My, what a difference a good American grassroots-backlash voter turnout and city council change can make--on the local level--over the issue of illegal immigrationa and illegal alien INVASION of the heartland.
Take heart, America.
Posted on 10/13/2006 7:09:31 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
WASHINGTON - Since making national news last year for the controversy surrounding its taxpayer-subsidized day laborer center, the tiny town of Herndon has done an abrupt about-face. In May, angry voters ousted Mayor Michael O’Reilly, who supported the center, an elected Steve DeBenedittis, who did not. Only two incumbents on the Herndon Town Council survived their wrath; five candidates publicly committed to reversing the town’s illegal immigrant policy were swept in with DeBenedittis.
The day labor center was founded by Muslim activist Mukit Hossain, whose office is located right next door to the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a think tank that was raided by federal agents after Sept. 11 and is now the subject of a grand jury investigation in Alexandria’s federal court. Hossain also has close ties to the Safa Group, a Herndon-based conglomerate of more than 100 interrelated businesses, think tanks and charities suspected of funneling money to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and al-Qaida.
Just five months after their election, Herndon’s new leaders kept their promise. On Sept. 26, the Town Council voted 6 to 1 to send police officers to a five-week 287(g) training program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that will allow them to process and detain illegal immigrants identified during criminal investigations. The training program was created by Congress in 1996, but Herndon is one of the first in the nation to take advantage of it. Officials in Manassas and Loudoun County are now considering doing likewise.
Opponents claim it will allow local police officers to round up people merely suspected of being here illegally, but what the training really does is enable them to keep felons and gang members who are in this country illegally — and also pose a significant threat to public safety — off Herndon’s streets until they can be deported. No more “catch and release.”
On Thursday, the Herndon Town Council went even further, approving a measure that requires applicants for business licenses to swear — under penalty of perjury — that they are U.S. citizens. The town manager will also have to start obeying a Virginia state law that forbids the hiring of illegal workers for large construction projects by extending the illegal hiring ban to subcontractors working on town contracts.
Last year, Herndon — population 23,000 — suddenly found itself at the epicenter of the national immigration debate. Herndon residents are not xenophobic; their town has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents in the Washington region. But it’s also where three of the Sept. 11 hijackers stayed the night before they flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. So they’ve experienced firsthand the consequences of the nation’s experiment with uncontrolled immigration — and decided the problems outweigh the benefits. “The town has no issue with immigrants,” Vice Mayor Dennis Husch told WTOP Radio after the ICE vote. “The town has issues with illegal aliens.”
And unlike many policymakers in Washington, Herndon’s elected officials and residents apparently have no problem differentiating between the two. The town’s amazing transformation from a magnet for illegal aliens last year to a jurisdiction on the cutting edge of federal and local law enforcement efforts this year also proves that even on supposedly intractable issues like immigration, voters at the grassroots level really can make a difference.
Examiner
My, what a difference a good American grassroots-backlash voter turnout and city council change can make--on the local level--over the issue of illegal immigrationa and illegal alien INVASION of the heartland.
Take heart, America.
I love a happy story
Love it!
Yes we CAN (reverse the course of the nation)!
He (Asa Hutchinson) will fool the people and reverse his position again if in office as Governor.
His initial federal position (and lack of action when he had a chance to act in D.C.) is his true heart.
These kinds of RINO, sellout Republicans are not to be trusted. Anymore than the Democrats running against them who will do the same thing.
It is a choice, in such a case, between a slow death and a fast death. It's still death.
One of the interesting things about this is that Herndon is located in northern Virginia which is by far the most liberal part of the Commonwealth (It may in fact go to Webb). If the people feel to take action like this there, just think what the rest of the Commonwealth would do (of course the center would never be set up in the rest of the Commonwealth in the first place).
Opponents claim it will allow local police officers to round up people merely suspected of being here illegally, but what the training really does is enable them to keep felons and gang members who are in this country illegally — and also pose a significant threat to public safety — off Herndon’s streets until they can be deported. No more “catch and release.”
Sounds good. Give this land back to it's citizens. Not the slimey politicians who care about nothing other than the money that pads their pockets...
"The town’s amazing transformation from a magnet for illegal aliens last year to a jurisdiction on the cutting edge of federal and local law enforcement efforts this year also proves that even on supposedly intractable issues like immigration, voters at the grassroots level really can make a difference."
The politicians have been bought and paid for, so the average AMERICAN will save us!
Actually, I see way more Bush stickers in Herndon than I do in Falls Church/McLean...
I didn't know about the Islamic dimension to this story. On a slightly related note, the last time I visited my friend in Herndon, I left her neighborhood just as the postal truck was making its rounds. The postman looked just like that freaky Abu Hamza guy from the UK (the guy with the cloudy eyeball). He was decked out in white kurta pajamas, plus prayer cap. I called my friend immediately to laugh about Osama bin Mailman.
ping
Well done!
!!!re: But it’s also where three of the Sept. 11 hijackers stayed the night before they flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.)))!!!
Congratulate the good folks over in Virginia! :-)
I'm curious of the party affiliation of the new council members...Hafta wonder if voters crossed party lines to protect the country...
Herndon elections are non-partisan, so no party labels apply.
The pro-illegal people who were thrown out were all well known liberals. One of their candidates was a token Hispanic (legal) who they thought would bring in a big block of Hispanic votes. He finished dead last in an election were the top six vote-getters are elected.
The losers, who were supported by the Washington Post and all the local papers and with $$$ from La Raza and outside Hispanic pro-illegal groups like Casa de Maryland made the ridiculous claim that the winners, political novices, with big majorities, were the tools of outside interests!!
With this logic (it's not our message, but evil money men and outside interests that caused our defeat) these losers are qualified to be good Democrats.
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