Tenacious Poodle: 11/20/07

Civil rights committee to meet here
By KEITH WALKER
kwalker@potomacnews.com
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Prince William Chairman Corey A. Stewart, R-at large, doesn't like that Linda Chavez is coming to town. Of course not. Bigots usually don't like Civil Rights people.

Chavez, the chairman of the State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said she doesn't care. And well she shouldn't. Stewart brought this on himself and his Board.

The committee will convene at the McCoart Administration Center on Dec. 14 to examine Prince William County's anti-illegal immigration resolution. Hope that's an open meeting.

Stewart said Chavez was in no position to judge Prince William County, since her nomination to head the U.S. Department of Labor in 2001 was derailed over a woman who was an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Even if this is true, you can't tell me politicians are innocent in all this. It is well known politicians hire undocumented immigrants all the time. They contract them. And Mr. Stewart's beloved developers do the same thing.

During her confirmation, some said Chavez hired the woman. Proof?

"During my vetting process, it became known that I had given shelter to a woman who was illegally in the country," Chavez said. "She actually worked for someone else."

Chavez, also a syndicated columnist, mentioned Prince William County in a column examining Republican politics and illegal immigration. I am sure it (justifiably) wasn't in a good way, either.

Stewart said his credulity couldn't be stretched enough to believe that Chavez could be objective. Why should she be? Stewart isn't objective either. Look at the minority of people he listens to when he develops policy.

"She's got no credibility. She's got an agenda, and she is the last person who should sit in judgement of our efforts to crack down on illegal immigration," Stewart said. "I have no respect for her personally with respect to the immigration issue." Stewart has no credibility, and there are enough of us out there who have no respect for HIM or his Board. When Stewart ignored thousands of people in favor of his own personal bigotry, followed the lead of racist Board members and hate groups, he certainly proved he has his OWN agenda.

Chavez said it's not about her. And it's not. It's about our county and the way hatred has been allowed to run amok at the whims of a few including our leaders.

"I'm not the subject here. The role of the Prince William County board of supervisors -- their decision to pass the sweeping legislative change -- what impact it's going to have on civil rights enforcement is the focus of concern," she said.

The final resolution the Prince William Board of County Supervisors passed denied illegal immigrants eight county services and directed that police officers be trained to enforce immigration law. And the services were denied to the most vulnerable of all: the new version of the resolution targets the elderly, the disabled, and the addict (mentally ill in too many cases). Undocumented or not, these people deserve care. This county has a history of neglecting its elderly population, and mental health has never been one of their priorities. The county doesn't have a good track record as it is, and now they have added to it with this resolution, taking aim at not only the marginalized immigrant population, but the weakest. That these efforts are supported by white supremacists makes it all the worse.

The 51 advisory committees, representing the states and the District of Columbia, are made up of local volunteers who are familiar with local civil rights issues, according to the commission's Web site. Committee members are appointed by the commission's staff director to two-year terms, but they can be reappointed, according to the Web site.

Chavez said the county's emergence onto the national scene over the resolution influenced the 12-member committee's decision to come to Prince William County. Thank God!

She said there are a lot of unanswered questions.

"One of the criticisms of what Prince William did was that there wasn't a whole lot of empirical evidence to show that illegal aliens were having onerous impact on the county," Chavez said.
Chavez said she would like to get some numbers.

The overall crime rate in Prince William County went down last year, according to county police.
The county Web site shows unemployment in Prince William County is about 2.5 percent.

"It's hard to make the case that illegal aliens are taking jobs from Americans," Chavez said. "Crime was actually down last year in Prince William County. You have to ask whether or not crime is an issue."

Stewart said that's not the point.

"Illegal aliens aren't supposed to be here in the first place," he said. And discriminating against them has become the job of county racists and a bigoted Board of Supervisors why?

Chavez wondered about the true impact of illegal immigration on the county. "The board moved ahead without having very much in the way of supporting evidence to show the impact," she said. "It's not to say that there isn't one. There may be. But they didn't marshal the facts."

Stewart said he had some facts.

"According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, up to one-third of all the gang members in Northern Virginia are illegal aliens," Stewart said. "We know that 21 percent of the inmates in the jail are illegal aliens," he said.

Stewart said with one-fifth of the inmates in the jail being illegal immigrants, it stood to reason that they were committing a significant portion of the crime in the county. "If we can use federal immigration law to remove the bad guys, let's do it," he said. So if they are true, serious criminals, then those are the ones who need to be deported--assuming they really ARE criminals and aren't just being profiled. Outside of that, can we trust Stewart's numbers when we can't trust much else he spouts?

But after saying that, Stewart returned to his original point citing Chavez's writings on illegal immigration as proof that she is predisposed to condemn Prince William County. Stewart ought to realize many of us are predisposed to condemn HIS and STIRRUP'S actions.

"She has been an outspoken critic of attempts to crack down on illegal immigration," Stewart said. "I give her no credibility, and until she's removed from that position, I'm not going to give the results of that commission any credibility either." I give Stewart no credibility until HE is removed from HIS position. Likewise for Stirrup.

Chavez said Stewart's assault would not influence the committee. I should hope not.

"The idea of making personal attacks on the chairman is frankly not a very smart thing to do and it's certainly not going to deter us from doing our job," Chavez said. Stewart proves time and time again he isn't very smart. This shouldn't come as a surprise.

The committee, which has no enforcement authority, can make reports to the commission which is a civil rights watchdog organization. I would love to see those reports sent on to the ACLU and others....publicly.

PRESS RELEASE
From the Prince William County
Human Rights Commission

For Immediate Release
For More Information Contact:
(703) 792-4680

UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY PROGRAM SCHEDULED

The Prince William County Human Rights Commission will celebrate Universal Human Rights Day on Friday, December 7, 2007 in the A. J. Ferlazzo Building Auditorium, 15941 Donald Curtis Drive, Woodbridge, Virginia at 7:30 p.m. The United Nations declared Universal Human Rights Day on December 10, 1948 to recognize the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

The event will feature the annual Human Rights Awards given to members of our community for their unique contributions to human and civil rights will be distributed. You can nominate someone by visiting our website at www.pwcgov.org/hmnrghts or contacting the office for a nomination form. All nominations are due no later than November 23, 2007. The program will also include a presentation on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and the progress made during WWII in diversifying the American armed forces. WWII veterans are invited to attend the program.

The community is welcomed to come and share in this important celebration. If you plan to attend, please RSVP the Human Rights office at (703) 792-4680.

Friday, December 7, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Ferlazzo Building Auditorium
15941 Donald Curtis Drive
Woodbridge, VA

*Reminder: Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt and this blog do not represent the Human Rights Commission or any other organization.