… (F)or this election cycle, put all the other issues aside and become a particular type of one-issue voter. There’s an enormous fish to fry, even if it doesn’t seem to swim in local political waters: illegal immigration
By Hank Beckman –
Want to know who to vote for in the upcoming local elections? A little conflicted about the various issues involved, whether they be local or county?
Maybe you like the fiscal policies of one candidate, but are a little uneasy with his or her social views. Or maybe you’re a one-issue voter and you can’t imagine voting for a candidate who favors unbridled development.
The election in your area might have candidates for a park board where the hot-button issue is whether to devote resources to open space or a soccer field. Or there might be a school district that has a particularly divisive spending referendum that has had district voters particularly engaged.
Open space debates and school referendums are typically among the most contentious of local issues. If you’ve got a plan to find common ground among those warring parties, particularly in a hotly-contested school referendum, you’re probably just the person to head to the Middle East, where you can probably solve that Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But for this election cycle, put all the other issues aside and become a particular type of one-issue voter. There’s an enormous fish to fry, even if it doesn’t seem to swim in local political waters: illegal immigration.
Before the vote next Tuesday, find out if the candidates in your village, park district or school district are in favor of deporting criminals and actually enforcing our nation’s borders. If not, vote against them.
And don’t just vote against them, make it a point to contact their operations and let them know, in no uncertain terms, why you are voting against them, and that should they be elected anyway, you will continue to oppose them throughout their tenure in office.
Tell them that you are tremendously bothered by the fact that there are anywhere from 10 million people to 30 million people in the country illegally, depending on whose estimate you’re using. Having that many people in the country who haven’t been vetted for either disease or criminal background is a recipe for disaster.
And that disaster has already been visited on the approximately 4,000 American citizens that have lost their lives over the last two years to people who weren’t supposed to be in the country. Their families shouldn’t have to go through this kind of grief and suffering when it could easily have been prevented.
The latest outrage in the news is the case of Sonya Jones, the school teacher and 49-year old mother of two who was allegedly killed by a drunk illegal from Guatemala, a 16-year old asylum seeker who never showed up for his asylum hearing scheduled two years ago.
Living illegally in Alabama since then, authorities say he caused a head-on crash that took Jones’ life.
Then there is Jamar Beach, the 26-year old North Carolina man killed by a drunken illegal in a hit-and-run accident. In this case, at least the judge handed down a sentence that could keep behind bars for the maximum 33 months; but he also could get out after 14 months.
Beach’s family is fighting to make sure the illegal—I won’t even mention his name—is deported once he finishes his sentence.
“I’m going to encourage deportation because he has no business here,” Beach’s mother was quoted as telling local media.
Immigration enforcement is not, for the most part, debated or decided at the local village hall. But the effects of high levels immigration, both legal and illegal, are an unnecessary cost to local communities everywhere.
I don’t know how much money is spent providing health care, welfare assistance, public education and law enforcement services to illegals, but it has to be in the tens of millions.
Ask the officials of Fairfax Count, Virginia, if the quality of life in their community has been impacted by the presence of MS-13 gangbangers. Or ask the people of Long Island, another MS-13 hotbed, if they wouldn’t preference spending their tax dollars anywhere besides having to cope with criminals that aren’t even supposed to be in the country.
With President Trump spending much of the last two years highlighting the need for improved border security, it’s the right time to let candidates at every level know that there will be a price to be paid for ignoring the virtual invasion of the country by line-jumpers who cost the nation so much in terms of resources spent and crimes committed against innocent American citizens.
Even if the candidates for your city council or park district don’t have any immediate influence on immigration policy, they are often the same people who go on to run for state or national legislative and executive offices.
Our state and federal government both have their share of state legislators, members of Congress and even chief executives who got their start in politics on the local school board or village board of trustees.
Let them know at the beginning of their careers that if they support the lawlessness of the open border and the disrespect toward American citizens—and immigrants waiting patiently in line—they will never be able to count on your vote.
