Published on: Thursday, August 04, 2011

To the editor;

Could anything better highlight the general lack of respect for Montgomery County taxpayers than County Executive Ike Leggett's upcoming 66 person junket to El Salvador?  After county and state budget sessions which raised my taxes, tolls and other fees, decreased services, cut government workers, teachers, fireman and police and did little to eliminate the growing county/state structural budget deficits, how dare our politicians waste more taxpayer funds.

Why visit El Salvador?  While Salvadorans make up a disproportionate amount of the county's Hispanic population, including the largest segment of illegal immigrants, MS-13 gang members and incarcerated inmates, there is not much in common between both “sister regions”.  The MontCo median family annual income is about $92 thousand; El Salvador less than $8 thousand, so expanded business development is not a plausible explanation.  Pressure from CASA (Central American Solidarity Association) of Maryland, to further legitimize their role in bringing in increased numbers of Hispanic, especially El Salvadoran, illegal immigrants in MontCo is behind this.  So are two former CASA board members who are part of the delegation - State Delegate Ana Sol Guiterrez (D-MontCo), born in El Salvador and MontCo Councilman George Leventhal (D).  

Despite protests of no taxpayer funds involved, Montgomery County staff, managed by Bruce Adams director of Community Partnerships, invested much time and effort in planning this "working vacation".  Adams is yet another former county council member and now a highly paid ($175K) retread on Leggett's team like former councilman Mike Subin.  Seems Adams went to El Salvador in 2010, and then returned to establish a MontCo bank with a non-profit Salvadoran organization to help transmit money back to El Salvador. Adams calls it a “complete win-win-win”.  I call it aiding and abetting dollar transfers from Salvadoran illegal immigrant workers and MS-13 gang members who could not legally use traditional banks for such activities.

My favorite excuse for this boondoggle goes to Karla Silvestre, Latino Liaison, Office of Community Partnerships. Silvestre actually wants to learn why people continue to leave El Salvador.  Unlike most MontCo citizens, it has not dawned on Silvestre that offering illegal immigrants free day laborer job centers, banking privileges, free non-emergency healthcare, dental, prescription drugs, free K-12 education, in-state tuition, limited law enforcement and taxpayer funded welcoming groups like CASA actually is incentive to leave their homeland for Maryland.     

What is needed is not a taxpayer funded vacation to El Salvador, but instead Inspector General investigations of the MontCo Office of Community Partnerships and CASA of Maryland.

B. Botwin, Director

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