“SHERIFFS’ CARAVAN” TO CONVERGE IN WASHINGTON ON DECEMBER 10
by Sharon Rondeau
(Nov. 19, 2014) — Approximately nine days ago, Bristol County, MA Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson called upon sheriffs across the country to travel to Washington, DC to meet with members of Congress to protest Obama’s plan to “legitimize” millions of illegal aliens presently in the country.
The date is set for December 10, with the first meeting to take place in the Senate Russell Building with Sens. David Vitter and Jeff Sessions, among others.
On December 12, the short-term appropriates bill passed by Congress in the absence of a federal budget will expire.
For years, Obama has expressed that he wishes Congress to pass a bill to fix a “broken immigration system.” Last year, the U.S. Senate passed a bill which Obama advocated, but the House of Representatives did not bring it up for a vote. Since then, Obama’s calls for “immigration reform” and the use of his claimed “executive powers” have become more strident.
In the months before the November 4 midterm elections, Obama announced that his expected “executive amnesty” would not occur until after the elections, at which point he began to signal that he would “act alone” if Congress failed to give him what he wants “by the end of the year.”
An unknown but likely significant number of illegal aliens casting votes in federal elections could have changed the outcome of the U.S. Congress and the presidency, particularly in 2008, when Obama was first elected president. Since taking office, Obama and putative Attorney General Eric Holder have sued states which enacted voter identification and illegal immigration laws.
Same-day voter registration in states such as New Hampshire and Connecticut does not require the registrar to verify that a person is a U.S. citizen. If they cast votes, illegal aliens are reported to overwhelmingly prefer Democrats over Republicans.
In June 2012, Obama issued “executive action” stating that illegals under the age of 31 brought to the United States by their parents when they were younger than 16 could remain in the country after making application and being deemed eligible. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has made it possible for illegals to obtain drivers’ licenses, obtain federally-sponsored health care, and open bank accounts.
DACA was not passed by Congress but was renewed in June.
In February 2012, Judicial Watch reported that deportations were at a “record low” as a result of “the Obama backdoor amnesty plan.” The Obama regime has released tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens to American neighborhoods and allegedly threatened and harassed ICE career employees who did not acquiesce to the new policy of “prosecutorial discretion.”
The Washington Post published its own editorial on Tuesday opposing Obama’s “unilateralism” in regard to “immigration reform” while favoring congressional changes to existing law.
Obama’s plan to grant amnesty to millions of illegals is unpopular on both the political left and right, and news outlets, including left-leaning The New York Times, have published vehement letters to the editor expressing outrage over Obama’s plan after having insulated him from criticism since he launched his first campaign for the presidency in 2007.
Sen. Rand Paul believes that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn any executive order Obama might issue in regard to issuing amnesty to illegal aliens.
There are an estimated 11,000,000 illegal aliens living in the United States, although some estimates state that the number is closer to 20,000,000. In November 2006, WND reported that illegal aliens killed 12 Americans each day.
Ten years ago, it was reported that the state of California bore the expense of more than $10B each year from illegal aliens, which number 2.5 million. The cost of illegals in the state of Oregon was reportedly $1B last year.
Earlier this month in California, a three-year-old was allegedly killed by an 18-year-old illegal alien drunk driver without a license and two other children injured.
According to data available from the 2013 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), more than 5,000 illegals from countries which provide safe haven for terrorists were arrested at the U.S. southern border.
In 2008, Obama said that he “respected the Constitution” and objected to George W. Bush’s alleged consolidation of power by the Executive Branch of government. Obama had accused Bush of “not going through Congress at all” and promised, “That’s what I intend to reverse when I’m president of the United States of America.”
In September of last year, Obama told a Telemundo interviewer that he could not “legalize” illegals in a blanket executive action. “I’m not a king,” he said.
Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution grants lawmaking power only to the Congress, who are the people’s elected representatives, not the chief executive or executive-branch departments.
Over the summer, Americans learned that tens of thousands of illegal aliens were being permitted to cross the southern border, including an unprecedented number of unaccompanied children. The Obama regime paid private charities to house, clothe, feed, and administer medical and mental health services to the children as well as arrange for transport to relatives or foster homes.
In regard to the influx of unaccompanied alien children crossing over the border this past summer, a New York law firm reported:
The flow of child migrants has been building since 2011, when 4,059 unaccompanied youths were apprehended by border agents. Last year more than 21,000 minors were caught, and Border Patrol officials had said they were expecting more than 60,000 this year. But that projection has already been exceeded.
