It's On: Law Enforcement Versus Academia

To hell with Arizona, we have our own little immigration battle shaping up in Georgia.

On the one side, academia. A group which knows nothing of the real world and exist in their own little bubble in the Halls of Education, allied with the open borders liberals.

On the other, law enforcement and pretty much the 75% of the country who managed to move on away from the security blanket of school and engage in life.

Most people probably have at least a passing knowledge of the case in Georgia involving a Kennesaw State University student who was discovered to be in this country illegally after being stopped for a traffic violation and giving law enforcement false information.

Well a lawsuit has now been filed asking for an investigation into the University System of Georgia to determine just how pervasive the problem of colleges ignoring state and federal immigration laws is.

Sheriff Neil Warren is calling for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to probe the University System of Georgia's governing body, the Board of Regents, for possibly violating the law by admitting illegal immigrants into the state's universities.

Anti-illegal immigration activist D.A. King filed a complaint on May 19 with the GBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, then asked Warren to assist in the matter.

In a letter dated June 4, Warren referred to King's complaint, stating that the Board of Regents is in violation of state and federal laws, which prohibit state universities from admitting illegal immigrants.

"O.C.G.A. 50-3601(c)(7) requires compliance with 8 U.S.C. 1621 which provides that aliens not legally in the United States are ineligible for certain State or local benefits, including postsecondary education," Warren writes in his letter to GBI Director Vernon Keenan.

Academics love to engage in debate. They aren't too big into action, which is really at the crux of the situation in Arizona. All those eggheads are actually afraid that some action may take place instead of merely passing feel good legislation and engaging in endless studies and debate. Well I hope they get to debate their case for ignoring the law in front of a judge. Depending on who the judge is of course, and the ACLU and their associated minions are very good at shopping around for a sympathetic judge, it will be fun to watch these guardians of the Ivy Halls of Edumakation explain a dozen different ways why laws only apply to the little people and they are not the little people.

On the other hand they will probably just use the lawsuit as another excuse to raise tuition.

Hang Tough Arizona. The Liberals Will Move On

I have been watching the whole kerfuffle, expressions of angst, and liberal hand wringing over the recent legislation signed into law in Arizona granting their law enforcement wider authority to determine the immigration status of people they detain. Everybody knew what the reaction of those cry babies on the left would be, but what amused me the most is that Arizona is simply doing on a statewide level what a couple of counties in Georgia have been doing for some time to good effect.

For all of the screaming about jack booted thugs dragging people out of homes in the dead of night, to the best of my knowledge not a single case in Georgia has risen to this level. In other words, Americans need to put a little confidence in their fellow Americans to not abuse the power they are given.

If the only effect of the law is to relocate the illegals from Arizona to the neighboring states it will relieve the taxpayers of Arizona of big burden and then we will see how long it takes for the other states to take action. That has been the experience in Georgia. Cobb county was the first to take the tough stance and it wasn't long before the neighboring county of Gwinnett followed suit. Arguably two areas of the metro Atlanta area viewed as conservative, and now that the financially crippled and non functioning liberal counties of Dekalb and Clayton have absorbed the fugitives from the law, and refuse to do anything, they are suffering the expected consequences.

Metro Atlanta is the story of two sides, and makes a great lab for viewing the effects of conservative versus liberal policies. On the one side is schools which are the envy of the state, with local governments, which while not immune from the recent economic downturn, are weathering the storm as best as can be expected, while on the other side are counties which have school systems losing accreditation, the highest foreclosure rates in the state, and in some cases the nation, higher then average unemployment, and crime rates which make the people living there virtual prisoners in their own homes.

So kudos to Arizona for taking the steps necessary to look out for it's citizens and please don't buckle. LIberal outrage burns hot but their attention span is that of gnat. Weather the initial firestorm and soon they will be on to something else to vent their rage on. No doubt the latest posting from Sarah Palin on Facebook or Karl Rove book signing.

Now if Georgia could just make statewide what they are doing in a few counties we might be able to take the lead for a change instead of waiting to see how the wind blows and then jumping on a bandwagon.

ACLU Fighting for Illegal Aliens

I stumbled across these two stories today from my local rag the AJC and found it just a little curious. They were curious because in both instances they raise the specter of racial profiling in regards to a local police department and their enforcement of immigration laws and both are written by the same reporter.

The police department in question is Cobb County in Georgia and they are one of a handful of counties who are allowed to detain suspects until their immigration status can be determined. I have written about it before, because most citizens view the program as a success and even the reporter mentions some of the statistics.

As the Georgia county with the longest track record, Cobb’s program bears further examination. Since July 2007, 6,386 inmates suspected of being illegal immigrants have been detained for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records provided by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office.

About of third of those inmates were jailed for traffic offenses such as driving without a license. Drunken driving was the next most common charge. Four murder suspects, 10 alleged rapists and 27 suspected child molesters were also among those detained for federal immigration officials.

That isn't what got my attention though. The above information was included in the first report posted this morning just before 10 o'clock under the title Cobb policy: Law enforcement or racial profiling?
In the second story posted a little before 2 o'clock she has this headline. ACLU: Report documents racial profiling in Cobb

In it she includes a story that can only be classified as anecdotal at best, about an unnamed individual who was supposedly detained for driving without a license and spent 18 days in jail. I say anecdotal since they use a pseudonym for a name and then do not provide anymore information about how his situation is related to his immigration status. It does mention that he has been pulled over before, therefore reading between the lines I would assume he is in the country legally.

According to one account, "Federico" was stopped for having a malfunctioning brake light on a Saturday afternoon while driving home with his family from a trip to the park. He was arrested for driving without a license and spent 18 days in jail. The report doesn't state which police department made the arrest.

