The Inanity Of HB 441
By Greg L | 5 March 2008 | Illegal Aliens, Virginia House | 10 Comments
The House of Delegates takes up SB 441 today, which could easily be entitled “The Mexicans Without Borders License To Sue Law Enforcement Agencies Act of 2008″. In trying to codify into state law the current policies of numerous law enforcement agencies in the state, the only practical effect of this legislation is to encourage lawsuits by illegal alien advocates against those who are responsible for enforcing the law, and protect those who smuggle foreign nationals into the country so they can be enslaved as prostitutes. It should be interesting to see who ends up supporting this terribly counterproductive bill.
The idea sounds innocuous enough. In order to ensure that victims of crime feel free to report crimes to the police, make sure that even illegal aliens won’t be punished for doing so. Since current departmental policies in every jurisdiction that is engaged in combating the illegal alien problem already are telling officers not to investigate the immigration status of crime victims, it is impossible to argue that there’s an actual problem to be addressed here. No, the intent is to ensure that if an illegal alien can claim that an officer asked a question about immigration status, no matter how relevant that information may be towards investigating the crime that the victim is reporting, that the ACLU, PRLDEF, MALDEF or whoever else is playing litigous knucklehead this week can file a lawsuit and take a police department to the cleaners, at taxpayer expense.
One of the significant problems associated with illegal immigration is human trafficking, and slavery for the purposes of prostitution. Illegal aliens are all too frequently smuggled into the United States and forced to work as prostitutes, where they are held against their will in the most deplorable conditions imaginable, forced to service the sexual needs of clients, and are too frequently children as young as ten years old. A law enforcement officer investigating this crime will undoubtedly encounter a number of crime victims who are illegal aliens, and the fact that the victims are illegal aliens is extremely relevant to the investigation of this case. Should that officer ask a relevant question about immigration status, not for the purpose of enforcing any laws against the victim, but just to obtain the information necessary in order to ensure the slavers can be effectively prosecuted, the officer has committed a crime.
I’d be surprised if the illegal alien lobby, which has been pushing so hard for this bill fails to understand this significance. Are they really trying to protect the interests of those who smuggle underage foreign nationals into the United States so they can be turned into sex slaves? Or is that just the acceptable collateral damage in the effort to try to turn law enforcement officers into criminals, and criminals into “migrants” who just happen to have “paperwork problems”?
UPDATE: The House of Delegates killed this bill on the floor today by a vote of 46-Y 52-N. I’m hearing that Delegate Jackson Miller made a great floor speech on this that probably made the difference.
UPDATE 2: The illegal alien apologists have gone nuts, and apparently have been scrambling to get this reconsidered. I doubt it will work.
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Title says “HB 441″.
In the cases of human trafficking and slavery for the purposes of prostitution it would behoove the investigating officer to be well informed and provide educational material or verbal information (or even better, a refferal to a legal organization) to the victim explaining them that they would very likely be eligible for immunity and adjustment of status under current immigration law if they happened to be illegal. If the officer were able to communicate this information it would be a win-win as both the victim and the case would be well served.
However, that is a very unique situation and does not make a good case against HB 441 and its proponents as the bill clearly refers to more common and general cases such as rape, domestic assault, violent robberies, etc.
For all the hype that Greg recieves I would expect him to do better in making his cases. I guess an eager audience is a forgiving audience.
So you think that if an officer asks an enslaved juvenile prostitute about why she was able to be coerced into servitude like this, the police officer should be prosecuted for committing a crime?
Get real. This doesn’t protect crime victims, it only makes police officers criminals who are trying to do their jobs.
No- the officer should inform her of the protections that could be available under the law IF she is illegal and assume that she would reveal her status in order to get help. If she willingly reveals her status (and my experience working with women in that situation leads me to believe she would) then there are no grounds for a lawsuit.
http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/crime/article/man_arrested_for_rape_abduction/5197/
The longer we don’t take action, we have to put up with this…DISGRACE!
This is coming from the feds. Get it or don’t.
“The bill does not prohibit a law-enforcement officer from inquiring into the immigration status of a victim or witness … when such inquiry is required by federal law or is essential to the investigation or prosecution of the crime to which the person is a witness or of which the person is a victim.”
http://www.nbc4.com/news/13702957/detail.html?dl=mainclick
Did we ever find out if these guys were or legal or illegal?
Timothy Watson said on 5 Mar 2008 at 2:48 pm:
http://www.nbc4.com/news/13702957/detail.html?dl=mainclick
Did we ever find out if these guys were or legal or illegal?
No fixed address, suspected MS-13 gang member…..take a guess!!
This is actually SB 441, not as the header indicates HB 441, the entire PWC delegation (Frederick, Lingamfelter, Miller, Nichols) voted against this bill with the exception of Bob Marshall who may have taken a “walk”, although not sure why he didn’t vote.