Mentoring Center and City sticking out their tongues to Federal LawIt was just announced two days ago that ICE is shifting its policies and now will focus on the employer, the guy who is actually hiring the illegal alien. Employers will now have to put a lot of attention to their hiring process. ICE sees the employer as the problem. Janet Napolitano will target what she calls "the root cause of illegal immigration, the employer."
As employment is the primary force behind the illegal alien problem in our country, it reminded me of last month when I just happened to tune into Public Television Channel 20 and the Lake Worth “Resource” center, a.k.a. Shuffleboard Court, was featured with Lisa Wilson, Director and Monica Delgado of the Global Education Center at PBCC.
Ms. Delgado was appointed in September 2007 to oversee implementation of a variety of services to assist newly arrived immigrants (let’s tell it like it is—ILLEGALS) as well as PBCC students to integrate and eventually assimilate to the U.S. culture. This was brought about by Dr. Kathryn W. Davis who pledged $1 mil to PBCC earlier in 2007 to launch the comprehensive one-stop education and resource information center for immigrants. Ms. Delgado has a very impressive resume. She speaks fluent Spanish as well as English and holds a Master’s Degree in Theology from Life Christian University ion Tampa.
Lisa’s background is super impressive too: She holds a master's in business administration, a bachelor's in physics, and a project management professional certification. She began her career as an engineer testing a part of the B-1B bomber. Good credentials because she brought a BOMB to Lake Worth! Prior to The Mentoring Center, she held senior management positions with 3Com Corp. and U.S. Robotics. She also directed a U.S. Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Center in West Palm Beach and in 2005, the Miami/Dade Chamber of Commerce Network Miami magazine recognized her as one of South Florida's most prominent and successful black business women. She is one smart cookie.
Ms. Wilson and her husband started The Mentoring Center in November 2006. It is a 501 C (3) corporation. According to Ms. Wilson, she and her husband now have 4 locations. She came to the “aid” of Lake Worth when we were experiencing loitering of illegals on our city streets when we were looking for a solution. The idea of the Mentoring Center was supported by Mayor Clemens, Commissioner Golden and Commissioner Jennings. Retha Lowe, if you recall, supported the idea of it but just not at the Shuffleboard Court. Actually, all five commissioners at the time supported the concept—DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL! We ended up with a day labor center and kicked the Seniors out.
Police are bound to follow all federal civil rights laws which bar agents from using racial profiling. As an example, you can’t make a large amount of traffic stops in a particular community to catch drug offenders even though you know they are hanging out there. Sounds silly but I know some die-hards here who would agree. You can’t go into a neighborhood that you know is occupied mostly by illegals and establish a probable cause for something illegal. You have to prove that a crime is taking place…you can’t assume it. Just the simple fact that the police know that these people are here illegally is not a reason to do anything about it. Our City Commission wants a community relations board to ensure that our police are doing the right thing. Nuts? Well, I happen to think so but Commissioner Jennings would disagree with me. It is not the Sheriff breaking the laws here.
Remember our former Mayor Drautz who was unmercifully chastised for distributing fliers to illegals using a graphic that tried to teach them that urinating in public was a”no no” and not socially acceptable...fit in to our culture, etc? The other political spectrum in our City came down hard on him. Education is the key here and Drautz's attempt was in the right direction..
Ok, Mentoring Center, since you are being allowed to get away with this because of laws that are not enforced, that are ridiculously liberal and somewhat insane, what about your objective of teaching these people to assimilate into our culture. What about teaching them NOT to defecate on our shuffleboard courts and NOT to urinate in front of the front door of the Shuffleboard Court Building. I asked the Mayor to check on a major complaint by seniors using the courts. That was over a month ago and I have yet to hear back as to why The Mentoring Center said it could not do anything about illegals defecating on the courts. Unreal, right? And even better, what about teaching them NOT to loiter on our city streets which was the sole purpose of your getting involved in our City in the first place, or so we have been told. These alone might help ease the pain of your $1 a year lease and all the costs that the taxpayers are picking up for this illegal hiring practice and as education was one of the objectives.
The Mentoring Center operates in full view with the blessing of our City government, acting as a middleman to the employer and those seeking work, primarily illegal aliens looking for day labor jobs. The Mentoring Center and our City are sticking out their tongues to the law because they can. They have been allowed to get away with breaking it. Perhaps soon all that will change and our City, a party to the crime, might have to pay big bucks for breaking Federal laws.
IFCO Systems. Scroll down to number 5 and read about the whopping $21 million fine they recently paid for hiring illegal aliens.
As 66% of Florida favor stricter immigration laws (and this percentage is lower than the rest of the country's average) and are opposed to amnesty, all you local candidates who have remained silent on this issue, let's hear from you. In that same poll taken by Quinnipiac University, 25% of registered voters would not vote for a candidate who did not take a strong approach on illegal immigration no matter WHAT he believed on other issues.