By Rose Ann Scotti
Kudos to Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden and all the other sheriff’s departments in New Jersey that are extending the 287 agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which allow officers to screen jail inmates and flag those who are in the country illegally.
If the only impediment to this program’s renewal is a requirement from the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General to approve such contracts, then go for it and file the proper papers. I am certain you have the support of the majority of our state’s citizens, including those immigrants who are here legally.
The attorney general’s prohibition of officers from exercising their law enforcement authority is a disgraceful attempt to circumvent our federal immigration laws.
ICE should have a free hand in sorting out those decent and innocent individuals who have a legitimate claim to residency and deporting those who do not.
What kind of attorney general prohibits law enforcement officers from exercising their law enforcement authority? It’s an attorney general appointed by a governor who is hell bent on destroying New Jersey and its middle class.
We should be demanding from our “progressive” governor an accounting of all our hard-earned tax dollars that are going to attorneys fees and other assistance for those in the country illegally.
This year there is a whopping $3.1 million included in the budget to assist people in immigration court proceedings.
Additionally, the governor has created a new state agency to help immigrant populations assimilate into our communities, but has yet to fully disclose the cost to taxpayers.
Our state is in the midst of a fiscal crisis and there is a looming possibility of a complete fiscal meltdown. We can’t afford adequate property tax relief in the form of education aid, or fully fund our state pension and health systems, or put adequate money into our streets, roads and bridges.
So why doesn’t the governor put the needs of New Jersey residents first? Because our needs do not take precedence over his need to make a statement about his progressive socialist agenda.
God help us if any more of the so-called “progressives” get elected to public office. The anarchy they are promoting will bring us down and destroy America from within.
It is time for us all to step up to the plate and become more vocal in our support of our law enforcement community at both the state and federal levels. They need us!
We also have to let our elected officials here in New Jersey know we want real property tax relief, not more state agencies that will funnel our money into obscure and feel-good progressive programs that may or may not succeed.
Rose Ann Scotti is a resident of Colts Neck.