Thread: VA: IMMIGRATION FINDS SENATE RACE

IMMIGRATION FINDS SENATE RACE
August 22, 2007 12:35 am


BY CHELYEN DAVIS

It's not often that national issues wind up being hot-button topics in local campaigns.

Illegal immigration is an issue that's crossing those political boundaries, as state officials and candidates complain that the federal government isn't doing its job when it comes to preventing illegal immigration.

And now the issue is cropping up in the 28th state Senate race.

Albert Pollard Jr., the Democrat running for the seat, has announced a plan to help employers avoid inadvertently hiring illegal immigrants.

He wants the state to set up a database of the fingerprints of illegals who have been arrested for crimes in Virginia. He says employers could use that by scanning the fingerprints of job applicants to see if they match up with anyone in the database. "Right now, because of the absolute failure of the federal government, there are people who are known criminals in Virginia, illegal immigrants, who are being released.

"They've served their time and INS is not coming to pick them up," Pollard said, echoing the complaints of police in the state.

By creating a database of those freed illegal immigrant criminals, Pollard said, at least employers could try to avoid hiring those immigrants.

"If an illegal immigrant is released from jail, and put back out on the street, it's unconscionable that we then have no way of tracing who they are and they go get another set of fake papers and start working again," Pollard said. "Having a state database which is accessible to employers would shield them from the liability of hiring criminals and drive away those illegals who present fake papers. The technology is cheap and readily available."

Pollard said fingerprint scanners are readily available "for a couple of hundred bucks off the shelf."

Republicans have questioned the idea of scanning the fingerprints of presumably innocent working people who are just applying for a job.

Pollard said his proposal would "absolutely not" involve saving or storing the fingerprints of employees. And he acknowledged that his plan would only help limit the hiring of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.


Pollard's opponent, Republican Richard Stuart, said he thinks the idea is "clever" but flawed.

"Practically speaking I think it would have absolutely no effect on the problem," said Stuart.

He added that only a small percentage of illegal immigrants go through the court system "and that's the only element that his (plan) would address. If there's one percent going through, that's all you'd hit."

Stuart has experienced the frustrations of dealing with illegal aliens as a prosecutor in Westmoreland County. He said federal immigration officials would not come pick up offenders in the country illegally, and the police would have to let them go.

Stuart also doesn't think it should be the employer's job to determine whether a worker is in the country legally. "There are a lot of good employers who rely on migrant labor, a lot of them in the Northern Neck, who would simply have to shut down if they couldn't get migrant labor and they don't want the illegal ones."

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007 ... ?rss=local

Republican Richard Stuart( a prosecutor?!) quite obviously has NEVER spent time inside a northern Virginia courthouse,if he had he would see the overwhelming amount of the illegal population of Virginia( his area of Westmoreland is still relatively small but rapidly growing)
As for the Northern Neck farmers NEEDING "migrants" but not wanting to hire illegals-Why not go for the fingerprint scanner?How does he propose the farmers figure out if they're illegal?
He doesn't like the opponents idea yet, says he's had problems with ICE not picking up known illegals in his district and still offers NO solution.
This guy seems to have a unique ability to talk and yet say nothing.




Head 'em up,move 'em out Rawhide!