NWV News - DOJ seeks to ensure illegal aliens get federal housing

DOJ SEEKS TO ENSURE ILLEGAL ALIENS GET FEDERAL HOUSING

By NWV News writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
August 25, 2011
© 2011 NewsWithViews.com

[Assistant Attorney General] Perez claims [Los Angeles County officials] discriminate against blacks and Latinos when it comes to providing federally-subsidized housing known as Section 8, even though 86% of the Section 8 recipients in both cities are minorities, according to the county commissioner Michael Antonovich who represents the area.

In a case that legal experts say defies logic and common sense, in order to ensure that low-income minorities get taxpayer-subsidized housing, Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a nationwide discrimination probe that, ironically, is focusing on an area where the overwhelming number of public housing residents are Latino and black.

The investigations are being conducted by the DOJ’s bloated civil rights division, which is headed by renowned illegal immigration advocate Thomas Perez, who once served as president of a taxpayer-funded group (Casa de Maryland) dedicated to helping illegal aliens, according to a public-interest law firm.

A former Maryland Labor Secretary, Assistant Attorney General Perez has made a number of controversial moves at the DOJ to protect illegal immigrants and minorities in general. Most famous is his dismissal of charges against the New Black Panther Party who were "accused" of voter intimidation of whites.

Among controversial movies is his ordering Colorado to protect the interests of “language minority populations,” suing a public college system for discrimination over a requirement that job applicants furnish proof of residency to get hired and launching an initiative to kill written tests that Perez asserts discriminate against minorities in the workplace.

"Perez doesn't care if these workers can speak, read and write English. In his world, as long as they are living and breathing they're qualified to work at institutions of higher learning," said former New York Detective Ben Cardoza

This month the DOJ’s pro-minority act du jour focuses on two cities -- Lancaster and Palmdale -- in Los Angeles County known as the Antelope Valley. Perez claims they discriminate against blacks and Latinos when it comes to providing federally-subsidized housing known as Section 8, even though 86% of the Section 8 recipients in both cities are minorities, according to the county commissioner Michael Antonovich who represents the area.

Antonovich accused Perez, who flew into the Antelope Valley a few days ago to formally announce the probe, of grandstanding.

At the heavily promoted Antelope Valley press conference Perez also announced that his agency has opened a related investigation into allegations of discriminatory policing by the law enforcement agency that patrols the area, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. This is relevant because Perez alleges that deputies harass minority residents of government-subsidized housing in an effort to drive blacks and Latinos out of the historically white area that sits about 60 miles north of the city of Los Angeles, according to a Judicial Watch report.

Officers who patrol the Antelope Valley engage in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of race or national origin, Perez said, revealing that his agency made the determination after “extensive conversations with individuals” in addition to “representatives from community organizations.”

During the interviews, DOJ investigators heard “troubling accounts of allegedly unjustified stops and searches,” according to Perez who said his agency is focusing on whether there is a pattern of “racially motivated stops and arrests.”

Under Perez’s leadership the DOJ has launched similar investigations of state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the country, including New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Louisiana.

It has also created a secret department (National Origin Working Group) within the civil rights division to monitor “discriminatory” laws passed by states and municipalities to control illegal immigration.

PROTECTION OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Last June, Obama’s Department of Justice ordered Colorado to protect the interests of “language minority populations” by strengthening a Court Interpreter Oversight Committee that assures immigrants who don’t speak English get free translators.

The new DOJ mandate also applies to civil cases, which means that U.S. taxpayers will fund interpreting services for foreigners who may stand to make settlement money. Under the agreement, announced this week, the Colorado Judicial Department will also develop “state and local language access plans” that address “both oral interpretation and the translation of vital written documents.”

A revitalized state Court Interpreter Oversight Committee will be expanded to include an attorney, prosecutor, public defender and an “advocate” representing the interests of the “language minority populations,” according to the DOJ’s order.

Interpreters have always been provided in criminal cases and in civil cases in which litigants were indigent. The new DOJ accord mandates free access to “timely and competent language assistance” for all “limited English proficient individuals” in all cases. This won’t come cheap. Colorado’s court system already spends nearly $4 million on 25 full-time interpreters and 300 contractors who provide services in 75 different languages.

In addition, the DOJ expects illegal aliens to be given the same assistance in civil lawsuits they file against American citizens and businesses.

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The assistant attorney general that President Obama appointed to run the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (Thomas Perez) says it’s essential because “justice cannot be served without access and effective communication.” Perez is a known open-borders advocate who served on the board of a controversial, taxpayer-funded day laborer center that assists illegal immigrants.

Last year Perez lied to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to cover up that political leadership was involved in the dismissal of the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. Judicial Watch obtained records that prove top political appointees were intimately involved in the decision to drop charges against the radical black revolutionary group for bullying voters with racial insults, profanity and weapons during the 2008 presidential election.