Federico stated he had been stopped many times while driving in Cobb County. He said he was aware of many other Latinos that also had been pulled over "for no good reason."

I particularly love the part about being pulled over "for no good reason". Quick show of hands. How many of us have said the exact same thing when telling our friends about the BS ticket we just got?

Okay, put your hands down.

I am not saying the reporter has a certain angle in mind when writing these stories, and maybe she was just on a roll with the racism thing or under pressure from an editor. But whatever the case is, I would think that in at least the second story her editor would have made her back up the story with some sort of proof the "Federico" existed and some way to confirm his story and conveyed that information to the reader. As it is, it's just another fairy tale that makes a good human interest story, just like the part about that he was driving home from the park. They could have stopped the sentence right after writing driving home.

Anyway, kudos the the Cobb County sheriff's department. Keep up the good work, because one thing that isn't in dispute is the FACTS contained in the first story.

Four murder suspects, 10 alleged rapists and 27 suspected child molesters were also among those detained for federal immigration officials.

Oh and the ACLU might want to pay attention to what the first letter in their organization name stands for.

Where do you want to live?

From time to time I post about local issues here in the metro Atlanta area, but I think this set of headlines from todays AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) pretty sums it up. The county I live in is Cobb a Republican stronghold and the people that brought you Newt Gingrich. Dekalb is festering cesspool of liberal democrats that used to be home to one Cynthia McKinney. Clayton is located on the south west side and is also a strong Democrat hangout.

cobb

* Trail-blazing chief moves on
* Georgia 'cheapskate' is millionaire author at 28
* Kennesaw researchers discover ancient chocolate use
* Mableton 4th-grader wins laptop, national prize for school
* King celebration in Cobb scheduled

dekalb

* Assistant principal stabbed to death
* Fallen tree causes Decatur power outage
* DeKalb court puts focus on mental health
* Police seek shooter of restaurant manager
* Gunmen at large after deadly robbery
* Jailbreak try by man charged in restaurateur's murder

clayton

* Box of cereal, not bomb, prompted Clayton Courthouse evacuation
* One killed, two injured in Clayton wreck
* Alpharetta man shot outside Riverdale pizzeria
* Clayton school board struggle flares again


So Cobb county is lauding a woman fire chief who is retiring after 30 years, a self made millionaire at the age of 28, and a young girl who helped to win some money for her school as well as winning a laptop for herself. Oh yeah did I mention she is the child of Russian immigrants. Meanwhile Dekalb and Clayton is just a police blotter report.
If you want to see the difference between Democrat and Republican policies in action in microcosm the metro Atlanta area is a great test lab.

Gotta Love Cobb County

Why I love living in Cobb County GA
Maria Rivera sits in the Cobb County Jail, facing deportation after a traffic stop.
If the Mableton mother of three, who is here illegally from Mexico, had been pulled over in any other county in Georgia, she likely would have bailed out and gone on with her life.
But Cobb County's jail is at the forefront of local enforcement of immigration laws, going a step further than many states and further than a new Georgia law requires.
Cobb has trained some sheriff's deputies to determine the legal status of all foreign born inmates at the jail, no matter how minor the charge. Cobb jailers now can start deportation proceedings under what's known as a "287-G" agreement with federal immigration authorities.
"The computers are up and running," Cobb County Chief Deputy Sheriff Lynda Coker said. "They can run inquiries on a federal database."
A new state law effective July 1 requires jailers statewide to determine the legal status of inmates charged with felonies or DUI and report illegal immigrants to federal immigration officials, but they can leave it at that.
So take that 3rd Circuit, which recently struck down the laws passed in Hazelton, PA. Now this woman has been charged with: Expired tag; no license; no proof of insurance
So another unlicensed, uninsured motorists is taken off the streets. By the way GA requires proof of insurance to get a license and a tag, so how was she able to have a vehicle to start with?

And what do the “Let ‘em all in crowd” have to say. It is predictable
In the four weeks since the program began, Cobb jailers and ICE have interviewed 86 inmates, placed immigration holds on 68 and started deportation proceedings against 42, Coker said. Deportation paperwork done by sheriff's deputies must be reviewed by an immigration officer before it goes to a judge.
Although it's sheriff's deputies, and not Cobb County Police Department officers, who are now processing deportation paperwork, the program is sending a shiver through the immigrant community.
Fear destroys any rapport the community had with police, said Jerry Gonzalez, head of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.
"This is having a very negative effect on overall public safety," Gonzalez said.{ed.- If by negative effect you mean another unlicensed, uninsured motorist is taken off the streets, then yeah}
Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at New York University Law School, agrees. The institute is a nonprofit Washington think tank that studies global migration patterns.
"People are reluctant to report crimes to the police, or be witnesses in criminal proceedings," Chishti said.
That is why we must actively pursue legal proceedings against illegals. Chew on this Mr Chishti.
Some Cobb inmates who have been flagged for immigration holds are charged with child molestation or drugs, weapons and alcohol-related offenses, Rocha said.

Now of course Maria has 3 children but guess what? It ain’t her first trip.
Rivera was flagged because she had been deported before, in March 2006, after crossing the Mexican border illegally, Rocha said.
Rivera crossed again last year and went to Chicago with her husband and three children, said Enrique Farias, her roommate. About six months ago she came to Mableton with her children, Farias said.
His sister cared for the three children a few weeks while their mother was in jail, he said, until an uncle from Chicago came last week took the children home with him.
Rivera was stopped by a Cobb County police officer July 11 on her way to work as a house cleaner, Farias said. She is charged with driving without a license, having no proof of insurance and an expired tag, according to jail records.
Cobb County police Chief George Hatfield said his officer had no choice but to enforce the law with Rivera.
"It's sad if she's got the three children and everything, but she should have thought about that before she got behind the wheel of a car," he said.
Full story is here.