and I think that Edwards presented that. Is this good or bad? From a Congressional side, Mr. Wynn had seniority on many committees. You're starting all over again with Edwards, so we'll see what that does for the area. We had that a little bit when Connie Morella - she was our Congresswoman here for many years - when she lost, we're back to zero again, so you know, it happens. We'll just have to see.

The Sentinel: Considering your disagreements and confrontations with County Executive Leggett and the rest of the County Council, why aren't you interested in running for public office?

Brad Botwin: [laughs] I just have no aspirations in the political front. I like doing baseball. I like doing other things. I like family life. Like these guys or not, and respect these guys or not - I mean, Ike Leggett spends a lot of time; his life is the county. You can agree with him on some issues, disagree on issues, these people spend a lot of time doing this as politicians, and ... I just don't see myself committing that much time and effort into all these issues. And you know, God bless 'em. It's good that we have people that want to do that. [laughs] Unfortunately, they don't listen to the people all the time. But you need people that want to go 24-7. You can look at senior officials in the administration. The hours these men put in every night. Can you imagine going out every night to some event and doing something? I just don't think I could handle it! [laughs]

The Sentinel: Do you see a solution to the current immigration crisis? What would you consider success?

Brad Botwin: The fact that the American people rose up and stopped amnesty is a good sign to me. The fact that, in Maryland, which is one of the most liberal states in the whole country ... that O'Malley had to come out and say we're going enforce the law, the real ID act, and we're going to stop giving a driver's license to any Tom, Dick or Harry that shows up. We're winning. We're slowly winning. Maryland is one of the last holdouts here. We're making progress on enforcing the law. These Chamber of Commerce groups are pushing for this eVerify, want to make sure that workers are legal. Like I said, city by city, county by county, people have had enough. When will it be over? When I can turn off Help Save Maryland? That's when it will be over. And I can go back to baseball 24-7.

Photos by Bill Wyckoff

http://www.thesentinel.com/305077898973573.php

God Bless you, Brad Botwin.....to achieve these inroads to save Maryland is a big accomplishment. CASA must be fuming. They will no longer be the "darlings" of the month....people are starting to see them for what they really are....illegal alien, anti-American, anti-taxpayer, open border, ethno-supremacists.

Great interview, Brad Botwin; good precise answers. Right on about the racist remarks, most of these racist groups need to have their rose colored glasses surgially removed.
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I really want one of those cards to use when I get pulled over Great idea for all AMERICAN BORN people to use also, might make some of the law wake up if we impead their jobs