No irony here. No, sir.
During Clark County Commission discussion Monday, according to the morning newspaper, commissioners debated just how and how much tax money to spend to help people facing deportation obtain legal representation.
At one point, the director of the UNLV Immigration Clinic told the commissioners that the clinic’s largest program represents unaccompanied children from Central America.
To which, Commissioner Tick Segerblom sympathetically commented, “We know historically that if you have an attorney in that process, you probably have a 10-times-better chance of not being deported.”
Hmmmm.
Keeping unaccompanied children in the U.S.? Isn’t that, you know, separating them from their parents.
Tick Segerblom (R-J pix)
Such cynicism so early in the year. So unlike you. Perhaps if you had a piece of a marijuana company you’d feel better.
Naw, I get the munchies and I have that bad enough already.
Is this a subsidy for illegal immigrants, a subsidy to local attorneys or a tax on local businesses and citizens? Or is it all three? Not being cynical, just asking.
Sounds like all three.
All three? That was nice of them. Does that kind of expenditure fall within the ambit of local government responsibilities? Did anyone (Commissioners, Staff or Public) even question the appropriateness of such expenditures? Not being cynical, just asking.
From R-J account: “Members of SEIU and Culinary Union Local 226 backed Segerblom’s proposal, but resident Cyrus Hojjaty fiercely rejected it, saying illegal immigration was tantamount to ‘a form of invasion’ and that the county should not be reinforcing illegal activity.”
I missed the irony. Can someone explain that to me?
i·ro·ny
noun
the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.
Culinary Union and SEIU backed the proposal? Perhaps we have additional beneficiaries of governmental largesse with other peoples money, the Unions and Gaming. Not being cynical. Just asking.
Thank you Thomas.
I guess more specifically then where did you see the irony in the story?
I think we’re missing the most important part of the story. The question is, why does someone with legal representation have a ten times better chance of not being deported? If true, then that means that either a lot of people without representation are being deported who shouldn’t ber, or that our legal system is so shot full of loopholes that a clever attorney can often get a result that is not in keeping with the purpose of our justice system. Either way, our system is rotten. A pretty important story, I think, but most of us just slide right past that supposed fact without even blinking. Our sense of ethics is slipping.
To be fair Rincon, between the guy that apparently finds it ironic that taxpayers are going to spend money to protect peoples rights, and…Bill, did you expect something else?
I always hope that common sense will prevail but I have been around so long that I know it is too much these days to expect elected officials to use taxpayer money only for the benefit of all of the citizens that they represent rather than just some. Using public money to pay attorneys to represent persons who have immigration issues doesn’t seem to fit that purpose.
We have public defenders to protect an individual’s rights (at tax payer expense) to represent indigents accused of criminal violations. We co not yet have a taxpayer funded system of legal aid for civil matters but Clark County, always
innovative seems to have found a precursor.
Clark County is seemingly headed towards providing taxpayer funded civil legal representation to one class of persons who have a particular type of civil problem. Perhaps next they should expand it to provide legal services and representation and advice on wills, estates, divorce and separation, torts, contracts, zoning, etc., ad nauseum.
Rincon, it should not come as any surprise to you that given the complexities of our interminable laws and regulations that representation by someone who knows the system will know how to delay and obfuscate. Bur, ironically, the solution that our elected officials will undoubtedly find is to create more laws and regulations rather than less and then increase the use of tax collections to provide assistance to some.
I am fond of H. L.Mencken who wrote, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
And how much of our tax money does UNLV spend on illegal immigration?
YEAH!
And how much money is UNLV spending on that “really harmless” tear gas that we are using to gas children in the border?
inquiring. minds want to know!
Don’t fret, Patrick. UNLV has it budgeted in their “free speech zone” enforcement plan.