2½ Cheers for Police Chief Manger

The citizens of Montgomery County need to give thanks to Montgomery County Chief of Police Tom Manger for standing up to Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D-Dist.18) and Gustavo Torres, director CASA of Maryland - the twin pillars of illegal immigration and lawlessness in Montgomery County. Under pressure from the dynamic-duo, Chief Manger stood by his decision to enforce the law and not, as demanded, have his officers ignore federal immigration warrants.

Chief Manger further threatened to resign if ordered by county officials to ignore enforcement of these warrants. In a surprise move, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett, the county’s top advocate and financial supporter of CASA and Day Laborer Centers, actually backed Manger’s position on illegal aliens.

I’m saving my “half a cheer” however, as Chief Manger is in the process of updating his 1998 police manual, including the section on federal immigration warrants. It’s important for all law-abiding citizens to monitor Leggett and Chief Manger to ensure that federal immigration warrants continue to be enforced. In fact, with the fantasy of federal amnesty for illegal aliens now a totally dead issue, the County Police need to upgrade and enhance their procedures regarding federal immigration warrants. This enhancement would include undergoing specific federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) training to enable County Officers to question, detain and arrest illegal aliens as well as assist ICE in the deportation process.

My questions for County Executive Leggett and Chief Manger: Why are you having closed door meetings with pro-illegal immigrant elected officials like Gutierrez and illegal alien advocacy groups like CASA and the ACLU? Why should these groups have special access and input to the County’s policy on federal immigration warrants? For that matter, why does the Montgomery County Police have special monthly meetings with Latino, African-American and Asian groups, but preclude monthly sessions with ordinary citizens concerned with illegal immigration and other public safety issues?

Why aren’t Leggett and Manger having closed door meetings with pro-legal immigration citizens groups like Help Save Maryland, Citizens Above Party, the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Maryland Minuteman Civil Defense Corps? As the United States Senate just found out, American citizens are no longer going to take a back seat when it comes to illegal immigration issues.

Brad Botwin, Director
Help Save Maryland.com
bb67chev@aol.com