Posted on 05/07/2005 10:42:36 AM PDT by antonia
DANBURY, Conn. - Mayor Mark Boughton blames the government for his town's inability to cope with 15,000 illegal immigrants, approximately 19 percent of the overall population.
"This is one community that has been incredibly stressed by failed federal policy and we need help," said Boughton.
Because the illegal residents aren't counted in the U.S. census, Danbury doesn't receive any federal aid for them.
"In terms of our social services, this presents a tremendous strain, particularly on quality of life of our neighborhoods, our schools our health care system," Boughton said.
Residents complain the influx is killing property values. Homeowner Peter Gadiel said neighbors are fed up. "They're blue collar workers and their whole life savings is tied up in their house and they're seeing their neighborhood being destroyed."
The mayor says he wants state police officers to be deputized as federal immigration officers - giving them access to a federal database and helping them track illegal immigrants. But Connecticut's attorney general said Boughton needs the approval of the governor and others before that can happen.
Boughton has set up a task force to inspect neighborhoods that have received a lot of complaints about buildings housing illegal immigrants. In one home, the task force found 30 cots in the basement, each one being rented for $5 a night.
This middle-class New England suburb is nowhere near an international border but it still has the illegal immigration problems familiar to cities like San Diego and Tucson, Ariz.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
That's about as much as it would take a US citizen to live in Danbury each month, while paying taxes and paying for all the freebies which the immigrants get. Especially considering the impossible road situation now. What used to be a very well laid out system is now congested and hazarded at every turn by illegal immigrants driving, without license or insurance, yet damaging property everywhere.
see: Vehicle impound exemption proposed for illegal immigrants
DPS arrests 2 after mile-long chase (Driver deported 17 times)
You know the illegal Brazilians you keep reading about?
This is another one of their footholds.
Probably, but could they ever really do that. Aren't they counting on illegals someday becoming future Democrat voters? The unions have flipped on this along time ago, recognizing that immigrants -- legal or illegal -- provide them with growth opportunities.
Illegal immigration, free trade, and the retiring of the baby boomers will bankrupt this country, kill the middle class, and put us towards the fast track to communism. These issues can be managed with but our government just seems to be run by bumbling idiots. I truely believe these are the last great days of America with the types of people we have running this country.
But they are counted. There is is box on the questionnaire for the census taker to mark "Hispanic", but not for "illegal", or "citizen"
This is just another bottom feeding local politician whining for more federal money and shifting the blame from his incompetence and corruption to the scapegoat group de jure.
Many of the towns near Danbury are exceedingly rich. New Caanan, Ridgefield, Wilton. Many maids work in those towns -- and, of course, must find a nearby town in which to live.
Tell me about it... I'm not that far from Danbury, and the place was awash in Brazillians ten years ago.
Now? Forget it.
A few towns over from where I live, in the working class community of Farmingville, NY, they are having a huge problem with illegals. These folks line up along the main intersections, blocking tarffic, and causing accidents. So how do the local politicians want to handle this? They want to build a "safehouse" where all the illegals can amass so that contractors can pick them up safely! It's insane.
You are right. I should have used better wording. Citizens do hire them too. But the facilitators are the corrupt politicians that skim the difference from the actual billing.
I have been looking for this cheap housekeeping which all these pro illegal immigration people seem to promise, and all I can find is the usual $60.00 a shot variety.
Danbury has Illegals who have opened up their own business's. They can significantly underbid the rest of us because they pay no insurance, taxes, Medicare, unemployment etc. They are not sources of cheap labor for anyone who is obeying the law, however they have created a considerable rich underground and illegal economy which is a parasite on the legitimate local economy. They are using all of the infrastructure free and sending much of their proceeds out of country, they are not even putting it back into Danbury. The government's failure to stop this is the only reason that it persists. It is not good for any native. I can see no reason why our leaders seem to believe that it is fine, other than that they believe that communities such as Danbury are disposable.
Give me a break. Danbury is just over the CT border from Westchester/Putnam counties, and this article exactly describes the situation in virtually every town here. These are normal American villages just overrun with illegals. INS, or ICE, or whatever it's called these days, does squat. The townspeople are sick of it, but the local governments' hands are completely tied. In our town, there's a "Hispanic Coalition" - local version of ACLU - that springs to alert when cops try to enforce the law. In fact, there IS no more loitering law in our town, thanks to the Coalition. Before you blame ordinary Americans, try investigating just how completely check-mated ordinary Americans are on stopping "this influx."
15,000 ILLEGALS in one town? Who's hiring them and why aren't they being prosecuted?
Nam Vet
What are the Democrats proposing?
Ye-es, Danbury is basically a blue collar town that once produced a goodly percentage of the nations' hats. The fortunes of the city declined along with the number of derby wearers and today Danbury is a working-class enclave surrounded by some of the priciest(and fastest developing)real estate anywhere. McMansions are popping up in western Connecticut...well, like McMansions in western Connecticut, and the wealthy liberals who inhabit them hire bargeloads of illegals to maintain their property and look after little Megan and Evan and Rachel while Mummy and Dah-dy are out voting for Democrats. Believe me, not many immigrants work in Danbury itself, and there are no large meat processors or other labor-intensive industries in the area. Construction is a huge draw, and if an immigration agent walked onto a building site in Ct., the place would look like a ghost town in a split second. Connecticut has become a massive yupscale bedroom community/Olde New England shopping mall, and such places always need lots of illegals,or so it seems.
People aren't going to switch until someone comes up with a plan.
Look what just happened in Great Britain. Many seats were picked up by very conservative leaders in the latest election, because of their position on illegal immigration. I read and heard that one of the main issues driving the election this year was illegal immigration. The British people sent a very clear message to their elected officials - fix the problem. We have to do the same through elected officials who are willing to actually do something about the problem here in the US.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.