Candidate for District 1 Supervisor At It Again

Manuela (Paloma) Aguirre is a candidate for District 1 Supervisor in a race against Chula Vista Mayor, John McCann.

In an online post, she recently wrote that she stood in solidarity with SEIU. Who is that?

SEIU is the Service Employees International Union and stands 2 million members strong. According to the SEIU website: the members "save lives, care for the sick, help seniors and people with disabilities live independently, educate children, and keep our communities clean, safe, and healthy. We work in a wide variety of settings including hospitals and nursing homes, public schools, universities, airports, libraries, law enforcement, and commercial office buildings."

"No matter where we come from, the color of our skin, who we love, or how we worship, all of us work hard for our families. We know that by joining together, we have the power to win family-supporting jobs and make our communities better places to live and work. By sticking together in our union, we are winning higher pay, affordable healthcare, a secure retirement, paid time off, and many other improvements." —SEIU Website

I've worked a lot of different jobs in my life but don't remember ever seeing a blurb like this in any of my occupational documents. This one calls out family heritage, race, sexual preference and religion.

"We are also using our power in numbers to raise standards for everyone by fighting to expand access to affordable healthcare and leading the movement to win at least $15 an hour and a union for all working people. We are an organization of working people dedicated to improving our lives and our communities in ways that would be impossible on our own. Join us. Together we rise."—SEIU Website

I'm not sure why this Union is "fighting" for these issues, aren't these a given in the work world? Or is this an alternate universe that doesn't qualify for the usual employment rights?

So here's Ms. Aguirre's post:

Ms. Aguirre has been known to play a little loose on the facts. This has been evidenced on verbal attacks she has made in the past few weeks—on campaign opponent John McCann—which both turned out to be false. And if her followers don't fact check her words, they might believe what she is stating.

I think her statements about ICE being a rogue agency aren't exactly accurate. In the US government, ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Their job is to enforce the law and remove non-citizens here without the proper immigration papers.

Barack Obama's presidency holds the record for the most deportations, with data suggesting he formally removed 3 million non-citizens from the U.S. over his two terms. Enforcing American immigration laws is not a new concept. It's just that many people, from all over the world, relocated to the United States with Joe Biden's open border policies and that has become a problem.

Ms. Aguirre states "We cannot allow these attacks on the rule of law or our binational community." There's the hidden clue . . . binational community. She thinks we're picking on the Hispanic community. But the family restaurant she mentions in South Park was not about the Hispanic Community, it was about 19 Italian immigrants without papers being arrested.

Binational was one of former Supervisor Nora Vargas' favorite buzz words. And Ms. Vargas spent over $10M of money earmarked for District 1 communities on immigrant welcoming centers and immigrant support. Would this be Ms. Aguirre's cause if she were to be elected as our new Supervisor? Would she be a Nora 2.0?

In closing, Ms. Aguirre calls for her opponent to condemn "unlawful" ICE raids.

First of all, ICE raids do not fall under the responsibilities of the County. She can have her opinion but it should not enter into her workload should she become a Supervisor. Opponent John McCann is correct in staying out of it. It is a Federal Government issue, not a County issue.

Secondly, the raids are not unlawful. They are part of our law under the Department of Homeland Security. Yesterday, the Homeland Security website posted an article "DHS Sets the Record Straight on LA Riots, Condemns Violence Against Law Enforcement, Destruction of Property and Threats to ICE Agents."

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

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