Immigration games
If Massachusetts ever decides to hold a Pandering Olympics there will be fierce competition for the top of the medals stand.
A few months ago we chided Bristol Sheriff Thomas Hodgson for his pitch to send county inmates to the southern border to help build President Trump’s promised wall between the United States and Mexico.
The fact that Trump has still offered no real plan to build the wall suggests Hodgson got slightly ahead of himself — never mind the utterly impractical idea of shipping inmates from southeastern Massachusetts to Texas or Arizona to work on a federal construction project. Many of those inmates are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of a crime.
But it scored Hodgson some big headlines — as well as a seat before a congressional committee examining immigration issues, including the issue of sanctuary cities, where Hodgson went way out on another limb to support the arrest of elected officials in communities that “harbor” illegal immigrants.
Not to be outdone by this blatant sucking up to the Trump administration, along came Rep. Antonio Cabral (D-New Bedford) to engage in a bit of immigration one-upmanship from the other perspective.
Lawmakers took testimony this week on Cabral’s bill that was written specifically to thwart the sheriff’s long-shot inmate plan, forbidding the use of inmate labor on projects outside Massachusetts. Cabral also backs legislation that would prevent local and state law enforcement agencies from using state funds to implement partnership agreements they sign with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This is not a debate about immigration here,” Cabral said during a Monday hearing. “This is about state dollars, and state dollars ought to be used for state programs. Period.”
We’ll try to remember Cabral’s passionate concern for the protection of state tax dollars the next time a spending or pay-raise bill comes before the House.
In the end this “debate” is really an opportunity for these guys to prove their immigration bona fides before their respective political constituencies. It’s also a colossal waste of time.