Comments at Arlington County Board Meeting, September 13, 2025.
At the July 19 County Board meeting Takis Karantonis blasted me for quoting Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in a Fox News story. Lyons was angered that the Sheriff’s office had released David Cabrera, a twice deported Guatemalan sex offender from jail to a Courthouse street instead of ICE custody. I agreed with Lyons, arguing that Arlington’s policy of non-cooperation with ICE raises public safety issues, since convicts released from jail often revert to crime just to survive.
Karantonis accused me of “defending the indefensible” for promoting enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. He also declared the Fox News story I quoted as “false and misleading,” without saying what in it was non-factual. Finally Takis accused me of racial insensitivity for failing to appreciate the fear inspired by ICE in the immigrant community. Takis concluded his remarks with: “I feel personally as an immigrant offended by how insensitive your comment was.”
What Takis fails to appreciate is the distinction between legal and illegal immigration. The former I endorse. The latter I do not, because the principal victims of illegal immigration are legal immigrants, like the sixteen year old that Cabrera attempted to rape in 2014. Crime and unfair competition for jobs and wages driven by illegal immigration diminishes everyone’s quality of life, especially legal immigrants’.
The organizations that profit most from illegal immigrants are businesses that exploit them for low wage labor and 501(c)(3)s that get government grants to assist them. In fact government funded aid to illegals comes at a net taxpayer cost of $150 billion annually. That’s a high price to pay for increased crime and unfair competition.