Trump's Va. chairman vows crackdown on illegal immigration
Posted: Monday, June 6, 2016 5:15 pm
By JIM NOLAN Richmond Times-Dispatch
Corey Stewart, Donald Trump’s Virginia campaign chairman, is doubling down on the billionaire Republican presidential candidate’s confrontational stance on undocumented immigrants.
In a Facebook posting that addressed the egging of a Trump supporter at a rally last week in San Jose, Calif., Stewart, a GOP candidate for governor in 2017, said he would hold “thugs” accountable for such actions.
He added: “And if they are illegal, we will kick their asses out of the country, just like we did in Prince William County.”
Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, was referring to a controversial policy he claims has helped the county turn over some 7,500 illegal immigrants to federal authorities since 2007.
“Time to put our foot down,” Stewart wrote in a posting to his Facebook page Friday at 6:41 a.m. that was accompanied by a picture of a woman who had been hit by an egg in a confrontation outside a Trump rally at the San Jose Convention Center.
“These hoodlums attacked Trump supporters because they don’t like our views. Trump supporters could have been you or your family,” Stewart said. “Are we going to tolerate this? If you tolerate thuggery, you will get more of it.
“When I am governor, thugs like these will be apprehended,” Stewart wrote before adding that they would be deported if they were illegal.
The Prince William law Stewart championed, which briefly became the toughest illegal immigration law in the country, required police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they had “probable cause” to believe was in the country illegally.
After an intensely emotional debate, the policy passed in 2008, but the county board significantly altered it eight weeks later because of concerns that it would open the county to racial-profiling allegations.
The revised version requires immigration checks of everyone arrested, regardless of appearance. Under the previous version, officers could check a person’s status at any time, even during routine traffic stops.
In an interview Monday, Stewart did not back down from his Facebook comments and said he was angry at what happened in California and angry at the mayor, Sam Liccardo, who initially blamed Trump’s rhetoric for inciting the protesters but later condemned the violent outburst, saying, “Nothing that Donald Trump says absolves those individuals of responsibility for their violent conduct.”
Stewart seized on the event to revisit the immigration issue in Virginia.
“We are going to impose the toughest crackdown on illegal immigrants anywhere,” he said, just a few days ahead of an expected fundraising visit by Trump to the Richmond area on Friday.
Trump, who owns a golf course and winery in Virginia, likely would need to win this swing state to secure the White House over presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state. According to recent polls, Clinton leads Trump in Virginia.
“One of the reasons Trump chose me to be chairman is because of my aggressive stance on illegal immigration,” Stewart said. He charged that neither Democratic President Barack Obama, nor his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush, did enough to address the issue.
“We are heading into another recession. ... People here illegally are taking jobs from citizens who should have them,” Stewart said.
“When he is president and I am governor, you’re going to see one helluva tag team in Virginia, and we’re finally going to remove illegal immigrants.”
Stewart’s positions brought a rebuke from Virginia Democrats, who called on Republican leaders to condemn remarks by Trump and Stewart.
“Virginia’s economy is stronger because of our commonwealth’s diversity,” said Democratic Party of Virginia spokeswoman Emily Bolton. “It’s shocking that Virginia Republicans continue to be silent on the racist remarks of Donald Trump and Corey Stewart.”
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has articulated a number of positions on immigration and ethnic and religious groups that have startled both Democrats and Republicans alike.
He has said he would build a “beautiful” wall on the Mexico-U.S. border to keep out illegals — a wall for which he promised Mexico would pay. In the wake of the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings by a Muslim couple, he advocated a ban on all Muslim immigration.
Most recently, he questioned the fairness of a federal judge hearing the case brought against him by former students of his for-profit Trump University and implied that the Indiana-born jurist’s Hispanic background biased him against Trump’s case.
The remarks about Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel were widely condemned by Democrats who called them racist and by many Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who called them disqualifying for someone seeking the presidency.
Virginia Republicans will decide their 2017 gubernatorial nominee at a convention next year. In addition to Stewart, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, have announced their intentions to seek the nomination.
Stewart expects Trump to make many stops in Virginia between now and the general election in November. He said Virginia is the “toughest nut” of three swing states, including Ohio and Florida, that the GOP nominee needs to crack in order to win.
“Virginia is likely to be the most critical state in the election,” he said.
http://www.richmond.com/news/virgini...636660ec1.html