By law, unaccompanied children caught crossing illegally from countries other than Mexico are treated differently from other migrants. After being apprehended by the Border Patrol, they must be turned over within 72 hours to a refugee resettlement office that is part of the Health Department. Health officials must try to find relatives or other adults in the United States who can care for them while their immigration cases move through the courts, a search that can take several weeks or more.
The reference to “Health Department” is to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), specifically the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The ORR seeks to facilitate unaccompanied children from countries other than Mexico to “in becoming integrated members of our global society.”
In January of this year, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of DHS published a solicitation for “unarmed escort staff, including management, supervision, manpower, training, certifications, licenses, drug testing, equipment, and supplies necessary to provide on-demand escort services for non-criminal/non-delinquent unaccompanied alien children ages infant to 17 years of age, seven (7) days a week, 365 days a year. Transport will be required for either category of UAC or individual juveniles, to include both male and female juveniles. There will be approximately 65,000 UAC in total: 25% local ground transport, 25% via ICE charter and 50% via commercial air. Escort services include, but are not limited to, assisting with: transferring physical custody of UAC from DHS to Health and Human Services (HHS) care via ground or air methods of transportation (charter or commercial carrier), property inventory, providing juveniles with meals, drafting reports, generating transport documents, maintaining/stocking daily supplies, providing and issuing clothing as needed, coordinating with DHS and HHS staff, travel coordination, limited stationary guard services to accommodate for trip disruptions due to inclement weather, faulty equipment, or other exigent circumstances.”
Some believe that Obama is attempting to “precipitate a constitutional crisis” by his plan to declare certain illegals exempt from deportation, at least in the short term. Some have argued that Obama instigated such a crisis when he ascended to the White House as a presumably ineligible individual.
Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution requires that the president and commander-in-chief be a “natural born Citizen.” Whereas Obama’s claimed father was a citizen of Great Britain and then Kenya, but never a U.S. citizen, Obama’s “natural born” status has been refuted by constitutional scholars and attorneys. Moreover, Obama’s “long-form” birth certificate stating that he was born in Hawaii and Selective Service registration form have been proved to be “computer-generated forgeries” by a law enforcement investigation which has promised the release of additional “gut-wrenching” information in the near future.
In 2008, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson called Obama “an immigrant.”
In the context of a caller mentioning the Cold Case Posse criminal investigation which concluded that Obama’s documents are fraudulent, mainstream radio show host Neal Boortz admitted on Tuesday that he had dismissed questions about Obama’s citizenship and origins years ago. However, he now perceives that in light of recent revelations about the deception used to pass Obamacare, “Obama will do anything that he thinks he can get away with to obtain and preserve power.”
On Friday, the U.S. State Department announced that Central American parents allegedly residing in the U.S. legally with children and a spouse still in their home country could apply to bring their missing family members to the U.S. Without the approval of Congress, State declared:
The United States is establishing an in-country refugee/parole program in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to provide a safe, legal, and orderly alternative to the dangerous journey that some children are currently undertaking to the United States. This program will allow certain parents who are lawfully present in the United States to request access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for their children still in one of these three countries. Children who are found ineligible for refugee admission but still at risk of harm may be considered for parole on a case-by-case basis. The refugee/parole program will not be a pathway for undocumented parents to bring their children to the United States, but instead, the program will provide certain vulnerable, at-risk children an opportunity to be reunited with parents lawfully resident in the United States.
The new policy classifies “eligible” children as “refugees,” the plan for which was first suggested by Obama in July.
Also on Friday, Sheriff Hodgson was quoted by The Herald News as having said, “When you have the president of the United States saying arbitrarily, ‘I’m going to sign an executive order and ignore the immigration laws,’ when you start doing things like that, people start looking to rationalize other illegal behaviors. And that is not good for our communities, and it’s not good for the overall health and welfare of America.”
The initiative is supported by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) founded by former Sheriff Richard Mack and the National Sheriffs Association (NSA).
A statement on the CSPOA website reads:
CSPOA will have a presence in Washington DC on December 10th along with other sheriffs and peace officers. The event will take place at the capitol and organizers say they will demand that congressional action be taken to secure the border with Mexico. Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson of Bristol County Massachusetts sent a letter to organize a meeting of sheriffs in Washington, D.C., on December 10, two days before the existing government-funding bill expires, to meet with congressmen and encourage them to take action to secure the border.
