Promoting criminal behavior

Virginia Republicans are being called all sorts of nasty names for daring to introduce a bill that would insist in law that-God forbid-the universities of the Commonwealth of Virginia should not be allowed to admit students who are not in the United States of America in a legal capacity.

"If a legal Virginia resident is applying to schools, should they be admitted? Or should that slot be set aside for someone who has arrived here illegally?" asked James K. "Jay" O'Brien Jr. (R-Fairfax), the sponsor of the proposal.

It gets even worse! This proposal would actually require that the Commonwealth of Virginia treat illegal aliens as if they are *gasp* illegal! Perish the thought!

The Republican proposal would also require city and county jails to check a defendant's immigration status and to have at least one person on duty who has been certified by the federal government to detain illegal immigrants until deportation proceedings. It would also routinely deny bail for illegal immigrants charged in a crime and suspend the business licenses of anyone convicted of hiring illegal immigrants.

Of course, so called "immigrants' rights" groups are accusing the Virginia GOP of trying to "scare voters." We are all for immigrants' rights here at T-FIRE, provided those immigrants are actually legal. What kind of people might encourage folks to come here illegally and break the law?

People at the Highlander Research and Education Center might. In years past, Highlander was also called by some the Highlander "Folk School," and has been a hotbed of pro-Communist sentiment and quasi-Marxist "organization" in years' past. Now, Highlander is going about encouraging illegal aliens to continue breaking the law:

Six or seven years ago, in response to an increased number of Latino immigrants settling in the Appalachian region, Highlander started a new outreach program called Pueblos de Latinoamérica.

“The mission was to help support organizing in immigrant communities in the Southeast and help some of the people that were doing the community organizing to feel less isolated,” said Mónica Hernández, director of the program and board chair of Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

What’s more, the current political environment is “very hostile toward immigrants, so the community is really afraid,” she said. “It makes it hard to organize and engage people in trying to be active because … they’re trying to live under the radar.”

They are trying to live under the radar because that is what people who are breaking the law-and illegal aliens are breaking the law. Highlander is, in this latest effort, encouraging people to break the law. (Note the three dots after the word "because"-that means Ms. Hernandez said something else.)

How encouraging is it to know that a group of radicals here in East Tennessee are leading the effort to promote criminal behavior? In New Market, no less!