Returning to law and order

When they* aren’t afraid of the police we are in big trouble.

We know there are gangs in town. Graffiti has been out of control for a couple of years now. And the gang committee (formed after the summer of bullets last year) gave us a profile of gang members.

(*If you want to know who “they” are, here it is.)

General
There are 1,088 known gang members or about 1% of Elgin’s population
72% are out on the street
11% are serving jail time
7% are “inactive” (Gee, do they get retirement pay?)
10% have been deported
Race/Ethnicity
54% are Hispanic
34% are African American
8% are Caucasian
4% are Asian
Age
The oldest is 50. The youngest is 15.
4% are 17 and under
16% are 18-21
40% are 22-28
38% are 29-39
3% are over 40
Source: Gang Prevention & Intervention Report – Elgin 6/11/2008

Here are some recent news items:
9/25/08 Carpentersville: 29-year-old woman gave false name to police and resisted arrest.
9/25/08 Elgin: 30-year-old man gave false name to police and resisted arrest.
9/23/08 Elgin: 21-year-old man gave false name to police.
9/20/08 Carpentersville: 17-year-old boy resisted arrest.
9/16/08 Carpentersville: 18-year-old arrested for having a gun near Dundee-Crown High School.
9/17/08 Carpentersville: Three people, ages 18, 19 and 23, were arrested for breaking the windows of the home of a Carpentersville Policeman who arrested the youth with a gun (above).
9/16/08 West Dundee: Four teens were arrested after a gang fight at Spring Hill Mall.
9/15/08 Elgin: Shots fired at Bent and St. Charles Streets
9/16/08 Elgin: Shots fired at Bent and Cleveland Streets

It may seem a bit foolish to give the wrong name to police, but perhaps not. The illegal alien out in Colorado who killed three in the Baskin-Robbins case had a rap sheet of 30 offenses with a variety of aliases. It took Immigration TWO DAYS to pin down his real identity. And the woman who killed four children on a school bus in Minnesota resulted in a FOUR DAY search for her real identity.

Here are some photos of an Elgin Police Car that was “tagged” with graffiti:

And here is some of the gang graffiti I’ve reported this summer.

For some reason the one on the back of a state road sign has not been cleaned up three weeks after being reported.

Let’s hope we see some new faces on the City Council in 2009…faces who understand this problem and have the backbone to tell it like it is! It is obvious that waiting for Washington and sending “resolutions” to the White House aren’t going to fix things.

Wrong Career

We have a couple of AFLA supporters who are court watchers. They will read about a case in the newspaper and show up in the courtroom to keep an eye on the judicial system.

Mostly they are upset that judges obviously know someone is in the country illegally and they do NOTHING about it. They will read a warning statement that IF the person is here illegally and IF they are convicted it MIGHT result in deportation and limit their future access to the United States. But the judge doesn’t pursue it.

Our observers noted that most of the Elgin cases on Monday involved “No license” and/or “No insurance.” The going rate for a fine was around $500. This is consistent with the observations of State Senator Mike Noland who has spent a great deal of time in that courtroom as a lawyer.

He believes that we should give drivers licenses to illegals in order to free up the courtroom for other cases. In June Noland wrote: “…when we consider the millions of dollars (easily for the 22nd District alone) we pay police, prosecutors and judges to preside over traffic cases directly or indirectly related to immigration status, and the resulting higher cost of automobile insurance, I suggest that this is an awfully high price to pay for continuing the status quo.”

At any rate, the day offered some entertainment for our observers. One man came before the judge to answer the charges of driving without a license or insurance. Through an interpreter he pled guilty. The judge noted his rap sheet…that he was before this same judge in March for the same thing.

The judge asked him why he didn’t get a license. He said, “The state won’t give me one.” The judge was trying to determine the need for a hardship ruling.

“What do you do for a living?”

And the perp responded, “Soy taxista.” (“I’m a cab driver.”)

So, the next time you call for a cab, request that they send a driver with a license!

The judge sentenced him to 120 days in the county jail.

Hey, it could be worse. He could be a school bus driver.

Immigration - Democratic Party Position

From the Democratic National Committee Platform 2008

Immigration

America has always been a nation of immigrants. Over the years, millions of people have come here in the hope that in America, you can make it if you try. Each successive wave of immigrants has contributed to our country’s rich culture, economy and spirit. Like the immigrants that came before them, today’s immigrants will shape their own destinies and enrich our country.

Nonetheless, our current immigration system has been broken for far too long. We need comprehensive immigration reform, not just piecemeal efforts. We must work together to pass immigration reform in a way that unites this country, not in a way that divides us by playing on our worst instincts and fears. We are committed to pursuing tough, practical, and humane immigration reform in the first year of the next administration.

We cannot continue to allow people to enter the United States undetected, undocumented, and unchecked. The American people are a welcoming and generous people, but those who enter our country’s borders illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of the law.

We need to secure our borders, and support additional personnel, infrastructure, and technology on the border and at our ports of entry. We need additional Customs and Border Protection agents equipped with better technology and real-time intelligence.

We need to dismantle human smuggling organizations, combating the crime associated with this trade. We also need to do more to promote economic development in migrant-sending nations, to reduce incentives to come to the United States illegally.

