Thread: Durham Civitas: Local Can Do!

Area officials attend sesson on ending illegal immigration
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Civitas: Local governments can do something about issue
September 20, 2008 - 12:34PM
McClatchy News Service / Times-News

DURHAM -- In the absence of federal immigration reform, a group of state and local leaders came together Friday to consider ways to drive out illegal immigrants.

``People are tired of inaction,'' said Jameson Taylor, policy director for the N.C. Civitas Institute, which sponsored the event. ``This is about addressing the myth that local governments can't do anything about illegal immigration.''

Those who attended included a few state legislators, a representative of U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, an employee of the N.C. Sheriffs Association, candidates for elected office and commissioners from six counties, including Alamance.

``We've got people back home that are pushing for us to do more,'' said Tim Sutton, a commissioner in Alamance County, which has aggressively gone after illegal immigrants accused of crimes and traffic offenses. ``But I'm not interested in passing resolutions that don't accomplish anything. We're here to see if there are some meat-and-potatoes laws we can pass.''

Sutton told the Times-News after the session that fellow commissioners Bill Lashley and Ann Vaughan attended the session as well as Linda Massey,a candidate for that office and Celo Faucette who's running for state House. Clyde Albright, an assistant county attorney was also there.

Bruce Carlton, a commissioner in Lincoln County in the west, said his board has enacted laws that stop illegal immigrants from receiving public services and prohibit county contractors from using illegal workers.

Carlton said the laws have prompted many illegal immigrants to leave after a growth boom lured them in.

``We had Spanish grocery stores popping up; a community of illegal immigrants had set up home in Lincoln County,'' Carlton said. ``What we've found is, when you pass laws, the word spreads quickly, and they tend to move over to the next county.''

The event's speakers were two stars of the national restrictionist movement: Michael Hethmon, a lawyer who advises local governments on crafting ordinances that target illegal immigrants, and John Stirrup, a supervisor in Prince William County, Va., which has some of the most restrictive laws in the nation.

They suggested laws that target employers who hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them. They also suggested nuisance laws that go after over-crowded homes and spots where illegal immigrants gather, such as day labor sites.

They recommended denying public services that are locally funded. And they endorsed a federal program that allows local law enforcement to help deport criminal suspects.

Stirrup said such efforts have transformed his county, where he said illegal immigrants had begun crowding into small homes, roaming the streets drunk and leering at women.

He said the number of Spanish-speaking children in schools has declined, indigent births in hospitals have dropped and code violations have decreased.

But he warned those who want to pursue such laws that they would spark a public outcry.

``It's not for the faint-hearted,'' Stirrup said. ``I have been called a bigot, a racist, a xenophobe.''

The audience booed state Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat, when he accused Stirrup of stereotyping Hispanic immigrants. Before organizers cut off his microphone during a question-and-answer session, Luebke said the group was, essentially, looking for legal ways to discriminate.

``Arresting Rosa Parks was legal,'' he said afterward in an interview. Luebke was among a small group of observers representing a dissenting point of view.

Taylor, of the Civitas Institute, said that failing to enforce immigration laws is, in effect, discriminatory. Civitas is funded by Art Pope, the founder of the conservative John Locke Foundation.

``With illegal immigration, you have an entire class of people who we're saying, 'You're a protected class, and we're not going to enforce the law,' '' Taylor said.

http://tinyurl.com/3n85km

I attended.

How was the turnout? I wasn't able to make it.

Wished I could have been there, but live too far away.
I have gotten to the point where xenophobia, nationalism and protectionism are not as ugly as some pundits pronounce. Xenophobia: perhaps a mild case as I start to wonder about the legality and motives of those newly here. Nationalism: I am proud of what this country and its citizens are and see the erosion of that pride by not only our culture being eroded but by a once great and sound country supporting the rest of the world on the back of the American taxpayer. Protectionism: Bush was meeting today with Colombian president to discuss free trade, and though I can't find what I read today, there will apparently be some sort of summit with Bush and leaders from Mexico, Central and South America.
New World Order, whether the citizenry likes it or not.

Totally wonderful group meeting, even the negative illegal promoters.

Privacy is not an Illegal Right!

Locals can do something

The city officials, however, will have to look to the people to support them because local business who employ these people will try to destroy anyone who wants to mess up their playhouse.

Anyone living in areas that are working to fix things, will have to give some wholehearted support to the officials that are working for the people.

I still think a lot could be done by insisting that traffic laws be enforced for illegals as they are for the rest of us. Any caught without valid licenses, without valid insurance, should have the auto impounded. That one thing would make the illegals think twice.


Zoning laws are ignored. That could be as simple as too many, unrelated, people in a house to businesses they operate without licenses, zoning or health regulations.

The simple truth in all this is - if the illegals had to obey the same laws the rest of us do, this country would not be the wonderful bargain for them. It's the fact that our laws have become moot as far as illegals are concerned.