[Ninastar]

Originally Posted by Maru

If there was nothing in law, then those people were lied to.

California is a sovereign state separate from the Federal govt, but it can't ignore US immigration laws. Not that I'm saying this is what is happening, but can you imagine if any State lured in foreigners from other countries and started up an army? Imagine if multiple States did this with their illegal population? It's not completely out of the question when looking at the type of people involved, the kinds of things they support and some of the incendiary things they've said about the United States as a whole. So as much as I'm not terribly keen on federal involvement in most things, it makes sense why they are not keen to back down.

No I totally get that. I was wondering if what I heard was true… because then I was wondering about known criminals being able to just… stay and life a life of safety/luxury (or live somewhere better than the country anyway)

The sad thing is, is that this just makes people think all immigrants here are bad, when that’s just not the case at all. It’s such a complicated situation where people on all sides feel so passionate about their views and it brings out the worst of us

[Christmas Dynasnow]

Originally Posted by Ninastar

No I totally get that. I was wondering if what I heard was true… because then I was wondering about known criminals being able to just… stay and life a life of safety/luxury (or live somewhere better than the country anyway)

The sad thing is, is that this just makes people think all immigrants here are bad, when that’s just not the case at all. It’s such a complicated situation where people on all sides feel so passionate about their views and it brings out the worst of us

I think most adults can distinguish between a legal and an illegal immigrant just as they can between a customer and a shoplifter

No one has an issue with passport control, for example, when they fly?

[Yuki Maru Hoshi]

Originally Posted by Ninastar

No I totally get that. I was wondering if what I heard was true… because then I was wondering about known criminals being able to just… stay and life a life of safety/luxury (or live somewhere better than the country anyway)

The sad thing is, is that this just makes people think all immigrants here are bad, when that’s just not the case at all. It’s such a complicated situation where people on all sides feel so passionate about their views and it brings out the worst of us

No worries. I was replying generally mostly because I'm just catching up to discussion. If I add more stuff that seems irrelevant, it's me adding more stuff to catch up

FWIW, I don't know anyone here that thinks that "all immigrants" here are bad and I would be one of the first to hear that logic play out ...

If they are not deporting, then we are allowing known criminals to stay because US criminal justice increasingly does what is called catch and release. Meaning, we don't really jail people for long periods of time (legal or not), we detain them until a judge can see them who then gives them a hand slap and puts them right back where they found them. Our jails are very full and understaffed, so that's one reason, but many places have voted in "activist judges" (nothing better to call them, sorry) that see the criminal needing protecting. Some years back they put $1 bonds for even violent crimes as an eff you to enforcement locally, including for one for assault on a police. Nothing special about that case, but I guess they wanted to show just how far they were willing to go. Normally they give out "free bond/PR bond like candies, but I'm guessing there was some kind of restriction to prevent it. Anyway, at least one of those went on to murder someone. (There have been many repeat offenders on PR bonds...)

When we had primaries, several judges were primaried out and replaced with people who probably think similarly which would be my guess, but aren't going to be as public now...

Kidnapping, assault suspect released on $1 bonds back in court on new charge of threatening same victim
https://www.khou.com/article/news/cr...9-9877af01c46f




Other stuff:
Fun fact, they're trying to put a gag order on the former DA who handled Jocelyn Nungaray's case. She was ... because she's no longer batting for the same team, apparently...

Jocelyn Nungaray case: Judge silences former District Attorney Kim Ogg after FOX 26 interview
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/jo...-ogg-interview

She's saying that there was proof there were at least another victim that had come forward (an American on vacation) before Jocelyn, but in Costa Rica. That's enough for a gag order, somehow, and they didn't tell the mother this sad fact either...

I feel terrible for her. It seems to have become her whole life now to try to avenge her daughter. That's not having any kind of peace.

Also the judge over her case is one of the $1 bond judges... great... so great...

Kim Ogg is an interesting figure to follow. I haven't kept up with every detail, but she would be "in the know" on so much, especially the internal politics. She's not a typical turncoat. She's a DA brought in under the LGBT banner (she's a lesbian, iirc). Well, she called out too much of what she saw of even people on her own side and so they came up with all sorts of problems and she lost her bid. She ended up campaigning for Ted Cruz, ironically enough. As far as I know, she's still a Democrat. It's hard to say what her motives are, maybe it's revenge, but she was at the helm and doing a lot of the things she's accusing others of. There were so many problems with her cases and she seemed to cherry things politically more than whether the case even had great prospects... just looks good in the newspaper kind of thing.

Conflicts with local Democratic elected officials

Kim Ogg investigated county elected officials and staffers several times after having public disagreements over issues such as bail reform, violence interruption program implementation, and her office's budget. Almost $1 million in taxpayer dollars were spent on legal fees for investigations that never resulted in criminal charges.[31] In August 2020, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis was investigated by her public corruption unit or the unauthorized storage of art, and was later cleared by a grand jury.[39][40] Ellis was a strong advocate for misdemeanor bail reform and critical of Ogg's late opposition to the settlement.[31][30]

A Harris County grand jury indicted three senior advisors to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo in April 2022 on two public corruption felonies each. The charges, each first-degree felonies, involved allegedly steering an $11 million COVID vaccine outreach campaign to a one-person consulting firm owned by a Democratic strategist. The Texas Rangers investigated the cases. All three charges were eventually dismissed after a review of the evidence by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. [41]

In December 2023, Kim Ogg was admonished by the local Democratic Party,[42] which alleged she "abused the power of her office to pursue personal vendettas against her political opponents, sided with Republicans to advance their extremist agenda, and stood in the way of fixing the broken criminal justice system."[43] She was defeated in the following March primary in a landslide.[44]

In August 2024, Ogg endorsed incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz against Democratic nominee and Congressman for Texas's 32nd congressional district Colin Allred.[45] She was later featured in an advertisement for Cruz.

In September 2024, Ogg appeared at a political gathering which urged citizens of the Greater Houston Area to "Vote Republican Judges."[46] Earlier that month, she appeared before the Kingwood Tea Party where she criticized several prominent Democrats for intentionally allowing crime to increase to conceal public corruption, adding that she believes those Democrats were allowing a "social experiment" that adversely impacts public safety.[47]

Fun fact, Kingwood is having one of those NoKing.org meetups to get graphic design materials and instructions to get paid protesting opportunities, probably. When we had our last protest and had to board up, NONE of the arrests were local. Not a single one. Anyway.

Kingwood is a very nice neighborhood and very affluent. Same for Sugarland. The only poor one that I saw on the map was over towards a Highway 290 Walmart. I know for a fact that a lot of immigrants are in that area and they sit around the local shops looking for jos, but it's right there between the poor and somewhat disgruntled part of Houston (a lot of Katrina refugees and other migrants live in or near this area) and also the richest. Much of the area and all of West Houston south of 290 below the NW section.