Good call! Everyone should know their rights and have access to a lawyer when they need one. Legal protections aren't worth anything if we don't know about them or can't use them.

Obviously we have given Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors too much money over the years since they have plenty to spare on folks who break the law by coming here illegally. Dear Supervisors, are so confident that you have done everything for the LEGAL residents and taxpayers in your power and you now have money to spare on charity to foreigners? Since when was it within your mandate to be responsible for the foreign aid?

That being the case, rest assured that last election was the last time I voted for any parcel tax or bond issue measure in Santa Clara. Why bother? It won't be going towards the potholes or traffic improvements in my neighborhood. It will be going to support a liberal agenda in contravening of the laws of this country.

And I have noted the names of every supervisor to make sure I do the right thing next time your names come up in an election.

Come to America. Don't bother with legal entry because no matter how you come we will provide a free education, free healthcare and free legal advice.

An illegal immigrant wouldn't be facing legal proceedings but for their action to enter or stay in the country illegally.

The fact they cannot hire an attorney to defend them from their action shouldn't mean my tax dollars go to provide that service.

We have a lot of needs in this county. This shouldn't have made the cut.

Dear County Supervisor Joe Simitian, Sir.

Respectfully, the citizens of this country that both elected you and gave you money to spend on our community.

How do you and, the rest of the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors, figure that you have the right to give OUR hard earned tax money on legal and other help illegal immigrants? The people who broke the law by definition? Never spent a dime on our community?

If you are so concerned, be my guest - donate your own money to the cause that you like best. What gives you the right to be so generous with OUR money??

Joe, what the hell are you thinking?

We'll remember in November, Joe.

@Citizen84,

The people and families being targeted in these unnecessary raids are, in fact, members of our community. They are your friends, your children's friend and family, your neighbors. They sit with you in church, shop at the store with you. They cook your food, clean your tables. To say that they aren't members of your community just because they've broken the law is disgusting.

You've never broken the law? There are speed limits posted all around, and I've yet to meet someone who doesn't willfully exceed it, but we don't cast out these law-breakers as not being members of our community.

I agree with Frank Richards, and I would add that undocumented WORKERS pay taxes every time they buy something, employers withhold taxes from their pay-and they even pay into Social Security with no hope of ever collecting.

Look around you, who will do the jobs that undocumented workers do? I'd much rather spend my tax dollars helping people that deporting hard working families.

There are more gang members who are citizens than aren't.

Thank you Joe Simitian. Your actions fit with my American principles of due process.

Dear Frank,

Indeed I am holding in my hand a wad of speeding tickets that I sill waiting for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to do something about. But I am not holding my breadth. Somehow I do not think that the Board will come to my rescue.

How did we ended up with foreigners breaking the law and being aided and abetted by our own elected officials with OUR money who were presumably elected to uphold law and order and protect the citizens of this country?

Illegal immigration is NOT a victimless crime. I am an immigrant myself. I see and talk to many, many people who have tried to come to this country and found it impossible in part BECAUSE we are flooded by the illegals.

Whatever you think about US immigration policy, it's simply indefensible to be spending public money to promote ILLEGAL acts.

What's the logic here? there are seven Billion people on this earth. most of them do not have opportunities of the likes we still have here in the Bay Area. Should we welcome them ALL in?

That attitude comes from the same officials who tell us that there is not enough water and other resources in California to accommodate our population growth or highway congestion.

Our elected officials should do their job. Not try to solve world problems. That's what WE give them money for.

It is time to take legal action against the Board of Supervisors for misuse of taxpayer dollars. As a citizen taxpayer, I never authorized use of my tax money to pay for illegal residents. And stop this "undocumented immigrant" pablum... they are illegal aliens.

@Frank Richards,

First off, I am not aware of any "unnecessary raids" occurring in this county. If there have been some "unnecessary raids" locally, please provide that information to the readers. Second, people who break the law and get caught, whether it be speeding or being in this country illegally, should face the type of punishment prescribed in the law. If you get a ticket for speeding, you pay a fine, go to traffic school, add a point to your driving record and risk an increase in your insurance premium. If you come into this country the wrong (illegal) way and get caught, you face deportation. No matter what the circumstance, you do the crime, you do the time. I didn't ask the tax payers to fund the cost of my speeding ticket nor should I have to share in the cost of the legal defense of someone facing deportation, especially if they have a criminal past in this country.

@Hope,

For those "undocumented workers" you refer to, that don't get paid under the table and pay "so called taxes," they are typically using a social security number that legally belongs to someone else, and that person risks being the victim of identity theft and/or face tax problems when the IRS comes after them for not reporting income they had at "their other job." Additionally, a lot of the "undocumented workers" claim a high number of deductions to have the least amount in state and federal taxes taken out of their paycheck, which would cause problems with the IRS if you or I would try to do something like that. But in your world, you should be proud of these "American principles" you hold near and dear to your heart.

