In a forum last week hosted by the Henrico GOP, 4th District Candidate for the GOP Congressional nod, Sheriff Mike Wade (who had previously aborted his candidacy in the 7th against Dave Brat) came out with a new proposal that sounds suspiciously like amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Under Sheriff Wade’s proposal, illegals will register with a government agency, report themselves on a probationary status, and if they “stay out of trouble for five years” they get to stay in the United States.
During the forum, the Sheriff stated as his rationale that “We need a solution other than throwing them out of the country” and that “We need to create a group of federal magistrates to administrate this solution”. That sounds like more government to me.
He further continued: “Some people say that this plan is amnesty but it is not.” Well, Sheriff, it sure sounds like at the least, a version of amnesty to me.
What the Sheriff is proposing (at least at the Henrico GOP forum) is a new agency with new federal “magistrates” to oversee an amnesty-type process for illegal immigrants. We don’t need a new agency, we need to enforce the laws on the books. This is just an irresponsible proposal. Federal deficits are running high and Sheriff Wade wants to further expand the federal government costing the taxpayer untold amounts of money.
I’ll give him some kudos for trying to think out of the box and come up with a solution, but his out of the box proposal is simply irresponsible in this case. It seems like the proposal of someone who’s spent a career in a municipal office and does not understand federal problems.
