Posted on 09/25/2011 5:09:36 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Three defiant Bay State sheriffs hell-bent on tougher immigration enforcement have taken an end run around Gov. Deval Patrick, traveling to Washington, D.C., to hammer out their own version of the Secure Communities program in a stinging rejection of the administration’s stand on illegals.
“The governor is out of touch on this issue, and he really and truly does not represent the interest of the people of Massachusetts on this issue,” Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said. “We’re basically saying to the governor, ‘Look. You’re entitled to your position.’ But the governor doesn’t elect us. We represent the people of our counties who elect us to do our job — public safety.”
Hodgson, along with Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr. and Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis, bartered their deal late last week in a series of meetings with federal officials in Washington. They emerged with a deal that would, among other things, train county corrections officers to run the recently collared through Immigration and Customs Enforcement databases.
“It’s not Secure Communities, but it’s a perfect substitute,” said McDonald, whose friend and Plymouth County cohort, District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz, is fighting to extradite Luis Guaman, an Ecuadorian illegal who authorities say murdered a Brockton woman and her toddler son in February, then fled to his homeland hours later.
“I certainly hope we’re making our position clear to the public at large and reassuring them that we’re going to do our jobs,” McDonald said. “And I hope the governor is getting the message as well. We in public safety take this very seriously, and we’re going to get the job done.”
A spokesman for Patrick declined to comment on the sheriffs’ deal. It comes three months after the governor, through his public-safety secretary, told Homeland Security officials he would not enroll Massachusetts in the Secure Communities program. Immigrant advocacy groups had lobbied the governor to reject the crackdown, saying it could discourage immigrants from reporting crime and lead to racial profiling by police.
Secure Communities, which Boston police have used since 2006, requires police to run criminal suspects’ fingerprints through an immigration database to check whether they are in the United States legally, and it requires local agencies to share data on those suspects with immigration authorities. Mayor Thomas M. Menino has threatened to remove the city from the program unless it is limited to those accused of serious crimes.
The program will go into effect nationwide in 2013, but the sheriffs said there’s no reason to wait until then.
“We feel we want to start working with that information now, not a date that’s not imminent,” said Evangelidis. His jurisdiction includes Milford, where an Ecuadorian illegal was charged with drunken driving in a crash that killed a 23-year-old man last month. “I’m more convinced than ever that this is an exceptional tool for public safety that law enforcement in Massachusetts should have immediately.”
He was great on Mystery Science Theater 3000, too.
(Kidding! That was JOEL Hodgson)
Sigh..if only we had a real liberal governor in Mass. A real liberal like....Rick Perry.
Carr list ping
>>Immigrant advocacy groups had lobbied the governor to reject the crackdown, saying it could discourage immigrants from reporting crime and lead to racial profiling by police.
But they (illegals) matter more than we do, right?
>> Mayor Thomas M. Menino has threatened to remove the city from the program unless it is limited to those accused of serious crimes.
Mumbles, you IDIOT! Serious crimes ONLY? I guess that’s better than nothing but still...
Lets see how long it takes for someone to call the Sheriffs racists.
I don’t know about you, but I have become immune to being called a racist by the race-baiters in D.C. and the media.
I’ll get my just desserts in the ballot box, as I suspect many others will too.....
Let’s cut to the chase here, there are a large majority of illegals who are here and don’t give a damn about the United States, they don’t wish to share out culture, our history and they could care less about anything American.
They are here because their own country is corrupt to the point that the people there have few freedoms and little or no chance to better themselves especially economically.
No all, but good majority Mexican National come here to in a sense create a country within a country the ‘United States of Mexico’ one where they can live and thrive in the same history, culture and language of their homeland and yet not under the same corrupted government.
If there was a another country that border them that was just as successful as the United States where they could live and thrive in their own enclaves they would move there just as quick as they move here.
Yes not all are like that, but a good potion are and we can not have people coming into this country who are of a mindset that they merely wish to create ‘colonies’ of their home country within ours. Politicians like Perry, Bush and many other are allowing this colonization to the determent of our country.