And we need to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. It’s a problem when we only enforce our laws against the immigrants themselves, with raids that are ineffective, tear apart families, and leave people detained without adequate access to counsel.

We realize that employers need a method to verify whether their employees are legally eligible to work in the United States, and we will ensure that our system is accurate, fair to legal workers, safeguards people’s privacy, and cannot be used to discriminate against workers.

We must also improve the legal immigration system, and make our nation’s naturalization process fair and accessible to the thousands of legal permanent residents who are eager to become full Americans. We should fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy that hampers family reunification, the cornerstone of our immigration policy for years.

Given the importance of both keeping families together and supporting American businesses, we will increase the number of immigration visas for family members of people living here and for immigrants who meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill, as long as appropriate labor market protections and standards are in place. We will fight discrimination against Americans who have always played by our immigration rules but are sometimes treated as if they had not.

For the millions living here illegally but otherwise playing by the rules, we must require them to come out of the shadows and get right with the law. We support a system that requires undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, pay taxes, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens. They are our neighbors, and we can help them become full tax-paying, law-abiding, productive members of society.


Here’s a link to the entire platform document (a 94 page Adobe pdf attachment):
http://www.demconvention.com/assets/downloads/2008-Democratic-Platform-by-Cmte-08-13-08.pdf

Immigration - Republican Party Position

From The Republican National Committee Platform 2008

Immigration, National Security, and the Rule of Law
Immigration policy is a national security issue, for which we have one test: Does it serve the national interest? By that standard, Republicans know America can have a strong immigration system without sacrificing the rule of law.

Enforcing the Rule of Law at the Border and Throughout the Nation
Border security is essential to national security. In an age of terrorism, drug cartels, and criminal gangs, allowing millions of unidentified persons to enter and remain in this country poses grave risks to the sovereignty of the United States and the security of its people. We simply must be able to track who is entering and leaving our country.

Our determination to uphold the rule of law begins with more effective enforcement, giving our agents the tools and resources they need to protect our sovereignty, completing the border fence
quickly and securing the borders, and employing complementary strategies to secure our ports of entry.

Experience shows that enforcement of existing laws is effective in reducing and reversing illegal immigration. Our commitment to the rule of law means smarter enforcement at the workplace, against illegal workers and lawbreaking employers alike, along with those who practice identity theft and traffic in fraudulent documents. As long as jobs are available in the United States, economic incentives to enter illegally will persist.

But we must empower employers so they can know with confidence that those they hire are permitted to work. That means that the Everify system—which is an internet-based system that verifies the employment authorization and identity of employees—must be reauthorized. A phased-in requirement that employers use the E-Verify system must be enacted.

The rule of law means guaranteeing to law enforcement the tools and coordination to deport criminal aliens without delay — and correcting court decisions that have made deportation so difficult.

It means enforcing the law against those who overstay their visas, rather than letting millions flout the generosity that gave them temporary entry.

It means imposing maximum penalties on those who smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S., both for their lawbreaking and for their cruel exploitation.

It means requiring cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement and real consequences, including the denial of federal funds, for self-described sanctuary cities, which stand in open defiance of the federal and state statutes that expressly prohibit such sanctuary policies, and which endanger the lives of U.S. citizens.

It does not mean driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law barring them from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, nor does it mean that illegal aliens should receive social security benefits, or other public benefits, except as provided by federal law.

We oppose amnesty. The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity. The American people’s rejection of en masse legalizations is especially appropriate given the federal government’s past failures to enforce the law.

Embracing Immigrant Communities
Today’s immigrants are walking in the steps of most other Americans’ ancestors, seeking the American dream and contributing culturally and economically to our nation. We celebrate the industry and love of liberty of these fellow Americans.

Both government and the private sector must do more to foster legally present immigrants’ integration into American life to advance respect for the rule of law and a common American identity. It is a national disgrace that the first experience most new Americans have is with a dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy defined by delay and confusion; we will no longer tolerate those failures.

In our multiethnic nation, everyone — immigrants and native-born alike — must embrace our core values of liberty, equality, meritocracy, and respect for human dignity and the rights of women.

One sign of our unity is our English language. For newcomers, it has always been the fastest route to prosperity in America. English empowers. We support English as the official language in our nation, while welcoming the ethnic diversity in the United States and the territories, including language.

Immigrants should be encouraged to learn English. English is the accepted language of business, commerce, and legal proceedings, and it is essential as a unifying cultural force. It is also important, as part of cultural integration, that our schools provide better education in U.S. history and civics for all children, thereby fostering a commitment to our national motto, E Pluribus Unum.

We are grateful to the thousands of new immigrants, many of them not yet citizens, who are serving in the Armed Forces. Their patriotism is inspiring; it should remind the institutions of civil society of the need to embrace newcomers, assist their journey to full citizenship, and help their communities avoid patterns of isolation.

Welcoming Refugees
Our country continues to accept refugees from troubled lands all over the world. In some cases,
these are people who stood with America in dangerous times, and they have first call on our hospitality.

We oppose, however, the granting of refugee status on the basis of lifestyle or other non-political factors.


Here’s a link to the entire platform document (a 67 page Adobe pdf attachment):
http://platform.gop.com/2008Platform.pdf