Canyon County [Idaho]

[cjcj]

In read an article the other day..that Robert Vasquez county commisioner[canyon county Idaho] has approved a resolution declaring his county a "disaster" area due to welfare/crime/healthcare from illegal immigration... Any truth to this?

 

[Moosie]

Could be..... I live in Canyon County. I'd be more against it but i have Illegals working for me

 

[cjcj]

Do you take them hunting? they should qualify for resident tags hunting and fishing.. .there goes the salmon.. .. But i think your pulling my chain.. hump

 

[Ten Bears]

Commission approves disaster request

Government: County votes 2-0 to ask for state's

help with illegal immigrants

By Mike Butts

Idaho Press-Tribune

CALDWELL - In a 2-0 vote Tuesday, Canyon County commissioners passed a resolution to declare the county a disaster area because of illegal immigration.

Commissioner Robert Vasquez authored the resolution because he said an influx of illegal immigrants poses a serious enough threat to its residents to be considered an emergency. He cites money spent on indigent medical care and incarceration of illegal immigrants as reasons for the resolution.

The matter rests in Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's hands now.

"It's time to take a stand and bring the governor into this," Vasquez said.

"Commissioner David Ferdinand and I did not take this action lightly, and it is in the best interest of the county to prepare before a contingency occurs, rather than simply react as governments have been doing for years," Vasquez announced in a press release after the vote. "Also, we encourage other counties in Idaho to review their circumstance, and if applicable, issue a declaration of their own."

Vasquez and Commissioner David Ferdinand voted for the resolution. Commission Chairman Matt Beebe expressed support for the resolution's concerns but abstained from voting on it.

"My concern is whether or not this truly meets the definition of an emergency or a disaster under the law," Beebe said in the open meeting at the Canyon County Courthouse. "I don't dispute the concern."

Vasquez spoke of county detention officers being exposed to tuberculoses and an outbreak of syphilis in Canyon County this year. He linked the spread of those diseases to illegal immigration. He also said hundreds of illegal immigrants are incarcerated in the county's jail and that illegal immigrants are responsible for much of the county's crime.

Vasquez also cited a 20 percent increase over 5 years of illegal immigrants making applications for county welfare.

Both Vasquez and Ferdinand said part of the problem is that many immigrants come to the United States with no interest in becoming assimilated citizens.

"I think the most imminent danger we really have is that people who come to this country today really don't want to be Americans," Ferdinand said. "They want to take advantage (of services we have)."

Six concerned citizens attended the open meeting. James Oates, a 75-year-old retired Simplot worker from Caldwell, said he agrees with the resolution.

"Migrant workers are necessary and needed in Idaho's economy," Oates said. "But I think (immigration) ought to be regulated and controlled, and that means controlling the borders."

Nampa social worker Faye Spencer, 56, disagreed with the commission's action. She said illegal immigrants make contributions as tax payers, workers and consumers. And she called Vasquez's characterization of illegal immigration as an unarmed invasion of the United States "ludicrous."

"I think it makes Idaho and Canyon County look silly," she said. "It's an embarrassment."

Nampa homemaker Ronalee Linsenmann said she agreed with the resolution.

"With the highway issue we say we need to get ahead of the problem," she said, "and I see this as the same principle."

Vasquez asked his fellow commissioners last week to consider the request in response to the publication of a Mexican government, comic book-style guide that provides safety advice for illegal immigrants planning to cross into the United States.

He said the guide, titled "Guide For The Mexican Migrant," has set the stage for "an imminent invasion of illegal aliens" into the United States and Idaho. Vasquez has a history of raising concerns about the cost of illegal immigration. Last year, he tried to bill the government of Mexico $2 million for money he said it cost the county to deal with illegal immigrants. That action included demands for the payment of about $1.4 million for expenses related to the incarceration of Mexican nationals held in the Canyon County jail and $575,000 for medical services provided by the county to Mexican citizens who entered the country illegally.

In response to Tuesday's resolution, Roberto Olvera, 22, a program specialist with the Idaho Migrant Council, said he has stopped paying attention to Vasquez.

"I try not to read anything Robert Vasquez writes anymore," Olvera said. "When I think of political leaders, I think of people who are trying to unite us and not divide us."

In a statement issued Tuesday, Vasquez said the resolution is meant to serve notice to Idaho's U.S. Senate and Congressional delegation.

"We county commissioners expect them to provide solutions to this issue," Vasquez said in the statement. "And if they refuse to face the facts, then let them provide the funding that Idaho counties will need to address the issue."

Kempthorne spokesman Mike Journee said the governor's office could not comment on the resolution because it had not seen it. He did say it was unusual for a county to request disaster designation for anything other than a natural disaster.

Illegals by the numbers

From January 2002 to October 2004, the Canyon County Detention Center completed 8,100 bookings. Of those, 1376, or 17 percent, claimed non-US citizenship.

Prison costs

n Idaho counties must provide shelter, food, and medical care for prisoners, regardless of citizenship. Providing required care for illegal immigrants places an additional burden on the property tax payers of Canyon County and the burden increases each year.

Crime costs

Of 8,100 bookings into the Canyon County Detention Center between January 2002 and October 2004, 1,376, or 17 percent, claimed non-U.S. citizenship.

