Discussion of the day thread

[gae]

Butler Officials Back Up Big Talk On Illegal Workers

POSTED: 7:02 pm EDT October 26, 2005
UPDATED: 5:55 pm EDT October 27, 2005

HAMILTON, Ohio -- Butler County officials are following through on their controversial comments last week on plans to crack down on illegal immigrants, News 5's Bina Roy reported.

Sheriff Richard Jones sent a huge bill to the federal goverment Wednesday for the immigrants housed in his jail.

"This is just the beginning," he said. "Some people say they're undocumented, I say they're here as criminal aliens, and I'm going to charge the federal goverment. Today I'm sending them a bill of over $70,000 just for my end of it."

Starting this week, Butler County deputies can impound any person's car if they don't have a valid driver's license, Social Security number, or are operating a car with illegal tags.

Officials in the county also want to go after businesses who employ illegal immigrants. State Rep. Courtney Combs is working on a law to fine employers who hire undocumented workers.

But one worker said, "We're doing work no one wants -- hard labor under difficult weather conditions."

Jones said he understands why many immigrants might be scared, and that they have good reason to be.

"They probably fear they're going to be deported or they're going to be arrested, and if I had my way, that would be true that they would be deported," he said. "If you want to come to the United States, come here legally."

Jones said he doesn't expect a check from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Department, but he'll continue to bill it monthly, and if that doesn't work, he might take the undocumented immigants to the department in a van.

"If they can't find them, I'm going to show them where they're at -- they're in my jail," he said.

Xiomara Faulkner, of Santa Maria Community Services, said Jones and other Butler County leaders need to understand different cultures.

"Some people are scared because their family members have been here for many, many years," she said. "We need to go back to the roots of what the United States is. If you go back to different generations, you will see that most of us have come from another country."

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've only been to a few other countries, but I'm fairly sure that if I entered Mexico illegally and committed a crime, I'd either be shot or deported.

Discuss.

[Lew]

No big deal about the Butler County Sheriff seizing property without the authority to do so. Hell, why not just do away with that pesky "probable cause" thing that always seems to hinder an otherwise good arrest?

That said...

Buford T. Justice did touch on one point that made sense- if you want to address the whole "illegal" alien issue, you need to target the employers who hire them, not the "illegals" themselves. If there is no incentive for them to work here, they will not stay here.

But let me say this- that whole line about they do the dangerous and/or menial jobs...take the tobacco industry, for example. You don't hardly see whitey stripping tobacco anymore, that's become an almost exclusively Mexican domain. Apparently, whitey is too good to stoop to such a level as stripping tobacco (funny how my grandfather wasn't too good for it when he was a boy). I represent clients who will go before the judge and they can't pay their court costs and what-not because they don't have a job; and the judge will ask them why don't they do farm work or the like, and they just sit there and say nothing; in other words, they'd rather be out of work than working at something they find 'below' them.

Nice depressing thread, Gae....

[gae]

What's depressing about it? If people are here ILlegally, they've already committed a crime, haven't they?

...can impound any person's car if they don't have a valid driver's license, Social Security number, or are operating a car with illegal tags.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Isn't this true of US citizens, too?

[cincygreg]

Well, they can allready impound your car if you dont have insurance so it doesnt seem too drastic to do it for an invalid liscense or out of date plates.
I( work in a business where there are a lot of foreign workers, and I have no idea how many I've worked with that may or may not be illegally working. Although one admitted it to me but he actually works up in columbis and was just down here for a few days. It wouldnt seem too difficult to be able to go to a business and ask for verification (if they recieve paychecks they have to be taxed and registered. But, you dont want to venture into an area of harrassing people who arent doing anything wrong.
Then again, I think most would rather just show their papers or green card or whatever than go through a long drawn out mess.

Anyone who works leaves a paper trail.
Even those that exepmt themselves from federal taxes (due to school or something) still have to be registered with the state and federal government as far as taxes go.
Dont think that being exempt makes you ivisable to them, they still know who's exempt and who isnt.

Tough area, borderlining on profiling, gonna have to be careful how they proceeed with it.

<font color="#FFFFAA" size="1">[ October 28, 2005 10:28 AM: Message edited by: cincygreg ]</font>

[jumper69]

Xiomara Faulkner, of Santa Maria Community Services, said Jones and other Butler County leaders need to understand different cultures.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I AM SICK AND FUCKING TIRED OF BEING TOLD I NEED TO UNDERSTAND SOMEONE ELSES GOD DAMNED CULTURE.

THE NEXT PERSON THAT TELLS ME THAT BETTER HAVE GOOD HEALTH INSURANCE AS I STOMP A MUDHOLE IN THEIR CHEST!!!!