The NSA’s 2013 statement on illegal aliens and border security opposes “outright amnesty” and calls for increased funding to states paying the cost of incarcerating illegal aliens.
Hodgson sent a letter to sheriffs around the country asking them to go to Washington if at all possible to meet with members of Congress who “have agreed to join us at the Capitol to demand immediate action to secure our borders as the first step in achieving legitimate immigration reform in the future.”
A veteran of the Maryland Police Department, Hodgson was first appointed Bristol County Sheriff by then-Gov. William Weld in May 1997 and ran for and won re-election for a second and third term. His biography includes the statement that “Sheriff Hodgson continues to remain actively involved with other sheriffs throughout the United States to call for careful and thoughtful immigration reform with an initial emphasis on securing our borders and points of entry.”
According to Bristol County, MA spokeswoman Elizabeth Doyle in response to an inquiry from The Post & Email, Hodgson first issued the following statement:
I originally introduced the initiative for Sheriff’s to travel to Washington DC at the National Sheriff’s Conference in Dallas/Ft. Worth. It is not a Constitutional Sheriff’s initiative, but an initiative appealing to all Sheriff’s nationwide. This initiative is an effort to partner with members of Congress to finally secure our borders as the first step in immigration reform and is in-line with the position of current reform by the NSA.
On the “intent and purpose” of the rally on the 10th, Ms. Doyle sent us the following:
The main objective is for the sheriffs to come together and use their influence in a unified way to partner with Congress in order to send a clear message that securing the borders must be the first step in immigration reform.
Having a historic number of sheriffs united around the most important issue that is adversely impacting every facet of our society (i.e., the economy, public safety, public health, National Security), will serve to mobilize the citizens throughout our Country who count on the sheriffs to lead on public safety, and ultimately allow our Country to move forward and complete the first and most important step to achieve comprehensive and legitimate Immigration Reform.
Sheriff’s working together on such an important issue facing the nation will serve to solidify the working relationship of our brother and sister sheriff’s around this shared initiative.
On Tuesday, The Post & Email contacted and spoke with Sheriff Mack, who told us, “We’re definitely helping and I was invited to attend.”
As well as founder of CSPOA and Board member of Oathkeepers, Mack is the former sheriff of Graham County, AZ and author of “Are You A David?” and “The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope.” Mack is a regular guest on the Power Hour with Joyce Riley and Liberty News Radio.
At the annual meeting in 2013 of the CSPOA, Cold Case Posse lead investigator Mike Zullo gave two presentations of the evidence the Cold Case Posse had compiled to date of the forgery of Obama’s documentation, and Mack has spoken publicly about his being convinced by the evidence.
Mack said that the official name of the gathering on December 10 is the “Sheriffs’ Caravan.” Its purpose, according to Mack, is to “let Washington know, especially Congress and the White House, that the sheriffs of this country want the immigration laws enforced by the federal government, and they’re tired of the White House and Congress playing politics with such an important vital national security concern.”
Mack said that while the Caravan is officially scheduled for December 10 only, he and several others will be meeting with members of Congress the following day.
Regarding the number of sheriffs across the country planning to be present, Mack said that as of Tuesday, “We’ve definitely had sheriffs calling and asking to attend, and we’re still helping notify sheriffs across the country. I know there’s a sheriff from Oregon who’s going, a sheriff from Florida and some from Utah. Those are the ones I’ve dealt with.”
The organization FAIR is assisting with disseminating information on accommodations and scheduling. As of Tuesday, the agenda issued by FAIR for the event is as follows:
11:00 a.m. Leave Arlington Court Suites Hotel for FAIR Office via Metro
11:30 a.m. FAIR Office for Lunch
12:45 p.m. Depart FAIR Office for Senate Office Meeting
1:00 p.m. Senate Office Meeting
2:00 p.m. Press Conference at Senate Russell Building
There is a meet & greet being planned the evening of Dec. 9th. Details to follow.
Lastly, The Post & Email asked Mack who might be encouraged to attend from the states of Connecticut and Alaska, which have no county sheriffs, to which he responded, “Chiefs of police for any cities or towns” and “County commissioners might be appropriate.” He further expounded:
Connecticut better get sheriffs reinstated, and hurry. For the State of Connecticut to get rid of the only law enforcement official who answers directly to the voters is what you call the destruction of republican form of government.
The people of Connecticut voted to amend the state constitution to eliminate the office of sheriff in 2000, replacing them with state marshals. “When the people are wrong, that makes it a lot worse,” Mack said.