Folwell to run for lieutenant governor

UPDATE: The NC Dream Team weighs in.

ORIGINAL POST: Dale Folwell, a longtime Republican state lawmaker from Winston-Salem who currently serves as speaker pro tem in the NC House, announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor during a press conference this morning at the Forsyth County Republican Party headquarters.

Forsyth County Sheriff Bill Schatzman, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Superintendent Don Martin and school board member Jeannie Metcalf and other supporters sat behind him.

“We’re going to be launching this campaign by talking about fixing problems,” Folwell said. “If I hear one more speech about what the problems are without a solution I think I’m going to throw up. People want their problems fixed. They don’t care how it’s done; they just want their problems fixed.

“We’re at a tipping point where we’re either going to repair what we have in North Carolina or we’re going to lose it,” Folwell added, “and I want to be part of repairing it.”

The announcement featured remarks from supporters about bills sponsored by Folwell that were signed into law and helped them address problems, including legislation that capped compensation benefits to reduce burdens on business owners, legislation that allows school districts to find out when a prospective employee has been recommended for termination in another system and legislation that provides for the forfeiture of vehicles when a criminal defendant attempts to elude arrest by speeding.

Counterbalancing his message of promoting practical solutions, Folwell espoused hard-line conservative positions on same-sex marriage and illegal immigration — stances that might alienate mainstream voters in the general election.

Folwell is a sponsor of a bill to place a referendum on the ballot in May that would amend the state constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. He said he supports the ballot measure because he believes voters rather than lawmakers and judges should be the ones to decide such an important issue.

“The marriage amendment is something that people run on and apply for these jobs every two years,” he said. “It’s going to be settled. No longer is anyone going to be able to apply for a job or run on the fact that this is the cornerstone of their platform. I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and I intend to vote that way. But the bottom line is this: We need to get things like this off our plate so that we can concentrate on bigger issues that we have found somehow to be unwilling to concentrate on.”

Folwell said the 2000s has been “a lost decade in North Carolina” for jobs, family values and illegal immigration.

“Every state that borders us is clamping down on illegal immigration,” he said. “So whatever magnet we had — which I think was a very strong magnet for illegal immigration in North Carolina — when somebody else turns their magnet down lower, ours gets stronger. We need to make sure that in terms of illegal immigration laws that we need to have the strongest illegal immigration laws in the Southeast.”

In what is expected to be a polarizing election, Folwell indicated he’s not afraid to take strong stands.

“I completely disagree with the national press who says they want us to all get along,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anybody in this room who really cares if I get along with anybody. You really don’t care about my bedside manner. You want your problems fixed.”

Human smuggling and human trafficking bills before NC legislature

Two bills currently before the NC General Assembly tackle the related but different phenomena of human smuggling and human trafficking.

Create Crime of Smuggling Human beings, sponsored by Rep. Curtis Blackwood (R-Union) and cosponsored by Rep. Dale Folwell (R-Forsyth), would make it “unlawful for a person to engage in the smuggling of human beings for profit or commercial purpose,” with “smuggling of human beings” meaning “the transportation, or procurement of transportation, by a person or entity that knows or has reason to know that the persons transported, or to be transported, are not United States citizens, permanent resident aliens, or persons who are otherwise lawfully present in the United States.”

Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes told a predominantly Latino audience at an April 1 forum in Greensboro: “This law is too vague, and I personally don’t think they’ll end up getting it passed. I, for one, am not an advocate for a bunch of more laws.” He added later: “I will definitely be calling [legislators] tomorrow to tell them not to [approve the bill]”

Greensboro police Chief Tim Bellamy added, “I think it’s very broad. I would be scared of the police because it’s going to give some police the idea that every time a truck or van goes down the road to stop it and say, ‘Let’s detain someone and question them.’ I have a lot of issues with this legislation.”

The critical difference between smuggling and trafficking persons has to do with consent.

The Justice Department defines human smuggling as “the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person(s) across an international border, in violation of one or more countries’ laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents.” A section.” A 2005 Justice Department report adds that “human smuggling is generally with the consent of the person(s) being smuggled, who often pay large sums of money” and that “the vast majority of people who are assisted in illegally entering the United States are smuggled, rather than trafficked.”

In contrast, the United Nations defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

The NC Human Trafficking Commission bill sponsored by Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird (D-Orange) serves an entirely different purpose and addresses a different issue.

The bill would create a state commission to, among other things, “explore the specific ways trafficking is occurring in North Carolina and the links to international and domestic trafficking” and “to contribute to efforts to inform and educate law enforcement personnel, social service providers, and the general public about trafficking so that traffickers can be prosecuted and victim-survivors can receive appropriate services.”

Cosponsors from the Guilford County delegation include Sen. Katie Dorsett and Sen. Don Vaughan, both Democrats, and Sen. Stan Bingham, a Republican.

More on this from Ben Holder, AKA Troublemaker.