GOP Contenders Tackle Illegal Immigration
The tensions and controversy embroiling a nation in debate over how to best deal with illegal immigration bubbled to the surface Friday afternoon during a press conference at GOP Headquarters in Charlotte.
Republicans Jim Pendergraph, Dan Ramirez and Corey Thompson, all three running for at-large seats on the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, called for tougher enforcement of existing laws, and in some cases creating new ones, to crack down on illegal immigration, with an emphasis on the word illegal.
“I want to make one thing perfectly clear,” Pendergraph said. “We’re talking here about illegal immigration, with a capital I for illegal.”
That message drew skepticism from a pair of pro-amnesty supporters who attended the press conference and nearly hijacked the event when the floor was opened for questions.
Hector Vaca, a community organizer with Action NC Charlotte, accused the candidates of politicizing the issue by using the term “illegal immigrants.”
“It’s just a conservative buzzword,” Vaca said. “If somebody doesn’t pay their taxes, or steals a loaf of bread, do you call them illegal Americans?”
Pendergraph, the former Mecklenburg County sheriff who also previously led U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s state and local coordination efforts, countered that “illegal immigrants” wasn’t a political buzzword; it is the official term used by the federal government and ICE.
But Pendergraph agreed that politics plays a major role that’s contributed to the problems of illegal immigration.
“The gutless wonders in Washington, D.C.” he said, targeting the Obama Administration and Capital Hill Democrats, “don’t have the intestinal fortitude to deal with it.”
Pendergraph said that Republicans would, if they regained majority control of the county board of commissioners. He called for three specific remedies, starting with a push to aggressively lobby state legislators to enact a law similar to the one in Arizona that is drawing national attention. The law went into effect this week, but a judge blocked some of its most controversial provisions from being implemented.
Pendergraph said commissioners should press Mecklenburg Department of Social Services officials to improve their client verification process and ensure illegal immigrants aren’t receiving taxpayer-funded services. He also called for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials to make a full accounting of how many illegal immigrants are enrolled in the district and how much it’s costing taxpayers, a price tag that he said would likely run into tens of millions of dollars.
Pendergraph has first-hand experience with the local costs tied to illegal immigration. He implemented the county’s 287(g) program, which trains local law enforcement officials to enforce immigration laws and place offenders into deportation hearings. He said that during his tenure as sheriff, illegal immigrants comprised about 25 percent of the jail’s population.
Pendergraph acknowledged that existing regulations prohibit schools officials from asking students about their immigration status, and that doing so would likely draw a lawsuit. He said that would be a legal challenge worth fighting. Thompson, who is employed as a teacher with CMS, agreed.
“At the very least, we deserve to know what the financial impact of that is,” he said concerning illegal immigrants enrolled in district. “And then we can figure out a way to deal with it.”
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