Opening Remarks
Tom Fitton
President, Judicial Watch
February 28, 2006
The National Press Club
Good morning, I’m Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation dedicated to promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law. Through its educational endeavors, Judicial Watch advocates high standards of ethics and morality in our nation’s public life and seeks to ensure that political and judicial officials obey the law and do not abuse the powers entrusted to them by the American people.
The breakdown in our immigration system and the resulting lawlessness is a crisis. Chances are a short drive around your town will bring you face to face with one of the more visible signs of a defunct border security system: illegal alien day laborers loitering on street corners, seeking illegal work. Most of them are here illegally from Mexico. They likely crossed the border hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from your home.
Communities across America are wrestling with the local consequences of the illegal immigration crisis. Drugs, violent crime, overcrowded schools, and an overburdened healthcare system are just a few of the social problems caused by rampant illegal immigration.
As the federal government continues to fail in one of its most basic functions, to protect our borders, local officials are increasingly being left to clean up the mess. Some local governments rely on the rule of law and place a priority on the rights of American citizens. Others, unfortunately, flout the law and place a priority on the needs of illegal aliens.
Judicial Watch has taken key steps to confront this lawlessness – most notably, by suing localities in Herndon, Virginia and Laguna Beach, California to stop government officials from supporting illegal immigrant labor, and by suing the Los Angeles police department to end police policies which prevent its officers from asking anyone about their immigrant status or cooperating with federal immigration authorities. In this lawsuit we stand opposed by ACLU lawyers representing illegal immigrants seeking to defend the LAPD’s sanctuary policy.
We are also using open records laws to investigate the enforcement, or lack thereof, of our nation’s immigration laws. Houston, Chicago, Westchester, New York, and of course the federal government here in D.C. have all been subject to Judicial Watch scrutiny.
Local governments should be hauled into court for their undermining of our nation’s immigration laws. But local governments should be praised when they seek to support federal immigration law by passing appropriate local laws or by partnering effectively with federal immigration authorities. Our panelists lead a nationwide movement by local and state governments to battle illegal immigration. There is a saying in political circles that “all politics is local.” The same can now be said of the devastating impact of illegal immigration. And if we’re going to deal with it effectively, local communities need to join the fight.
What is interesting here today is that these local and state leaders on this panel are not from the Southwest but are from Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina. Our panelists seem to understand that, nowadays, every town is a border town.
Starletta Hairston, who just finished a term as a member of the Beaufort City Council was the first black Republican woman to be elected to office in the state of South Carolina. Ms. Hairston, who is also a lead flight attendant for a major airline, became an effective public servant on the City Council with a special focus in the area of illegal immigration. In 2006, Ms. Hairston introduced the Beaufort County Lawful Employment Ordinance. This ordinance, passed unanimously by the County Council, allows for audit and revocation of the business license of any business owner that knowingly hires illegal aliens, and denies a business license to illegal aliens.
Her success garnered her national attention in The Wall Street Journal and other media.
Jackson Miller, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, has over a decade of experience in law enforcement. As a member of the Mananas City Council, he pushed to enroll officers in a federal program, known as 287(g), that would allow them to better enforce federal immigration law. As a Delegate for the 50th District in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Mr. Miller has continued to push anti-immigration ideas, including legislation that would prevent state funding of organizations which provide services to illegal aliens.
Louis Barletta, Mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, gained national attention, including a major story on CBS’s 60 Minutes, when he pushed through the Illegal Immigration Relief Act last summer to hold accountable landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and employers who hire them. The ordinance also makes English the official language of Hazleton. Now, Hazelton is being sued in federal court by the ACLU and a cadre of activist groups opposed to these policies.