Where do I sign up for free legal services?

Oh wait, I'm a middle-aged, white privileged male that works and pays taxes.

We don't get handouts. We pay for the handouts that other don't earn.

@Greg David,

There it is, most of the other posters resisted explicitly playing the race card, but you've outdone them.

Glad you didn't make it into the city council, we really avoided a disaster there.

It's a liberal mantra that apparently Randy Guelph subscribes to:

"Everyone who disagrees with you is a RACISTS".

I beg to differ.

My point is, that the government, including Santa Clara County Board, does not have or print its own money. It collects and dispenses the money that belongs to its citizens. To the benefit, presumably, of the above mentioned citizens. Not for the Germans, Mexicans, Guatemalans, Cubans, French, Dutch or whatever.

I am guessing that, any time now, I would be called a fascist?

@Citizen84

There are several things incorrect in your comment.

A) Greg was the first person to start talking about not getting handouts because he's white. Sounds pretty racist to me, since there's no indication that the legal support being given is being denied to white people.

B) Tax money is collected from residents, not citizens. It should be used to help our community, its residents. Unless you think we should be collecting income, sales, property taxes from non-citizen H1b workers while providing them with no services or protection. That sounds like a terrible community to me, and I would strenuously disagree with you on your vision for Santa Clara County.

What bothers me about this is the actual earmarking of monies for an event that has not actually happened, but is being ballyhooed as already happening, with no actual citations or proof of such happenings and those who are controlling the monies are politicians who DO have a proven record of setting aside monies that somehow disappear or are not used for their intended purposes. I know that's a very long, run on sentence, but I think you get my drift. This hysteria of "what if" has really got to stop and people need to get a grip. I think it was Jesus who said something about not worrying about tomorrow because today has enough trouble of it's own. He's right.

We're not talking about residents that hold H1B visas. We're talking about illegal immigrant CRIMINALS receiving public funding for legal assistance.

As for temporary visa holders that overstay their TEMPORARY visas, how is that the problem of those who abide by the law and pay taxes? If you visa expires, its time to go home.

As for me being a racist, that's a pretty bold accusation. I was simply making a commentary on the ridiculous notion of "white privilege" being the cause of all that is evil in this country.

@Greg David,

I was responding to the specific claims of @Citizen84, which we can all agree were poorly reasoned and inaccurate. Everyone within this country's borders is entitled to due process, which includes legal representation.

As to the alleged racism, why was it important for you to bring up your race here? What has been denied to you solely on the basis of being white?

What I have been denied of is NOT being bombarded by the accusation of progressives and the mainstream media that everything I have and earned was because of white privilege and not because of my own hard work.

Even the position of the ACLU espouses that illegal immigrant are not entitled to legal representation at goverment (taxpayer) expense.

"Since immigrants don't have the right to enter the U.S., those who are not here legally are subject to deportation. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has the authority to question "any person believed to be an alien as to his right to be in the United States." But in a 1903 case called Yamataya v. Fisher, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the INS could not deport someone without a hearing that meets constitutional due process standards. Since then, procedural rights for undocumented immigrants have evolved so that today, in spite of Congress' attempts to curtail these rights, most people facing deportation are entitled to:

a hearing before an immigration judge and review, in most cases, by a federal court;
representation by a lawyer (but not at government expense);
reasonable notice of charges, and of a hearing's time and place;
a reasonable opportunity to examine the evidence and the government's witnesses;
competent interpretation for non-English speaking immigrants, and
clear and convincing proof that the government's grounds for deportation are valid.

Web Link

And yet, people here still have no idea why Trump was elected.

Keep it up Democrats. You are making it easy for us to vote you out of office.

@USA, you've been schooled on this over and over again. As much as you personally like him, he has the lowest approval rating of any newly elected president. He's flat out unpopular nationwide, and especially in California, and especially in Santa Clara County. Sorry, that's just reality.

To see how this works in the real world, @Greg David above loves Trump's policies, ran for city council, and lost.

@Randy Guelph,

You are right about one thing....Trump is "flat out unpopular nationwide," with the liberal left and their agenda.

@tiredofthehype,

Yeah, them and basically everyone else.

How can an agenda have negative opinions about someone?

All the legal and law abiding taxpayers of Santa Clara county need to initiate a class action lawsuit against the county for fiscal irresponsibility. Using $3.5M of tax money on criminals is a breach of the duty elected officials are bound to follow.

I wonder if the County is going to reimburse me and my wife for our expenses? We paid nearly $5000 in fees for her legal immigration to the United States.

We went through the entire process and even went to the INS office in L.A. before we got started to be sure that we were doing everything correctly and filing all the correct forms so she wouldn't be deported later because of some technicality.


Jim Neal
Old Mountain View