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Monday, September 27, 2010
Boomer with Attitude / News Forecast: Immigration firestorm headed to Charlotte
Posted By John Grooms on Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 4:59 PM
The growing shit storm that is America’s debate over immigration policy is set to start blowing hard and piling up soon in Charlotte, as the GOP — Bill James, in particular — tries to milk anti-Latino prejudice for all it’s worth. At the Oct. 5 County Commission meeting, James plans to introduce a proposal that would order the Department of Social Services to hand over a detailed list of all undocumented immigrants who have applied for DSS help. The proposal comes on the heels of James digging around and finding out that, according to his calculations, 9 to 10 percent of Mecklenburg’s money for assistance “goes to illegals.”
North Carolina law says undocumented immigrants who apply for any Medicaid service are not subject to being reported to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, unless they have been served with an Order of Deportation. James’ proposal would force DSS in Mecklenburg County to take information about undocumented illegals who have applied for aid, and turn it over to the sheriff and to ICE/Homeland Security. The reason? Why, what else? Only the most popular reason given anywhere on the planet to smack down anything authorities don’t like: to make us all safe from ... wait for it ... terrorism. I kid you not.
As James wrote in one missive to his fan base, “I say - how do you know they aren't terrorists living off of DSS federal welfare money?” Hey, that’s a logical argument, right? Sort of like saying, “How do you know Bill James isn’t an al-Qaeda agent sent here to make this county look ridiculous?” Well, how do you know that isn’t true? It could be, just as those nasty immigrants could be terrorists! I say that based on my logical argument, this Bill James character needs to be turned in to the FBI for interrogation. Yes, I’m kidding, but you get my point.
Now, I’m not a lawyer and I could certainly be wrong, but I can’t imagine the state allowing a county to supercede one of its laws. But that could be what James is fishing for: an opportunity to paint the Democrat-controlled state government as “soft on illegals and terrorists.” This is election season, after all.
James is right about one thing, however. In one of his messages, he writes, “Roughly 5,600 illegals receive benefits through DSS for their anchor babies. Liberals say: So What!” Other than objecting to the insulting term “anchor babies,” I’d say yeah, that’s what at least one liberal I know says about undocumented immigrants receiving Medicaid for their children: So what? Yes, that's right: So what? I, for one, don’t mind a tiny slice of my tax money being used to pay for undocumented immigrants’ children’s health care. In fact, I consider it the only decent thing to do.
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