Democrat Commissioners Thwart Effort To Report Illegal Aliens
Bill James is his own worst enemy.
The Republican county commissioner from suburban south Mecklenburg has a history of raising valid questions and concerns about serious policy matters, sometimes even proposing legitimate solutions, but doing so using such inflammatory language and over-the-top rhetoric that it obscures the issue at hand.
James was at it again during Tuesday night’s county board meeting, pitching a controversial proposal for commissioners to seek guidance from the Department of Homeland Security on how the county could report illegal aliens who receive welfare benefits on behalf of U.S.-born children in their families.
The proposal failed by a 5-3 vote along party lines, with Democrats Harold Cogdell, George Dunlap, Dumont Clarke, Vilma Leake and Dan Murrey voting in dissent. James and Republican commissioners Karen Bentley and Neil Cooksey voted in support of seeking solutions that would allow county officials to legally report undocumented immigrants to federal authorities.
James raised the issue after the Mecklenburg Department of Social Services had reported earlier this year that 5,635 families receiving food stamps in the county include at least one undocumented immigrant. About $2.7 million was paid out in public benefits in July to children of suspected illegal aliens, according to the DSS. For a 12-month schedule, that could total more than $32 million a year.
The DSS uses a verification system to check eligibility for welfare benefits, which can identify an applicant’s immigration status. But the agency is prohibited by federal policy from reporting known illegals to immigration authorities, unless there is a pending formal order of deportation.
James was concerned not only about the expense of paying welfare benefits to undocumented immigrants who had applied on behalf of U.S.-born children, but also the potential security risks of not reporting the applicants’ illegal status.
“That’s what this whole thing is all about,” James said Tuesday night. “We have all these illegals in our system and we don’t know if they’re Osama-wannabes or what the heck they are.”
That drew not only loud jeers from a largely Hispanic crowd that showed up to protest James’ proposal, but also a rebuke from Cogdell, who in his capacity as commissioners vice chair was presiding over the meeting. Commissioners Chairman Jennifer Roberts, a Democrat, had left earlier in the evening to take care of a sick child on the homefront.
“You have every bit of First Amendment right to bring forth your perspective and share your opinion with this body, this board, and this community,” Cogdell told James. “But frankly, you have a history of throwing bombs, offending people, saying things that are unnecessary to productive dialogue.”
That set the tone for what would devolve into a lengthy session of James-bashing and political posturing, instead of substantive debate over an important policy matter.
As usual, James had himself to blame. The proposal he ultimately made Tuesday night was a scaled-down version of his original agenda item, which called for the board of commissioners to “instruct the Department of Social Services to ignore state and federal regulations and disclose to the Sheriff/ICE/Homeland Security the details of any individuals within their files who have been determined to be illegal … and to determine whether or not they are a threat to national security, have a criminal background, or associated with those that may be a security threat. This is to be required even if this results in litigation with either the State of North Carolina or the Federal Department of Agriculture.”
Even though that proposal was longer on the table for consideration, it remained the focus of debate.
“We cannot allow one man’s political grandstanding to do great harm to our community,” said Stacey Bonilla, who identified herself as a Charlotte native, the wife of an immigrant, and the chapter president of American Families United.
“We refuse to let our county government break the law in the name of hate,” Bonilla said, arguing that James’ original proposal, which was no longer up for consideration, was encouraging the county to engage in actions that violated federal law.
“Commissioner James,” she said, “what part of illegal don’t you understand?”
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