Public Hearing in Raleigh: Should the Community College System Continue to Admit Illegal Immigrants? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    On Friday morning, while most able bodied folk were at work (providing they were fortunate enough to still have a job), I represented Beaufort County at a public hearing on whether the North Carolina Community College System should continue to admit illegal immigrants into our public school. What may seem to be a simple decision to any wise American; our governing folk in Raleigh, and the Community College Trustees have convoluted its premise to the point that they cannot summon, here-to-fore, the wisdom or the integrity to make the simple decision to only allow people in our country legally to be admitted to our public community college system. On Friday morning, I was not permitted to speak, but I did gain some unvarnished perspective as to who the opposition is in what is becoming the real unambiguous question of our time: How long will real Americans permit pretentious pretenders to hijack our constitution and our land?

    Advocates for Illegal Immigrants attending North Carolina's Community Colleges were out in force on Jones Street in Raleigh, North Carolina.

    Why was I unable to speak as speaker number 74? Bill Gheen, President of ALIPAC (Americans for Legal Immigration) charged that the public hearing "is a rigged scam." Furthermore, he stated in written remarks after the public hearing, "the illegal aliens and their supporters had special insider knowledge and treatment. They arrived and were allowed to sign in to speak at 8 a.m., or two hours prior to the advertised start of the meeting." In independent conversations with Ron Woodard, Director of NC Listen, James Johnson, President of N.C.FIRE, Bill Gheen's charges were confirmed. Speaker Number 74 was pretty far down the list, and the one note activists were far ahead of this county commissioner.

    James Johnson of N.C. FIRE spoke in favor of the rule of law: Above. An impassioned member of the NAACP spoke in favor of "tear down the walls" to allow more illegal immigrants to recieve an education, but stressed these illegal immigrants should recieve tax payer funded tuition. This speaker recieved the largest round of applause by far of all participants: Below.



    I suppose it did not really matter that much anyway to Community College Trustees. Not one of them showed up for the Public Hearing. Either they have already made up their minds to desist from their ludicrous practice of admitting illegal immigrants as students, or they are resigned to suffer the impending public stomping they will undeniably suffer if their absence from the public hearing is any indication of their continued apathy toward our nation's laws and historic American values.

    Regardless of my denial to speak as Beaufort County's voice on this issue, I did prepare and e-mail my comments, with the attached county resolution, before the Friday, 5:00 pm deadline. It will have to do on this day, but there will be others and I will keep you, the public, informed.

    Below, I am providing a copy of those comments, and the minutes of the Beaufort County resolution, begging for some sensible action that was sent to the North Carolina Community College Board of Trustees.


Comments for Public Hearing on Admission of Undocumented Aliens to the North Carolina Community College System: December 18, 2009, Raleigh, North Carolina

    My name is Stan Deatherage. I represent Beaufort County; its citizens and taxpayers, as a Beaufort County Commissioner. I have served in this capacity for nearly 14 years, and today, I speak to you as their voice. I represent their concerns.

In Beaufort County, we are deeply conflicted by the North Carolina Community College’s policy of admitting undocumented aliens, providing they pay out of state tuitions. It is the position of the elected body that represents Beaufort County that we, as a state, should avoid any protracted incentives to lure illegal immigrants to penetrate and blend into the overall society within our United States borders; however, the Beaufort County Commissioners support, in its entirety, legal immigration, and all the provisions it affords foreigners, who are within our borders with our nation’s expressed permission.

It is our sincere concern that you do not share our basic understanding of these immigration laws, however flawed, that govern and dictate the protection of our borders. I sincerely hope that we are wrong, and that you will revise your current policy before this General Assembly, or some future General Assembly, in concert with the State’s Executive Branch, move toward amending your past and purposed misstep, for you, to reflect one that is more in harmony with our nation’s immigration laws, and our United States Constitution, as it is intended. Your public hearing, may be your first step to a more realistic policy, but only your governing body can make that determination.

We have heard today from a plethora of individuals: some Hispanic, some representing the special interests of undocumented aliens, some educators from the State’s Community College System; all supporting your position to allow the continued enrollment of undocumented immigrants, but you have heard little from the traditional citizenry of this state. Where are they? It’s Friday morning: Probably at work - devising a way to continue to support their families, while paying their taxes.

    Today, I speak for these people - the ones from Beaufort County - as I am elected and empowered to do so. And since I may be the one of the few, if not the only, elected official(s) to address you here today, I beg that you embrace this opinion with some significance, and I can sum it up in this one thought: in this public meeting someone, who was disenchanted with an opposing view, who shouted, “Human rights are more important than your constitution.”

    I humbly submit to you today, that nothing in your purview, or mine, is more important than our nation’s constitution. To that end, I beg that you remember that we are a nation of laws, and in a civilized society no man or woman stands above that precept. There are a vast majority of individuals here today are advising you to do the “human thing, the moral thing.”

     Today, I ask you to do the right thing. Our laws govern us until we change them. The common decency within a civilized society demand that we adhere to this basic precept, and therefore, you do not stand above the laws of this land, or the wishes of its people.