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County requests Arizona illegal immigration law for state
Beaufort County endorsed Arizona’s new illegal immigration law (SB 1070) at Monday night’s commissioner meeting in Washington. The law requires Arizona police to check with federal authorities on a person's immigration status, if officers have stopped that person for some legitimate reason and come to suspect that he or she might be in the U.S. illegally.
To access a copy of the 16-page bill click here.
The commissioners will be mailing a resolution of support for the Arizona bill to the North Carolina governor, attorney general and general assembly. The resolution will request state lawmakers to invoke the same law in North Carolina.
According to the four Republican Beaufort County commissioners who voted in favor of the resolution, which was proposed by Commissioner Hood Richardson, the Arizona law is a near-exact replica of the federal illegal immigration law. The Republican commissioners agreed that SB 1070 makes the violation of federal immigration law a state crime, and gives Arizona law enforcement the authority to arrest illegal immigrants.
“Hood’s right, the law basically mirrors the federal law exactly,” said Commissioner Al Klemm. “If we’re going to go ahead and do a resolution, I’d like to see North Carolina write it exactly the same as the Arizona law and just be done, don’t mess it up.”
Though the Arizona law has drawn much criticism from national pundits, it is extremely popular among Arizona voters, according to a Rasmussen poll, which found that 70 percent of voters approve of the new bill, and just 23 percent oppose it.
“It’s a call to duty by American citizens to start doing what we can within our communities and our state to do the job that we’re not getting from the federal government, right now,” said Commissioner Stan Deatherage.
Richardson said the last three presidents of the United States have not been willing to stand up against illegal immigration because undocumented workers provide cheap labor. With unemployment high across the nation, state and county, Richardson said the federal government’s priority should be protecting jobs for American citizens, rather than protecting cheap labor.
“Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower by the stroke of a pen deported the illegals from the United States,” said Richardson. “Herbert Hoover did it during the Great Depression because we didn’t have jobs. Tell me what’s going on right now. We don’t have jobs. These people are taking up our jobs. And Harry Truman did it at the end of the Second World War because returning servicemen did not have jobs. Dwight Eisenhower did it during a severe recession when American citizens did not have jobs.”
In light of the imminent challenge posed by the new county budget, which was unveiled at Monday night’s meeting, to either cut Beaufort County expenditures or raise property taxes, the Republican commissioners argued the necessity of cracking down on illegal immigration to save the county money. Richardson delineated the cost to the Beaufort County taxpayer of educating children of illegal immigrants in the public school system.
“We have in our public schools right now 700…students who are here as illegal immigrants,” said Richardson. “And that is costing, at $10,000 per student, that’s costing you $7 million a year. And it’s costing the county… $2,000 a student, in round numbers...That’s coming directly out of your property taxes. So if you take 2,000 times 700 it gets to be about 1.4 million—a big hit on property owners in Beaufort County.”
In the fiscal-year 2011, Beaufort County again finds itself financially unable to replace the county jail. The county also finds itself unable to assure property owners of a revenue neutral tax rate, on account of the fear that the Beaufort County Medical Center will not be able to make its scheduled debt repayment to the county. Deatherage correlated these budget shortfalls to the systemic burden of illegal immigrants, while answering Commissioner Ed Booth’s question of where to hold the increased number of people charged with illegal immigration:
“It’s estimated right now that 25 percent of all inmates in North Carolina prisons and jails are illegal immigrants. If states become more and more involved, as we need them to become, there’d be more ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centers. Whatever the cost is for us to interdict, hold them, and send them back, is going to save us a tremendous amount of money, and not have to educate their children and provide services to their families…,” said Deatherage. “Plus, I haven’t even mentioned our hospitals. We’re having problems with our hospitals all across the nation, because these people do not pay their bills, by and large.”
Two of the three dissenting votes came from the board’s African American Democratic commissioners Ed Booth and Jerry Langley, who opposed the resolution on the assumption that the Arizona bill would open up the prospect for ethnic profiling. At the heart of the law is this provision: "For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency…where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person." The words “reasonable suspicion” have been singled out of this excerpt by critics who fear abusive interpretation at the local level.
