{"id":16986,"date":"2018-05-02T15:29:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T19:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16986"},"modified":"2018-12-28T10:32:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T15:32:53","slug":"endless-money-part-2-legal-aid-illegals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/05\/02\/endless-money-part-2-legal-aid-illegals\/","title":{"rendered":"Do We Have Endless Money? Part 2: Legal Aid for Illegals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite pushing bills in several states<\/a> to create single-payer tax-funded healthcare for illegal aliens, the open-borders lobby has been repeatedly<\/a> coming up<\/a> empty<\/a> with that<\/a> particular scheme<\/a>.\u00a0 Where they\u2019ve been far more disturbingly successful, particularly at the local rather than state level, \u00a0has been in setting up taxpayer-funded legal aid programs to try to keep illegal aliens from being deported.\u00a0 Conveniently for them, it\u2019s also a cash cow from which they can line their own pockets.\u00a0 The combination of self-righteous rhetoric and blatant greed may be one of their most audacious moves yet.<\/p>\n

To begin with, as much as they would like the public to be confused about this, no one has a right (constitutional or otherwise) to a publicly-funded lawyer in immigration proceedings.\u00a0 Deporting someone from this country is a civil, administrative process<\/a>, not criminal.\u00a0 What the Sixth Amendment<\/a> to the U.S. Constitution guarantees, as the Supreme Court held in the seminal 1963 case of Gideon v. Wainwright<\/a>, is that if someone is charged in criminal<\/em><\/strong> court and can\u2019t afford a lawyer, they have to be provided with one paid for from public funds, i.e., by the taxpayers.\u00a0 American citizens don\u2019t have the right to a lawyer at taxpayer expense in civil<\/em><\/strong> disputes, like in family court, or landlord-tenant court, or even when the IRS sues them for unpaid taxes.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, more and more cities and counties<\/a> have decided to spend precious tax dollars\u2014overwhelmingly earned and paid for by American citizens and legal residents\u2014on paying lawyers to do whatever they can to keep people here who have no right to be here.\u00a0 The lawyers themselves are mostly committed open-borders zealots, of course, and more than happy to take the money.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just in the usual suspects like San Francisco<\/a>, Seattle<\/a> and Austin<\/a>, but places like Columbus, Ohio<\/a>, and Washtenaw County, Michigan<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n

Particularly outrageous is how often these legal-aid schemes are set up in places that otherwise constantly bemoan their lack of funds to address myriad needs, with their hands out for more tax money from levels of government higher up.\u00a0 The City of Baltimore, for instance, apparently can\u2019t even heat its public schools<\/a> on its own, yet somehow mysteriously has no problem finding $100,000<\/a> somewhere (matched by another $100,000 from an open-borders nonprofit) to provide legal assistance for illegal aliens, all while taking over $1.2 billion<\/a> in annual handouts from the State of Maryland and over $150 million more<\/a> from the federal government.\u00a0 That means these cities aren\u2019t just funding legal aid for illegals with their own local money (as bad as that alone would be); they\u2019re actually being subsidized by American taxpayers nationwide to do it.<\/p>\n

As much as this has been largely a local phenomenon until now, it\u2019s begun trickling up to the state level.\u00a0 In New York for the past two years, Governor Andrew Cuomo requested, and the state legislature provided, $10 million<\/a> for the absurdly-named \u201cLiberty Defense Project\u201d to represent illegal aliens at no charge.<\/p>\n

And in Vermont, a bill filed in January, Senate Bill 237<\/a>, would make the state\u2019s public defenders responsible for representing illegal aliens in immigration court, stretching their already scarce resources away from their current constitutional obligations to their clients in criminal court, who are undoubtedly mostly American citizens.\u00a0 The bill has now passed both chambers of the legislature, although in different forms so it\u2019s possible the House and Senate still might not work out their differences before they\u2019re scheduled to adjourn on May 4.\u00a0 If they do, Republican Governor Phil Scott can\u2019t be counted on to veto it. Nominal party affiliation notwithstanding, he proudly signed<\/a> the Green Mountain State\u2019s sanctuary bill into law last year.<\/p>\n

Taxpayers across the country should be up in arms over this growing, insane, harmful, lawless rip-off of their hard-earned money.\u00a0 Literally anything else would be money better spent.