To Be Announced...

I commend him...I think it's pretty cool...but my prediction is that eventually Marion Mayor John Nieland WILL flinch.

He's already got two strikes against him. The press...and Lee Clancy, President of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce.

First...the press doesn't like harsh things unless they create them themselves. Take the tone of this story in the Cedar Rapids Gazette this morning. The sub-headline...

Nieland: ‘Criminals’ swipe jobs; Clancey questions plan’s signal

Criminals in quotation marks? Are they not criminals? Read on...

MARION — Mayor John Nieland unapologetically devoted most of his annual State of the City speech Tuesday to his plans to rid the city of illegal immigrants.

His talk was not without reaction.

Nieland told a luncheon audience of about 250 at the Longbranch Convention Center that Marion was a long way from the Mexican border but that illegal immigrants and the contractors and subcontractors who hire them for low pay and no taxes are hurting the area’s middle class.

Illegal immigrants, he said, are taking roofing, drywalling, concrete and other construction jobs from legal workers and contractors.

Nieland called illegal immigrants ‘‘criminals’’ and added, ‘‘I’m not going to flinch on this. They are.’’

I personally don't think there's anything he should be apologetic about. And his point about illegals working for contractors and subcontractors is true. They pay no taxes, no liability insurance, no workmans compensation, no medicare, no social security. They pick them up at the Home Depot every morning and shuttle them around to job sites. Then pay them in cash and drop them off.

This is not that hard to understand. Being in the construction business now, I've seen it time and time again. Insurance companies will not issue liability insurance to illegal citizens. If they get injured in any way on the job, the property owner is liable for the damages...not the contractor. Anyone doubt whether or not that might lead to more of a problem than just "lack of diversity?"

After pounding away at the issue for about 20 minutes, Nieland invited questions from the audience, and the first came from Lee Clancey, president/ CEO of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce and former threeterm mayor of Cedar Rapids.

This is the same organization who recently opposed tougher sanctions on companies that hire illegal aliens. See To Be Announced Post

And he words "pounding away" don't sound too objective, do they?

Clancey noted that the same communities along the corridor from which Nieland said he will seek support have invested heavily in an initiative called Diversity Focus as a way to encourage immigrants to move here and work.

"I have some concerns about jeopardizing the effort that is being done up and down the corridor with many, many organizations and many, many businesses," Clancey told Nieland. "How are you going to implement this plan without jeopardizing that important work that is being done to change our culture really in the corridor to a more welcoming one?"

Well, if you want your corridor built with a bunch of illegals providing the workmanship, go ahead. Maybe Lee Clancy can go to Mexico like the mayor of Marshalltown did and welcome anyone and everyone to our town..(see: A Marshalltown Plan for Immigration)

He better follow through with the plan soon...or the pressure will be too much for him and he'll end up flinching. He'll need a lot of support for that not to happen.

Nieland decided to have a Marion police officer train and then work with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency much like local law enforcement officers do with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Marion’s officer will be the first such local law enforcement officer in Iowa to team up with ICE, Nieland said.

So far, no other newspaper outlet has picked up the story. Hmmm...wonder why that is?

Meanwhile on TV, the coverage wasn't much better.

KCRG (owned by the Gazette): Marion's Mayor Wants to Crack Down on Illegal Workers

MARION - Marion Mayor John Nieland used his state of the city address to say Marion's making plans to tackle immigration issues, but the idea definitely kicked up some controversy on Tuesday.

Nieland says Marion's particular problem with undocumented workers involves workers in some construction trades. He wants the city to hire a new police officer.

First of all, he's not tackling immigration issues. How in the world we ever got confused about the difference between immigration and criminals sneaking into our country is beyond me. Nevertheless, KCRG also won't call them what they are...but uses the term "undocumented workers."

• I wonder if they would have the same viewpoint if I started a TV station without a license...I could be an UNDOCUMENTED Broadcaster...

• Or if I started selling drugs on the street...I could be an UNDOCUMENTED Pharmacist

• Hey, can I start a restaurant without a food prep license? I could serve UNDOCUMENTED Entrees

• As long as we're talking about the construction industry...would anyone like to hire an UNDOCUMENTED Architect and have UNDOCUMENTED Contractors working for you?

Oh, yeah...we already do, but we call it "welcoming"...

Did I leave some ideas out? Add your own...

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Labels: illegal aliens