“What I read, Arizona law is got some problems,” said Booth. “Number one: There’s some Latino people here that are legal. Just go around, and just because your name is Lopez it’d give us the opportunity to stop you, give us the opportunity to harass you.”
Langley, said that the likelihood of the abuse of power increases at the state and local levels of government and referred to his own familiarity with racial profiling.
“I can tell you just from life experience, that there is lots of profiling that goes on, and I just can not go along with it,” he said.
Klemm attempted to address the concerns of these commissioners over the term “reasonable suspicion” by reading provisions of the Arizona law:
Before asking a person about immigration status, law enforcement officials are required by the law to have “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an illegal immigrant. The concept of “reasonable suspicion” is well established by court rulings. Since Arizona does not issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, having a valid license creates a presumption of legal status. Examples of reasonable suspicion include:
A driver stopped for a traffic violation has no license, or record of a driver's license or other form of federal or state identification.
A police officer observes someone buying fraudulent identity documents or crossing the border illegally.
A police officer recognizes a gang member back on the street who he knows has been previously deported by the federal government.
These provisions did little to assuage the mind of Booth.
“According to what Mr. Klemm just read there,” said Booth, “if he go to Arizona I hope he don’t leave his wallet here because if he’s stopped there and he don’t have his driver’s license he can be charged with illegal immigrant.”
Before taking a vote, Republican commissioners made one last attempt at reaching an ideological consensus.
“You’re talking about abusing these people’s rights, well everyday we do not interdict, collect and send these people back, we’re abusing the rights of American citizens who have lived here and fought to keep this country free,” said Deatherage. “And if we don’t do what we have to do, this country will no longer be ours, and it will no longer be free.”
Klemm echoed Deatherage’s sentiments that there’s more of a reason to fear the consequences of inaction than the consequences of action.
“Any law we pass there’s gonna be some sort of risk,” said Klemm. “I know if you don’t do anything, you’re never gonna address the problem. And to say we’re not gonna do something because there’s a little bit of risk, well that’s when this country will cease to exist.”
Go Back
To access a copy of the 16-page bill click here.
The commissioners will be mailing a resolution of support for the Arizona bill to the North Carolina governor, attorney general and general assembly. The resolution will request state lawmakers to invoke the same law in North Carolina.
According to the four Republican Beaufort County commissioners who voted in favor of the resolution, which was proposed by Commissioner Hood Richardson, the Arizona law is a near-exact replica of the federal illegal immigration law. The Republican commissioners agreed that SB 1070 makes the violation of federal immigration law a state crime, and gives Arizona law enforcement the authority to arrest illegal immigrants.
“Hood’s right, the law basically mirrors the federal law exactly,” said Commissioner Al Klemm. “If we’re going to go ahead and do a resolution, I’d like to see North Carolina write it exactly the same as the Arizona law and just be done, don’t mess it up.”
Though the Arizona law has drawn much criticism from national pundits, it is extremely popular among Arizona voters, according to a Rasmussen poll, which found that 70 percent of voters approve of the new bill, and just 23 percent oppose it.
“It’s a call to duty by American citizens to start doing what we can within our communities and our state to do the job that we’re not getting from the federal government, right now,” said Commissioner Stan Deatherage.
Richardson said the last three presidents of the United States have not been willing to stand up against illegal immigration because undocumented workers provide cheap labor. With unemployment high across the nation, state and county, Richardson said the federal government’s priority should be protecting jobs for American citizens, rather than protecting cheap labor.
“Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower by the stroke of a pen deported the illegals from the United States,” said Richardson. “Herbert Hoover did it during the Great Depression because we didn’t have jobs. Tell me what’s going on right now. We don’t have jobs. These people are taking up our jobs. And Harry Truman did it at the end of the Second World War because returning servicemen did not have jobs. Dwight Eisenhower did it during a severe recession when American citizens did not have jobs.”
