Things That We All Know That Happen On Daily Basis:

[Zimmerman 319]

Friday, July 10, 2009
Grant is misguided step in battle against gangs
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Why all the fanfare about throwing a few million more federal dollars into the battle against gang violence in Montgomery and Prince George's counties?("Grant to help fight against gangs," June 19 article).

Spearheaded by Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, with assistance from fellow Democrats Rep. Donna Edwards and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, these funds are yet another misguided appropriation for counseling and mentoring centers as the solution for the growing tide of gang-related crime and violence.

Instead of focusing on the core problem of illegal immigration, which provides the majority of foot soldiers for the violent MS-13, 18th Street and other Hispanic gangs in Maryland, Hoyer, Edwards and Van Hollen are more than happy to spend our tax dollars on unnecessary programs that seemingly never go away. This includes funding for Latin American youth centers, day laborer centers, family justice centers, Latino mentoring programs, multicultural centers, primary care clinics, naturalization services and more, with most funding filtered through illegal alien support groups like CASA of Maryland, Catholic Charities and Identity Inc. These programs make Maryland a magnet for illegal immigration.

Maryland's taxpaying citizens do not want or need these ethnic centric programs and services.

Do Hoyer, Edwards and Van Hollen actually believe that the gang members charged in the stabbing death of a teenage boy in Gaithersburg would have flourished from the counseling and mentoring services offered at these multicultural centers? Or would a strong dose of law and order have done a more effective job at a fraction of the cost?

But our congressional trio is nowhere to be found when it comes to funding for enforcing immigration laws, providing training for local police and sheriff departments to screen all arrested for immigration status or even increasing law enforcement manpower and jail space to hold the burgeoning number of criminal illegal aliens.

Instead of "building trust" in immigrant communities, our representatives erode the quality of life for the majority of Maryland's citizens. Fortunately the 2010 elections are right around the corner.

Brad Botwin, Rockville

The writer is director of Help Save Maryland, an anti-illegal immigration group.

[GARY]

Until citizens actually form their own PAC groups and have the ability to buy our supposedly elected officials as any other special interest groups can and does, this will continue.

These elected officials are isolated from what most of the general populace experiences and has no knowledge or concern.