Va. Gubernatorial Candidate Backs Police Detention Of Illegal Aliens

[flyingtiger1013]

http://www.nbc4.com/news/4823681/detail.html

Va. Gubernatorial Candidate Backs Police Detention Of Illegal Aliens
Kilgore: Fairfax Should Cancel Plans For Day-Laborer Facilities

POSTED: 3:22 pm EDT August 8, 2005
UPDATED: 3:34 pm EDT August 8, 2005

RICHMOND, Va. -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore on Monday denounced public funding for immigrant day-laborer centers and supported a proposal to give police authority to indefinitely detain arrested illegal immigrants and turn them over to federal immigration authorities.

In a news conference with Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax County, Kilgore called on Fairfax County to drop its plans to use $400,000 to establish three facilities that serve as gathering places for illegal immigrants to offer their services for such jobs as mowing, carpentry or other arduous physical labor.

"To use taxpayer dollars to make employment of those who are here illegally is to further encourage that illegal behavior," Kilgore said.

He also called on his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, to also oppose the magnet sites in Fairfax County and Herndon around which illegal aliens cluster daily.

A Kaine spokesman had no immediate response to the comment.

Kilgore's news conference brings into the governor's race one of the most perennially emotional and contentious issues before the General Assembly each year.

Last year, a bill that would have prohibited admission to state-supported colleges and universities for illegal or undocumented aliens passed the House of Delegates before it was killed in a Senate committee after a lengthy, caustic and often personal debate.

A bill Albo sponsored that bars the state or local government from extending government-backed benefits to immigrants in the United States illegally passed and becomes effective on Jan. 1.

Albo said the day laborer centers are a bad idea unless the immigrant applicants are somehow vetted.

"My position is these day labor centers are a good idea if and only if they do some type of screening to make sure that the people who are using it are here, legally present in the United States," Albo said.

Without the centers, however, workers desperate for a paycheck gather by the scores outside convenience stores in areas of Fairfax County with large immigrant populations. They wait there in the mornings for contractors looking for cheap labor that few people are willing to perform.

Albo intends to submit the legislation in the coming legislative session that would allow authorities who arrest an alien for a crime have the ability to keep him in custody for transfer to the federal government for deportation if the alien is not in the country legally.

Kilgore said he would make exceptions for the large numbers of people whose earnest efforts to legitimize their residence in the United States has languished for years in the backlogged federal agencies.

"We have made exceptions for those who have made their applications, who have had issues with the federal bureaucracy, but what we are dealing with today is those who are illegally here -- deliberately illegally here -- and Fairfax County now trying to give them another benefit by building these labor pickup sites," Kilgore said.

Kilgore and Albo rejected suggestions that his campaign was exploiting public fears of immigrants or even racial and ethnic prejudice for political gain.

"We are dealing with this issue because of taxpayer dollars being used and public safety concerns we have," Kilgore said.

Albo said the issue is not necessarily a racial or ethnic one because the people most upset about illegal aliens in his immigrant-rich district where he is campaigning for re-election are legal immigrants.

"I had one guy (whose) door I knocked on say, `Yeah, I'm trying to get my family over here the right way and we have to go through all these procedures, and they have to wait in line, and it makes them so angry that other people can just walk across the border and go get a job," Albo said.

A bill Albo sponsored that bars the state or local government from extending government-backed benefits to immigrants in the United States illegally passed and becomes effective on Jan. 1.

I hope that's a typo because I can't understand how a bill passed "illegally".

[Ignatius J.]

it modifies the phrase "in the united states" not "passed"

[flyingtiger1013]

Originally posted by Ignatius J.
it modifies the phrase "in the united states" not "passed"

Gotcha! Thanks!

Back to high school for me......

[Sarge]

What a concept

[Destino]

I have a huge problem with "indefinitely detain." I will never support anything that grants that kind of power to anyone. If it wasn't for that I'd completely agree with him, but that one bit of language makes it impossible to support.

[flyingtiger1013]

Originally posted by Destino
I have a huge problem with "indefinitely detain." I will never support anything that grants that kind of power to anyone. If it wasn't for that I'd completely agree with him, but that one bit of language makes it impossible to support.

God, it must be getting ready to snow...I agree with you!

I think 6 months should cover it though.

[Sarge]

OK, here we go. GO ahead and build the work centers. Even put a sign in SPanish on the outside. But inside, have Immigration agents as sign up people

We could get thousands out of the country that way

[SkinsHokieFan]

This will never pass

NOVA business' will do everything to make sure the cheap immigrant labor force that exists up here can continue to flourish

[Destino]

Originally posted by flyingtiger1013


God, it must be getting ready to snow...I agree with you!

I think 6 months should cover it though.

6 months is too long. Catch them, prove they are illegal, and they are on the next plane out. If you don't do it quickly immigration lawyers will delay it and cost the tax payers millions.

[Gichin13]

Originally posted by SkinsHokieFan
This will never pass

NOVA business' will do everything to make sure the cheap immigrant labor force that exists up here can continue to flourish

Mixed issue there. We clearly have need of laborers to perform many of these functions as there is a clear demand not being met with current immigration numbers.

At the same time, I think our illegal immigration is completely and utterly out of control.

My solution is zero tolerance for illegals coupled with easing of restrictions to permit increased legal immigration. Bluntly, I would place a lot of scrutiny on immigrants coming from known hotbeds of terrorist activities (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, other places in SE Asia and the middle east).

[SkinsHokieFan]

Originally posted by Gichin13


Mixed issue there. We clearly have need of laborers to perform many of these functions as there is a clear demand not being met with current immigration numbers.

At the same time, I think our illegal immigration is completely and utterly out of control.

My solution is zero tolerance for illegals coupled with easing of restrictions to permit increased legal immigration. Bluntly, I would place a lot of scrutiny on immigrants coming from known hotbeds of terrorist activities (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, other places in SE Asia and the middle east).

How many Arabs do you know painting your house or mowing your lawn?

The reason the immigrant work force up here is so lucrative is because nobody has the time to do anything on their own anymore.

And nobody is going to spend 100 dollars a week to get their lawn mowed, or 8,000 dollars to have their house painted

[Thiebear]

Yet somehow we managed to mow our yards..
I mow the old ladies at the corner and do her snow... Its called being a freaking neighbor... If the illegals weren't doing maybe teens could compete...

I'll vote for anyone that is working the immigration issue.

[Sarge]

I wonder how we ever got along without a few million illegals in the country?

[Larry]

I must be dense (everybody keeps saying so).

I fail to understand why anybody would oppose locking up illegal aliens.

"Your Honor, my client is in this country illegally, and has been for years. I recommend he be released on recognizance because I'm certain he'll show up in court if you tell him to."

[NoCalMike]

Here is what I don't understand, in the early 1900s when the U.S. needed help with farm work I believe we had some treaty or pact with Mexico, and it brought in 2 million mexican workers to farm our lands. Why couldn't they just do the same everytime the demand increases, however other then that, keep illegals out.