Editor:

EDITORS NOTE: This is the speech that Southampton County resident Ash Cutchin read to the Board of Supervisors at the meeting on June 23.

Thank you for giving the public the opportunity to speak. My name is Ash Cutchin, and I reside on Darden Pt. Road. Dr. [Alan] Edwards is my supervisor. I always try to be brief. As you know I usually complain about spending money we don’t have, and our massive uncollected taxes. I still object to those issues, but tonight my topic is different. I would like to address what is a national problem, a regional problem, and unfortunately very likely soon to become a local problem …. and that is our unsecured borders and illegal immigration. I refer to the situation wherein the federal government is about to house some 200 or 250 people, many of them children, in the empty St. Paul’s College in Lawrenceville. These are some of the more than 40,000 people who have crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas in the last few months. Many are from Mexico, but most seem to be from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. According to many news reports, they are coming as a direct result of our federal government’s failed policy of border protection, and its de facto amnesty program. The media (and in some cases the governments) in those countries are publicizing the fact that our president granted asylum to children of illegal aliens already in this country as a result of being brought here by their parents within the past few years. They are being told that all they have to do is show up in America and they will be allowed to stay. They probably will.

I do not mean to sound mean and cruel and heartless and un-Christian… After all, Jesus said, according to both Matthew and Luke, “ Suffer (or allow) the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Like most of you, I have no objection to legal immigrants coming to this country. As an airline pilot I probably brought hundreds here during my 25 years in that job. But those coming here illegally (and in many cases not prosecuted) are lawbreakers. They are criminals. They knowingly and willfully break the laws of our country. There are, by some estimates, as many as 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants already in this country. They have contributed to several hospitals going bankrupt. Many of them are in various prisons where in most cases they receive better medical treatment than many of our brave veterans. In order to get all the way from Mexico’s southern border to Texas, they must cross hundreds of miles of Mexican territory, and they are undoubtedly aided and abetted along the way by Mexican officials and police…. who collect bribes. I know first-hand about Mexican police collecting bribes because I had to bribe a police officer in Mexico City just to file a robbery report when I was the victim of a pickpocket on the subway. He knew I needed a copy of the report in order to claim the loss on my income taxes. And I believe the corruption probably goes all the way to the top of the Mexican government.

We already have overcrowded schools, over-worked deputies, overcrowded and broken highways, and heavy spending on social services. Adding more people who will ultimately depend on our social and law enforcement infrastructure will only be a catalyst to increased taxes on our local citizens if the problem spreads to Southampton County. I urge you…. no… I beg you, to pass a resolution and send it to Congressman [J. Randy] Forbes, both our U.S. Senators, [Tim] Kaine and [Mark] Warner, our governor, and to the Board of Supervisors in Brunswick County, stating in strong terms our opposition to bringing illegal immigrants to this area. Demand that our federal government protect our borders from what is an invasion and to enforce our laws, which they swore to enforce. Thank you.

Ash Cutchin
Southampton County