Freedom Folks: Of Course Either Way...

He's still an illegal fellating prick!

Turns out our boy has some unsavory bedfellows...

Latino liaison anticipates challenges

As the new Latino liaison to County Executive Jack Johnson, William Campos anticipates involvement in complex social issues: a potential day laborer hiring site, education failures in the Latino community and street vending in Langley Park.

Campos, 28, knows it won't be easy, but he says his job's very existence is symbolic.

"The fact that I'm in this position itself should show that [Jack Johnson] understands the importance of Latinos," he said. "This position has been vacant for six years."

CASA of Maryland Executive Director Gustavo Torres, who served on Johnson's transition team, said Campos' hiring completes a pledge.

"The county executive has delivered his commitment [to] the Latino community. He promised to have a Latino liaison, and it's exactly what he is doing," Torres said. "We are very excited about William Campos."

Born in San Salvador, Campos grew up in Mount Rainier and attended Thomas Stone Elementary, Hyattsville Middle and Eleanor Roosevelt High schools. His undergraduate studies were at the University of Maryland.

After a yearlong stint as an educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, he returned to the county.

Campos became interested in the liaison position while working on the campaign of his childhood friend, state Del. Victor Ramirez (D-Dist. 47) of Mount Rainier.

Ramirez praised Johnson's choice. "It shows that kids that grew up in
Prince George's County can do something. It shows that we can take
care of our own," he said.

Campos considers his many years in the county as his most important job qualification. As more foreign-born children grow up in the county, he said, "that's a new culture added, created in the region. ... That's what I am and that's what a lot of these people are."

He said one of his challenges will be "trying to get people to be as bilingual as possible and understand American culture."

Campos called the situation of day laborers who wait for work in parking lots on the corner of University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue a "huge" issue. He said he intends to develop a site plan with CASA, an immigrant service and advocacy organization, which has been pushing for an official hiring site in the county. Former County Executive Wayne Curry balked at the idea, but Johnson has promised
to consider it. Campos wants the site to include social services such as English lessons.

He also said he would work with CASA and the County Council to address vendors who sell Central American food illegally in the Langley Park area.

"The vendors are residents as much as the rest of the people that live
in the community," he said.

He said he also intends to explore why Latino students aren't doing as well in the county's school system as their U.S.-born peers.

In the meantime, he has been meeting with local leaders, attending meetings and introducing himself to the Latino community.

"Right now we have to let the community know that this position exists, that the community does have their voice back in the government," he said.