Posted on 05/14/2007 7:35:57 PM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
It was a great idea in 1985, when former New York Mayor Ed Koch issued an executive order forbidding city employees from reporting illegal immigrants to federal authorities.
But in 1996, the year when new laws turn municipal workers into spies for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it is a daring, commendable act of defiance by the Jersey City Council against the anti-immigrant forces that have driven this country into a needless state of paranoia.
Last Wednesday, the council passed a resolution declaring Jersey City a"safe haven"for all immigrants, legal or otherwise. It declared that"no municipal resources will be used to identify, persecute, apprehend, or deport any non-citizen resident, and called on the federal government"to address this problem with more humanity."
Two days later, as if not to be left behind, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has upheld Koch's executive order, took it one step further. He filed a lawsuit against the federal government, challenging provisions of the new welfare and immigration laws that call for city employees to blow the whistle on illegal immigrants who seek police protection, health care, or other services. He called the provisions unconstitutional, a violation of the 10th Amendment, which gives states those powers not expressly delegated to the federal government.
Giuliani said the city's estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants, fearing city workers would report them to immigration agents, would stop reporting crimes and seeking treatment for contagious diseases. He said the power to protect people's health and safety"is uniquely granted by the Constitution to state and local governments."
The potential "draconian impact"on the lives of immigrants and even American citizens who may be the victims of unreported crimes and contagious diseases is what motivated Jersey City Councilman Jaime Vazquez to introduce the safe-haven resolution.
"In Jersey City, we have over 70 different ethnic groups," Vazquez said."It's a city of immigrants. It's un-American to have people living in fear because some social worker is going to report them to immigration. That's almost Gestapo-ish. Some people say that's an extreme comparison. OK, maybe. But the Nazis started somewhere."
His resolution says the current anti-immigrant movement is beginning to resemble the actions of the early Nazi regime, which blamed all of Germany's economic and socio-political problems on immigrants.
"Somebody has to draw the line and say we're not going to accept this anymore,"Vazquez said."It started with the issue of illegal aliens, which had some merits, but now it has spilled over to legal residents, who are going to lose food stamps and other benefits."
Vazquez said he'll now urge Jersey City to join the New York lawsuit, and Giuliani has said he will welcome co-plaintiffs.
At a large rally of Latinos in Washington on Saturday, Vazquez encouraged activists from other parts of the country to follow the lead of New York and Jersey City.
"It's a shame that we have to do it city by city,"he said, "because the entire United States should be a safe haven for the world, which is the image that we've had throughout our history."He said he favors controlling illegal immigration at the borders, and by tracking down tourists who overstay their visas. But he believes amnesty should be granted to those who are already here, except for convicted criminals.
"It's doesn't bother me if they send the criminals back,"he said.
"But honest, hard-working people should be given an opportunity to become citizens.
"I recognize that throughout history, whenever we've had waves of immigration, whether it was from Italy, Ireland, or Poland, there were always people who said, Close the door. There were always people who said, They're taking our jobs. There were always people who said, There is no room in this country for any more people. As far as I'm concerned, those are just excuses. I think we have to continue to remind people that this is a nation of immigrants."
Another one for the Giuliani Truth File.
Did you hear him on Hannity today, giving lip service to a fence, and supposedly backing enforcement? It is so obvious he’s saying these things in order to dupe the conservative base.
Hannity no better— lobbing big arcing softballs and prompting Rooty when he didn’t hit all the talking points he needed. What a butt-kisser.
Wretched little worm.
Best I can tell, only Hunter says NO to all forms of Amnesty/Citizenship for those already here as well. Maybe tancredo too.
" "But honest, hard-working people should be given an opportunity to become citizens."
Honest people don't lie and obtain fraudulent papers and SS numbers.
Only those who came here legally should be in line for citizenship. The rest can go back or live in limbo.
sw
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20682
Radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham last week asked Giuliani about the immigration policies he supported in New York City. She asked, “Are you still standing behind your sanctuary city policy?”
Giuliani told her, “I never supported a sanctuary policy.”
That’s two bald-faced lies by Rudy, if you include him blaming Heuer for siting the ECC in WTC7 yesterday on Fox News Sunday.
Rudy needs to withdraw.
If the report is true, this is outrageous.
Albany Rips Rudy's Immigrant Funds
Giuliani Criticizes a U.S. Crackdown on Illegal Aliens
Having LexisNexis for free is a nifty college perk.
If Rudy had run in the democratic primaries he probably would have won. Conservatives are not going to buy what he’s selling.
Quite the parsing routine there, Rudy. This guy reminds me more and more of Bill Clinton with each passing day.
IT ... IS ... PARSING. The federal law stated that known immigration violators should be reported to the feds. Rudy filed a lawsuit to try and block that policy. And lost. Yet kept the sanctuary city status anyway.
And Bush is just as wrong as he is.
Did Rudy say he favored a “highly technological” fence (i.e., no fence at all) or did he have a different formulation?
Cameras. Lots of cameras to ID those who came over, according to his interview on H&C some time ago.
No mention of an actual, physical fence, IIRC.
Now that I recall it, he did just call for a tech fence. Man, what a slippery snake! And of course Hannity ate it RIGHT up.
Great. With President Rudy we’ll at least have some grainy photos of masked Al-Qaida terrorists flipping us the bird as they infiltrate our country.
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