Washington Post, Immigration and Hampton Roads

By Brian Kirwin

A year later, the Washington Post looks back at a tragedy that sparked a national debate.

“Nobody knew this situation was out there until this catalyzed it,” said Brian Kirwin, a Virginia Beach representative for the statewide group Save the Old Dominion, which counts the Hampton Roads area as its second-largest base after Northern Virginia. “It didn’t have a name and a face.”

But when Tessa Tranchant, 16, and Alison Kunhardt, 17, were killed by an Illegal immigrant drunk driver with a record, the country exploded from Virginia Beach to FoxNews.

And the WaPo repeats the inflammatory claims of those who protect illegal aliens.

“Immigrant advocates counter that focusing on legal status brands all immigrants…as villains”

Wrong! I don’t know a single person who brands all immigrants as anything. If anything, most people have profound respect for immigrants who undertake the difficult task of gaining legal status, and most people think the process should be expedited and made easier.

But you don’t get a good story unless you can brand people, overtly or covertly, as ethnocentric or racist.

“They’re very clearly manipulating these individual cases to try to smear a whole community.”

Wrong! They’re very clearly thinking a system that arrests someone FOUR TIMES without figuring out he isn’t a citizen is a broken system.

The tragedy led Virginia Beach to reverse the “sanctuary city” policy and pass ordinances keeping city contractors from hiring illegals.

But the turmoil and policy changes also sparked “instantaneous” fright among the region’s Latino immigrants, said Dan Curran, a real estate agent and immigrant advocate who said he and his wife were quickly besieged by calls from people expecting widespread raids.

They were wrong then, weren’t they? If it was about race like the illegal-protectors say, there would’ve been raids, right?

No raids. But that doesn’t stop those who benefit from the fear.

Beatriz Amberman, a Virginia Beach resident who is vice chairman of the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, has indefinitely called off a fall Hispanic festival she has hosted for six years. She said Latinos have felt “scapegoated” and were too wary to attend.

Why?

Of course, I don’t see a Virginia Coalition of Caucasian Organizations holding a fall White Festival, but I saw Norfolk’s Afr’AmFest. The only people I see drawing racial lines between people are….well, nevermind. That’s an argument for another day.

I’m a uniter, not a divider. I wish race was irrelevant as Dr. King dreamed. I grew up in Philadelphia, and that meant my neighborhood of every race on the planet. It wasn’t a big deal. We all hated New York

The facts are these. Illegal aliens who break the law must be deported, and law enforcement systems who actively turn a blind eye aren’t making the community any safer by doing so. Taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be employing people who aren’t legally here.

It’s not about race. It’s not about ethnicity. If Alfredo Ramos was Pierre LeFitte, I’d feel exactly the same way. Gone!