Massachusetts School District Segregates Students/Staff Based on Race

Starting this fall Virginia will offer illegal immigrants discounted in-state tuition at taxpayer-funded colleges as well as financial aid to attend private universities. This month the state’s governor, Ralph Northam, signed the new law during a heavily publicized visit to Marymount University, a private Arlington college with an enrollment of about 3,200.

“These students have grown up in our communities across Virginia,” the Democrat lawmaker said during the signing. “They’ve attended the same schools as their classmates and neighbors, they have taken the same tests, they have played on the same teams, eaten in the same lunchrooms and even gone to the same dances. They are valued members of our communities, and they are Virginians in every sense of the word except for immigration status – something that was chosen for them, not by them, by families just wanting a better life for their children.”

Virginia has 15 public four-year universities, according to its State Council of Higher Education, and dozens of private institutions that will help educate illegal immigrants on the taxpayer’s dime. While more than a dozen other states offer illegal aliens discounted tuition at public universities, Virginia is taking it a step further by also doling out money for private education. The money will flow through a special program called Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant (TAG) that annually provides tens of thousands of legal state residents with grants to attend private institutions of higher learning. To be eligible, candidates must be a domiciliary resident of Virginia as defined by the state code, which essentially says individuals shall establish by “clear and convincing evidence” domicile in the Commonwealth for a period of at least one year immediately succeeding the establishment of domiciliary intent. It is not clear what if any changes will be made to the code so illegal immigrants meet the criteria.

More than 12,370 undocumented students are enrolled in higher education in Virginia and the state sees 2,000 illegal immigrants graduate high school annually, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, a platform that tracks and supports undocumented and international students in the U.S. Additionally, Virginia has an illegal immigrant population of 265,830, the group’s figures show. The nonprofit claims that its mission is to build a diverse movement of partners and stakeholders advocating alongside immigrant and international students. Its goal is to expand access to higher education, degree completion, and post-graduate career success. “The U.S. is home to more than 427,000 undocumented students enrolled in higher education,” the portal states. “In their pursuit of higher education, undocumented students actively ready themselves to fill critical skill shortages and become better positioned to support their families, communities, and the U.S. economy.”

At least 19 states offer illegal immigrants discounted tuition typically reserved for legal residents, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Seventeen of them— Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington—passed laws to offer the perk. In two states—Oklahoma and Rhode Island—the Board of Regents allows it. In 2013, the University of Hawaii’s Board of Regents and the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents adopted similar policies granting illegal aliens in-state tuition at their school. A year later Virginia’s attorney general enacted a policy giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants protected by a controversial Obama amnesty program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). At the time more than 8,000 illegal immigrants qualified for the taxpayer benefit. The attorney general proclaimed that it was the right thing to do because the illegal immigrants are “Virginians” and the state “should extend them an opportunity for an affordable education.” Three states—Arizona, Georgia, and Indiana—have passed laws prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving discounted in-state tuition rates.

Last year Virginia passed a law granting illegal immigrants special driver’s licenses. The measure directs the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to provide driver’s licenses to applicants without a Social Security or taxpayer identification number if they submit a certified statement that their information is true. Democrat legislators introduced the law after promising an influential group known as the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights that they would “fight hard” for immigrant rights, according to a local news report. The same immigrant rights coalition has long demanded legislation to give illegal aliens discounted in-state tuition at Virginia public colleges and universities. One of the lawmakers behind the driver’s license measure, Senator Jennifer Boysko who represents Fairfax, calls it an “economic justice issue.”

All technical guidance provided to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement related to the transmission, testing, mitigation, and/or treatment of COVID-19 for undocumented immigrants who are in or are released from Department of Homeland Security and/or Customs and Border Patrol custody.

As the homicide rate hits a record high in Washington D.C. the city elects a convicted murderer to public office in a unique election featuring all inmate candidates. The freshly elected public official, Joel Caston, has been in prison for 26 years and is currently incarcerated at the District of Columbia Jail. In 1996 Caston was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder for ambushing and killing a man in the city’s Anacostia neighborhood. Court records obtained by Judicial Watch indicate that a 2016 appeal was denied. In the document, Caston’s attorneys name the victim, which is not common practice today. Court records also reveal a “speed loader”—a device used to rapidly load ammunition into a firearm—was found by police under Caston’s mattress after the shooting. It contained six rounds of 44 caliber ammunition as well as additional rounds of ammo.

Now Caston is a commissioner on D.C.’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC), which advises the D.C. Council and other local government entities involving matters ranging from liquor license applications to public safety. Commissioners serve two-year terms and are elected in even-numbered years. The ANC was established to bring “government closer to the people, and to bring the people closer to government,” according to its website. Caston was chosen by voters to represent Ward 7, one of D.C.’s most crime-infested areas. It is represented by Councilman Vince Gray, an ex-D.C. mayor who was embroiled in a campaign finance scandal. The Ward 7 ANC seat has never been occupied and D.C. officials conducted an unprecedented election earlier this month to fill the post. All five candidates and the majority of voters they courted are incarcerated at the same prison with Caston, according to a local news report.