Of the 1,376:

n 181 were held for U.S. Marshals

n 241 were arrested for traffic violations

n 954 were arrested on charges that included traffic violations

n 151 were arrested on felony violations.

Of the same 1,376 arrested:

n 385 were placed on a "247" hold indicating that, depending on the nature of their crime, they may or may not be deported

n 35 were placed on a "203" hold indicating they would be deported.

Two high profile cases involved illegal immigrants: Angie Leon murder in which the estranged husband convicted of murdering his wife was a Mexican national; the freeway crash that killed two members of the Marti family which was caused by an intoxicated Mexican national driving the wrong way; and just recently, the arrest of the drug trafficking ring in which at least 4 of the 16 people arrested were illegal immigrants.

Medical costs

n The county must pay medically indigent county residents, regardless of citizenship. Since 1999, the Canyon County Indigency Program and the State CAT program have paid more than $1.5 million for medical expenses of illegal immigrants.

n In the past two years, detention center staff was exposed at least twice to illegal immigrants who tested positive for tuberculosis. Cost to county: Precautionary testing for the staff.

n In August, the jail was holding an illegal immigrant who tested positive for tuberculosis, and was diagnosed as active and infectious. Cost to county: Southwest District Health Department declared a quarantine, moved that individual into a motel, provided home health nurses, food stamps in the form of an electronic card, and medical treatments.

n Compiled by the Canyon County commissioners
http://www.idahopress.com/articles/2005/01/27/archives/011905-news-commision.txt

 

[Moosie]

Why would I pull your chain ? I don't or wouldn't take them hunting. It's the Indians no the Mexicans behindthe salmon being gone, and Illegals shouldn't be able to get a resident tag,that would jsut be wrong.

I do have to say though, if Americans would work for those type wages and work 1/4 as hard, I'd have them work for me...........

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Just across the street from where I park the City is building a new Convention Center (so the Mayor can have something with his name on it) and as the level of work has intensified more and more of the workers are getting smaller and talking real strange. Sorta like they sound in Colorado Fast food joints! We have a lot of unemployed corner standers, but I think they could'nt hold up to a real job like these guys. Maybe If they let them drive the highlifts with spinners and curb feelers!

 

[cjcj]

Thanks for the article Ten Bears...Well i guess its true.[thread]..Moosie if you are hiring illegals then you are breaking the law hump [yea i know everyone does it :MAD ][i never ever will hump ] But if you look at the info...yes you get them at cheap wages.. but your fellow citizens subsidise their healthcare etc,etc,.....What are your "residency requirements" in Idaho for Big game tags or hunting and fishing licences? Are you also "subsidising" hunting and fishing for illegals in Idaho?

 

[cjcj]

The Guatamalins will work harder and cheaper than the Mexican illegals....the Chinese will work harder and cheaper than the Guatamalins.....Where does it end? How did we ever build America...We paid hard working Americans a good solid working wage.....Housing keeps going up.. With all of the "so called cheap" labor it should be going down.

 

[Mojave]

How did we ever build America...We paid hard working Americans a good solid working wage.....

Pretty sure I remember my history books saying something about newly imported poor Irish and Chinese doing a lot of the work. That and don't forget "illegal" blacks in the south. All of which were paid less than a "good solid working wage".

 

[MattK]

cjcj-"i never ever will hump ". That seems like a good choice, as we have enough cjcjs around already.

 

[Ten Bears]

MATTy, are you saying you support hiring illegals?

 

[MattK]

TB- that was a quote from cjcj.

 

[Moosie]

Wages aren't based on the Illigals. Although I'd rather hire a mexican that is willing to work in my Field then a White lazy guy that just want's to bide time and screws everything up.

If you want to fight something worth while, Stop fighting the Hard working imagrants and start fighting the Lazy-tax evading C.E.O.'s.

 

[MattK]

Moosie to expand on what you wrote, another group is the lazy-welfare recipients, the social security slugs that shouldn't be on the rolls, most politicians etc.....

 

[Moosie]

Well the list goes on.....

Looks like Alot of the Comunity was behind this proposal though :

Six concerned citizens attended the open meeting. James Oates, a 75-year-old retired Simplot worker from Caldwell (Who probably is a rasist and hates even the legal Mexicans), said he agrees with the resolution.

 

[MattK]

Moosie- There was an entire 2 commissioners that voted on it. It's a huge rebellion. If they don't watch out, they may get into the double digits....

 

[Moosie]

If we only had those malitia men to guard our Idaho borders

 

[SageGhost]

reply

i like roberts message , he is speaking the truth when everyother commisioner
is avoiding the truth...i find it funny that he is being labeled a racist.there are worse names to be called then a racist !

 

[cjcj]

Mohave America was built on the backs of "LEGAL" immigrants.. .Thats right Matt I will never "EVER" hire an illegal. hump Moosie i never fight "hard working immigrants" I fight "Illegal immigrants" thats the differance.. You seem as confused as the main stream press. Matt how many commisioners voted against the order? Yep looks like you aren`t willing top look at the facts [whole truth] How many people showed up against it? so far its 6-0 ....Why should any citizen of Idaho pay for you guys to hire illegal labor? what kind of healthcare are you providing them? How about sick leave? how about retirment? You like them so much then you take care of them.[not the taxpayers] hump

 

[Moosie]

I am Confused........ Is there a diference ?

What if they are a combination : "Illegal hard working immigrants" ?