History is full of the results where such behavior was allowed and eventually push came to shove and the results were ugly.
I can understand allowing Illegal Aliens into this country when unemployment is 4% and there’s help wanted signs everywhere (Don’t agree with it, but understand it). But when unemployment and underemployment is near 25%?
I travel through parts of Dallas TX and will not see one sign or any store front advertising that is not in spanish.
When I first moved here a bus driver jokingly asked me if I had my passport ready.
So - the Mexicans are “taking back” Texas and the Muslims are re-entering or re-taking Europe?
Do I need the /s ?
Relax, if Cain is the front-running you'll start seeing all the reasons listed as to why conservatives shouldn't vote for him.
And if Sarah gets in in the race you'll start seeing all reasons listed as to why conservatives shouldn't vote for her.
And if Christie gets in the race you'll start seeing all the reasons listed as to why conservatives shouldn't vote for him.
Romney vs Obama has been ordained, and it doesn't matter to the ordainers as to who wins that fight.
Of course, that's assuming that we conservatives are the puppets the ordainers think we are.
great work by three courageous elected officials.
all MA voters should be calling their own sheriffs to get on the wagon.
And half the population is on some sort of welfare.
The comments are great. Good to see some conservative sentiment coming from MA. I hope Scott Brown is reading them. the sob
Let’s cut to the chase here, there are a large majority of illegals who are here and don’t give a damn about the United States, they don’t wish to share out culture, our history and they could care less about anything American.
They are here because their own country is corrupt to the point that the people there have few freedoms and little or no chance to better themselves especially economically.
That sounds exactly like the early Christian Europeans who crossed the Atlantic and founded this country. The persecution was too great, the lack of opportunity, and desperation pushed them across the sea at great personal peril. Once here, they did not assimilate with the natives but brought with them their own culture and ethic.
History is full of the results where such behavior was allowed and eventually push came to shove and the results were ugly.
One could argue that the Native Americans didn't care too much for the new immigrants, yet their conquerors gave them the wheel, the horse, ox and woven fabric (and welfare from then until eternity)
It all starts the same, but the conquerors then formed the Greatest Nation under God's Heaven eventually bringing global peace, health and prosperity to a savage world. Today's conquerors (Arabs in Europe, Latinos/Chinese in America) now seem to be restoring the natural world order to warlords, mayhem, disease, depravity, sloth and despair.
Cultures do matter and being a cultural bigot is natural and actually a very good thing. Unfortunately, the Western culture includes slaughtering its future figuratively with the profound debt and burdensome government and literally with abortion.
Demographically most of the "civilized" world is killing itself whereas the "savage" people are populating like guppies. Its hard to convince a fifty year old man to shinny up a ladder during a Texas summer to lay roof shingles and tar just as it is nearly impossible to talk a a overly-credentialed post-graduate "feminine studies scholar" to change bed sheets at the Holiday Inn because we killed off or welfarized that generation who would normally do those jobs.
So yes, the influx of illegals is going to be cultural death, but we are already killing ourselves in other ways. We have already decided to kill ourselves, the only question is do we want to drink poison, get shot, knifed or be bludgeoned to death (or any combination of the aforementioned).
The spirit of Lexington and Concord certainly still exists in Massachusetts. Sadly though, NOT in the towns of Lexington and Concord.
Today’s officials in those towns would have arrested Paul Revere (but released the horse), confiscated the guns of the Minutemen, and sent riders to warn the Redcoats that the rabble was gathering on the Green.
Sadly, that is what has become of a once great State, now just Assachusetts.
Cultural balkanization will become more pronounced and those who live in the gated communities will eventually be told from Washington DC that there has been a “new deal”. It is only a question of in what language the announcement will come.
So your solution is to surrender and secede our sovereignty to Mexico? NO THANKS!
Sadly, that is what has become of a once great State, now just Assachusetts.
Or, as I used to call it just before I left (Jean Francois Kerry and Ded Kennedy (D-HELL) were my inspiration); Massivetwoshits.
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