The opinions in this op\/ed are mine alone, and have nothing to do with my official capacity as a member of Luzerne County Council or any other body with which I am associated.<\/p>\n
Some so-called Republican Party leaders think the people of Luzerne County are gullible enough to believe whatever nonsense they put in front of us.<\/p>\n
Recently, opponents of a county non-discrimination ordinance have resorted to the oldest trick in politics: if you can\u2019t beat the facts, make things up. They\u2019ve claimed the ordinance somehow protects illegal aliens. It doesn\u2019t. They\u2019ve claimed it creates dangerous loopholes. It doesn\u2019t. They\u2019ve wrapped themselves in fear and outrage because they don\u2019t have a legitimate argument to make. They should just say they want to repeal the ordinance, because they don\u2019t like it, but I suppose they\u2019d have to figure out a reason why they don\u2019t like it \u00a0and they haven\u2019t been able to articulate a reason without lying to all of us.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll address the latest lie that the ordinance \u201cprotects illegal aliens.\u201d Here is what the non-discrimination ordinance actually says.<\/p>\n
Citizenship status is specially defined in the definitions section of the ordinance.\u00a0 On the second nd page of the ordinance, it explicitly defines the class:<\/p>\n
\u201c201.6 National origin or citizenship status- Individuals protected by Section 1324b of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. \u00a71324b.\u201d<\/p>\n
1324b includes:<\/p>\n
U.S. citizens who are legal to work
\nLawful Permanent Residents (green card holders) (subject to certain conditions) who are legal to work
\nRefugees who are legal to work
\nAsylees who are legal to work
\nSome other individuals who are legally authorized to work in the United States<\/p>\n
1342b was designed to balance two goals:<\/p>\n
Prevent employers from hiring unauthorized workers.
\nPrevent employers from refusing to hire people who are legally authorized to work simply because they are immigrants or because of their national origin.<\/p>\n
The Republicans that are playing this game with you think you\u2019ll take them at their word, so they lie to you and gamble that you won\u2019t look up the facts. They weren\u2019t betting on me showing up to look the facts up for you. Now you know about their lies.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the truth. Some Republicans have become weak and desperate for a political victory, and they\u2019ve abandoned leadership altogether. They\u2019ve substituted facts with fiction, arguments with accusations, and leadership with lying.<\/p>\n
What should offend every resident of this county is the assumption behind the lies \u2014 they think that we\u2019re stupid.<\/p>\n
The people of Luzerne County are not fools. We\u2019re tough. We\u2019re practical. We work hard. We know how to separate reality from political theater. And voters have been noticing. There is a reason Republicans keep coming up short in countywide elections. Instead of reflecting on why they aren\u2019t connecting with voters, they\u2019ve been\u00a0doubling down on their idiotic distraction agenda.<\/p>\n
Luzerne County deserves better than scare tactics and manufactured outrage. We deserve leaders willing to tell the truth even when it\u2019s inconvenient. We deserve elected officials who respect voters enough to make honest arguments instead of relying on lies. Most importantly, we deserve leaders who understand that the people of this county are capable of thinking for themselves. The Republican Party of Luzerne County isn\u2019t sending its best people to lead, and now we have to listen to its idiot mouthpieces attempt to indoctrinate us with their lies.<\/p>\n
The next time someone tries to frighten you with claims that don\u2019t survive even the most basic common sense, remember what they\u2019re really saying. They\u2019re saying they don\u2019t think you know any better.<\/p>\n
I do.<\/p>\n
And I think most people in Luzerne County do, too.<\/p>\n
Chris Belles is a member of the Luzerne County Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The opinions in this op\/ed are mine alone, and have nothing to do with my official capacity as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[803,1559,1560,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-223333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-luzerne-county","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}