In light of the imminent challenge posed by the new county budget, which was unveiled at Monday night’s meeting, to either cut Beaufort County expenditures or raise property taxes, the Republican commissioners argued the necessity of cracking down on illegal immigration to save the county money. Richardson delineated the cost to the Beaufort County taxpayer of educating children of illegal immigrants in the public school system.
“We have in our public schools right now 700…students who are here as illegal immigrants,” said Richardson. “And that is costing, at $10,000 per student, that’s costing you $7 million a year. And it’s costing the county… $2,000 a student, in round numbers...That’s coming directly out of your property taxes. So if you take 2,000 times 700 it gets to be about 1.4 million—a big hit on property owners in Beaufort County.”
In the fiscal-year 2011, Beaufort County again finds itself financially unable to replace the county jail. The county also finds itself unable to assure property owners of a revenue neutral tax rate, on account of the fear that the Beaufort County Medical Center will not be able to make its scheduled debt repayment to the county. Deatherage correlated these budget shortfalls to the systemic burden of illegal immigrants, while answering Commissioner Ed Booth’s question of where to hold the increased number of people charged with illegal immigration:
“It’s estimated right now that 25 percent of all inmates in North Carolina prisons and jails are illegal immigrants. If states become more and more involved, as we need them to become, there’d be more ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centers. Whatever the cost is for us to interdict, hold them, and send them back, is going to save us a tremendous amount of money, and not have to educate their children and provide services to their families…,” said Deatherage. “Plus, I haven’t even mentioned our hospitals. We’re having problems with our hospitals all across the nation, because these people do not pay their bills, by and large.”
Two of the three dissenting votes came from the board’s African American Democratic commissioners Ed Booth and Jerry Langley, who opposed the resolution on the assumption that the Arizona bill would open up the prospect for ethnic profiling. At the heart of the law is this provision: "For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency…where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person." The words “reasonable suspicion” have been singled out of this excerpt by critics who fear abusive interpretation at the local level.
“What I read, Arizona law is got some problems,” said Booth. “Number one: There’s some Latino people here that are legal. Just go around, and just because your name is Lopez it’d give us the opportunity to stop you, give us the opportunity to harass you.”
Langley, said that the likelihood of the abuse of power increases at the state and local levels of government and referred to his own familiarity with racial profiling.
“I can tell you just from life experience, that there is lots of profiling that goes on, and I just can not go along with it,” he said.
Klemm attempted to address the concerns of these commissioners over the term “reasonable suspicion” by reading provisions of the Arizona law:
Before asking a person about immigration status, law enforcement officials are required by the law to have “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an illegal immigrant. The concept of “reasonable suspicion” is well established by court rulings. Since Arizona does not issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, having a valid license creates a presumption of legal status. Examples of reasonable suspicion include:
A driver stopped for a traffic violation has no license, or record of a driver's license or other form of federal or state identification.
A police officer observes someone buying fraudulent identity documents or crossing the border illegally.
A police officer recognizes a gang member back on the street who he knows has been previously deported by the federal government.
These provisions did little to assuage the mind of Booth.
“According to what Mr. Klemm just read there,” said Booth, “if he go to Arizona I hope he don’t leave his wallet here because if he’s stopped there and he don’t have his driver’s license he can be charged with illegal immigrant.”
Before taking a vote, Republican commissioners made one last attempt at reaching an ideological consensus.
“You’re talking about abusing these people’s rights, well everyday we do not interdict, collect and send these people back, we’re abusing the rights of American citizens who have lived here and fought to keep this country free,” said Deatherage. “And if we don’t do what we have to do, this country will no longer be ours, and it will no longer be free.”
Klemm echoed Deatherage’s sentiments that there’s more of a reason to fear the consequences of inaction than the consequences of action.
“Any law we pass there’s gonna be some sort of risk,” said Klemm. “I know if you don’t do anything, you’re never gonna address the problem. And to say we’re not gonna do something because there’s a little bit of risk, well that’s when this country will cease to exist.”
| Commissioners extend perpetual invitation to area youth | County Commissioners, Governing Beaufort County | DOT insists on unmanned rest stop south of Chocowinity |
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