Last year the D.C. Council passed legislation allowing incarcerated convicted felons to vote. Besides D.C. only two states—Maine and Vermont—let imprisoned criminals cast ballots, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. After the measure was enacted in D.C., a group of commissioners and a nonprofit called Neighbors for Justice launched an effort to fill the empty ANC seat and pressure the local Department of Corrections to notify inmates they qualified to run for the post. Neighbors for Justice was founded in August 2020 by residents near the D.C. prison who want to support “neighbors at the jail during COVID and beyond.” The group offered all the felon candidates a forum to deliver their campaign message from their cell clad in orange prison uniforms. In the promotional campaign videos, Caston is the only candidate who is not wearing the orange uniform. Instead, he appears in a white sweatshirt with a logo that reads “credible messenger.” In the short segment, Caston says “my platform would be used to restore the dignity of incarcerated people that we would no longer be judged by our worst mistake and establish equality for both the male and the female population that has often been overlooked inside this space.”

Caston will be issued a laptop or tablet, an electronic mail account, and a workspace in the prison where he can dedicate eight hours a day to his duties as commissioner, the founder of Neighbors for Justice said in a local newspaper article. “It’s not just about a historic election, with a first-ever ANC commissioner who is incarcerated,” said Julie Johnson, the group’s founder. “It’s about giving a voice and visibility to a population that is unseen.” In the same story, Caston says that he feels “presidential” after winning the election. On its website Neighbors for Justice congratulates Caston, writing that he will serve as the ward’s inaugural commissioner and confirming that the murderer received 48 of the 142 votes cast in the “historic election.” The note proudly announces that “all five candidates in this election are in residence at the DC jail.”

While they celebrate the election triumph of a convicted murderer, homicides in D.C. are on pace to shatter records. Last year the rate hit a 16-year high and in 2021 it is expected to be worse, according to Metropolitan Police Department data. The figures show homicides are already up 13% from last year. A few months ago, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared that gun violence is a public health crisis. Weeks later she clumped her city’s pervasive gun violence with the COVID-19 pandemic, saying this in a statement: “Many communities across the nation, including Washington, DC, continue to be burdened by two simultaneous public health emergencies. The first is the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit our Black and Latino communities the hardest. The second is the gun-related violence that continues to devastate many of those same communities. Even in 2020, when much of the country shut down for weeks at a time, deaths from gun violence reached historic levels.”

New Yorkers went to the polls Tuesday amid a spiraling crisis of urban violence. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans six to one, Tuesday’s primary voting will effectively decide the elections. Up for grabs are the office of mayor, city comptroller, public advocate, the majority of the city council, and the powerful office of Manhattan district attorney.

The candidates felt the heat. Crime and disorder are sharply up in the city, and the issue has dominated the last months of campaigning. The numbers tell the story: for May 2021, the overall crime rate rose twenty-two percent, compared with May 2020, according to NYPD statistics. Robberies increased forty-six percent. Assaults increased twenty percent. Shootings increased seventy-three percent.

The city’s iconic Washington Square Park has become a nightly battleground between lowlifes and police, with horrified local residents clamoring for more security. Open drug use and drinking are widespread. On a typical recent Saturday night, protestors hurled objects at police, a woman was assaulted, two men were slashed with a razor, and a 77-year-old cook was hurled through the window of a nearby diner.

The subways—an economic lifeline for the city—have become a danger zone. “Minor” crimes such as turnstile-jumping, drinking alcohol, and public urination are commonplace. Assaults, rapes and murders are up. Overall, subway crime has jumped ninety-three percent from the previous year, according to NYPD statistics.

Our friends at the Wall Street Journal remind us that after inheriting a prosperous, safe city from mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio squandered the legacy. “Crime and disorder have returned amid progressive assaults on police and anti-crime strategies that worked. Bail reform let repeat offenders free. The mentally ill homeless attack subway riders and pedestrians. The mayor had his police chief disband the anti-crime unit that searched for illegal guns, and shooting have soared.”
 

Crime is up in cities large and small across America. In Miami, murders are up thirty percent year over year. In Chicago, 294 people have been murdered as of June 12—that’s twenty-one more than the same period last year. In Jackson, Mississippi, homicides are up nearly seventy percent year over year. In Lubbock, Texas, homicides doubled from 2019 to 2020. In Atlanta, murders, rapes, and assaults are rising. In Denver, murders are up twenty-three percent and shootings sixty-two percent.

The New York races were populated mostly by the progressive Left. The candidates’ platforms continue the policies of the de Blasio years or take the city even further down the progressive path with plans to shift funds from the NYPD and empty the jails. A handful of relative moderates, such as mayoral candidate Eric Adams and Manhattan DA contender Tali Farhadian Weinstein, made aggressive crime reduction centerpieces of their campaigns.

New York has instituted a program of complex ranked-choice voting and absentee ballots are still to be counted. But preliminary election returns show Adams in front, with a strong lead over far-left candidate Maya Wiley, thirty-two percent to twenty-two percent. In the Manhattan DA race, which does not use ranked voting, center-left candidate Alvin Bragg holds a narrow lead over Farhadian Weinstein, with absentee ballots still to be counted. Radical progressive candidates in a handful of races appear to have fended off ranked choice challenges and captured City Council seats and the comptroller’s office.

Adams—a former cop and former Republican—has caused much hand-wringing among the New York cognoscenti. Left-wing hopes were high for a successor to de Blasio, and an Adams victory will be widely interpreted as a setback for progressives. With ranked-choice still to play out and absentee ballots to be counted, final results won’t be announced until July.

Meanwhile, the mayhem continues.