Around the Country
December 2009/January 2010
Maryland
While many Maryland officials have decided to accommodate, even welcome, illegal immigration, Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins is a rare exception. Recognizing the impact of illegal immigration on his rural county, the Frederick County Sheriff’s department participates in the 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement officers to be trained to recognize and detain suspected illegal aliens. Sheriff Jenkins’s efforts have been so successful that, naturally, the illegal alien advocates, led by Casa de Maryland, are suing him. The response from the community has been overwhelmingly supportive of Sheriff Jenkins’s efforts. Dozens of Frederick County residents turned out to show their solidarity with the sheriff and to express their gratitude for his efforts to protect their communities. Sheriff Jenkins was one of the featured speakers at FAIR’s national board of advisor’s meeting in October.
Ohio
Illegal alien advocacy groups have filed suit to prevent the state from cancelling vehicle registrations of people who cannot produce valid Ohio driver’s licenses. Some 47,000 vehicles in the state are registered to people without licenses. The League of United Latin American Citizens, which is behind the suit, concedes that most of those affected are likely to be illegal aliens. Ohio, where FAIR field representative Bob Najmulski lives, has been one of the states where FAIR has worked to promote local immigration enforcement policies. According to illegal alien advocates, these efforts have been too successful. One local pro-illegal alien activist lamented that illegal aliens are afraid to drive in Ohio. “People are already leaving” Ohio, she said.
Georgia
Poor kidney dialysis patients in Atlanta are finding out the hard way that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. For years Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta’s largest public health care facility, has been providing free dialysis to illegal aliens at a cost of about $50,000 per year per patient. In October, facing a budget crisis, the hospital simply shut its outpatient kidney dialysis unit, leaving all of the patients who relied on its services in the lurch. “Years and years of providing this free care has led Grady to the breaking point,” said a senior hospital administrator. The free care amounts to about $300 million per year, about 20 percent of which is provided to illegal aliens.
