Posted by Joe Killian on Friday, September 21, 2012 at 3:24 pm

Have had a couple of readers e-mail us asking for a fact check on a statement on the campaign website of Jeff Phillips, a candidate for Guilford County Commissioner in District 5. In the web site post, titled, "Paul Gibson Opens Guilford County to all illegal immigrants," Phillips talks about Gibson's response to a question at this week's League of Women Voters candidate forum.

From the post:

"'I think we need to have a BIG SIGN at all points of entry to Guilford County that says in BIG, BOLD letters, 'All people are welcome here.' Paul Gibson said on the question of Immigration in our county and the role and responsibility of County Government as it relates to the economy and taxes.

The question came at the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum on Tuesday, September 18.

Although Commissioner Gibson opened his arms up wide to embrace all immigrants legal and illegal, he did not answer the question in relation to the local economy. How does a "sanctuary" nature for Guilford county effect the 17.5% unemployed black males in Guilford County? How do we afford more social services to these immigrants in a county where already, 38 percent of citizens receive county assistance? Who benefits from the encouragement of more immigrants into a county that already has the lowest household income of all urban counties in the State?

If we bribe them with benefits, they will come, but then what will Paul Gibson do with them once here?"

• • •

So, did Gibson say that?

We taped the forum, and while the quote from Phillips' site captures the gist of the first sentence of Gibson's response, it's technically a misquote.

Phillips' version: "I think we need to have a BIG SIGN at all points of entry to Guilford County that says in BIG, BOLD letters, 'All people are welcome here.'

What Gibson actually said: "I believe with all my heart and all my soul that we need to have a big old sign at every entrance to Guilford county saying, 'Welcome Everyone.'"

The post also doesn't tell you exactly what question Gibson and the other candidates were asked.

The question was about Guilford County's participation in the federal Secure Communities program, in which the Sheriff's Office spends Guilford County tax money to enforce federal immigration law. They hold people they've picked up on unrelated matters and check their citizenship. If they're undocument, they turn them over to immigration officers.

The question was heavily skewed against the Secure Communities program and the audience, which applauded wildly at Gibson's "Welcome Everyone" line, was clearly warmer to Gibson and the other Democrats than Phillips, a Republican.

But "welcome everyone" was just the first sentence of Gibsons' answer.

He went on to explain that his concern was primarily with a path to citizenship for children brought to the country illegally.

"We don't need to be enforcing federal immigration law, but in a sense we're kind of being forced to," Gibson said. "It's so, so unfair. So many of these folks were brought to this country as children, they've lived here their entire life, they've known no other place. There needs to be a path for those folks to become citizens and currently there is no path. That's a myth, when they say 'go get into line.' There's no line to get into."

It is true that Gibson "did not answer the question in relation to the local economy" — but then, no part of the question referenced the local economy, either.

There was no part of the question that asked about immigrants' impact on the local economy or whether their presence had an effect on black unemployment -- or the unemployment of any racial group.

Update: Not that it has anything to do with the veracity of Phillips' web post, but we also gave Sheriff BJ Barnes a call to ask what he thinks of the Secure Communities program. Although he says he didn't like an earlier, less efficient version of the same concept that could take days to get confirmation on peoples' documentation, he supports Secure Communities. He can get confirmation of someone's citizenship status in minutes and says that, though other jurisdictions have seen controversies over running citizenship checks on people stopped for minor traffic violations, his office only does the checks on people held for major crimes. The cost to the department and county are negligible, he said.

Fact Check: Paul Gibson vs. Jeff Phillips on illegal immigration : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis