Posted on 06/01/2007 1:38:48 PM PDT by Osage Orange
Is Tulsa a haven for illegal immigrants?
By Josh Rabe
Staff Writer
TULSA — U.S. Rep. John Sullivan called his Tulsa congressional district a haven for illegal immigrants Thursday and renewed calls for police to work more closely with federal immigration officials.
Sullivan said the immigration problem in Tulsa appears to be worse than he once thought. He spent Wednesday night touring areas where police said large numbers of illegal immigrants live. Sullivan rode with Tulsa police Wednesday to learn more about the type of crimes police deal with every day among the illegal immigrant population.
"The city is crying out to enforce immigration laws,” Sullivan said. "We need to change the hands-off policy in dealing with illegal immigration.”
Sullivan, R-Tulsa, met Thursday with federal immigration officials, local law enforcement and city officials to discuss what he considers a lack of enforcement of immigration laws in Tulsa.
A resolution passed by Tulsa's city council last week would make the city the first in the state to ask local law enforcement to tackle federal immigration laws. Mayor Kathy Taylor hasn't signed the resolution yet.
A bill by state legislators, signed into law recently by Gov. Brad Henry, will require jailers to check the legal status of all immigrants who are arrested, but the change won't take effect until November.
Tulsa's nonbinding resolution would do much the same thing.
Sullivan and two other members of the state's congressional delegation, U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, got involved in the debate last week, urging the city to check the legal status of anyone police encounter.
The resolution asks police to change their arrest procedures to include the immigration check. Taylor ultimately will decide whether or not to make that policy change, said her spokeswoman, Sheryl Lovelady.
Opponents fear checking the legal status of people arrested for misdemeanor violations like traffic offenses will lead to racial profiling of the city's Hispanic population. Lovelady said Taylor doesn't support the provision for misdemeanor arrests.
"We're not talking about rounding people up,” Sullivan said.
"We are talking about the criminal illegal alien population.”
Sullivan hopes more police contact with immigration officials will lead to more accurate numbers of illegal immigrants in the Tulsa area. According to some estimates, there are as many as 40,000 illegal immigrants in Tulsa, he said.
Sullivan said he wants U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to establish a local presence in Tulsa, and the agency will be more likely to do so if it knows how many people in the area aren't legal residents.
Jason Willingham, a Tulsa police officer who rode with Sullivan, said the congressman seemed interested in the problems facing his police department and asked a lot of questions.
"He's got an open ear and he seems to be willing to help us,” Willingham said. "He seemed genuinely concerned with the job our officers do on a daily basis.”
I'm a transplanted Calif. native.....And I laugh sarcastic as you obviously do..at the "outrage" now here in Okla.
I saw it frickin' 20 years ago in Kali,......I voted for Prop 187...and it got overturned and rammed down our throats. Did the rest of the country notice. Nope.
It was the NIMBY syndrome...alive and well then.....
Well then is now NOW...and folks all over the country are ranting.
So rant away...but don't rant at me personally.
FRegards,
See what....a 3rd worldish swap-meet bizarre?
You ain't far.............
Some might say that of Columbia....
A quote from Hillary Clinton:
” we are going to take things from you for the common good”
(also a direct quote from Adolph Hitler).
Is she as grossly incompetent and narcissistic as Susan Savage was?
Worse.........
The mayor and a group of developers were trying to get the taxpayers to foot the bill for converting a bunch of old warehouses into trendy $30 a plate posh restaurant/clubs that most Tulsans would never go to. They claimed that somehow these expensive clubs would make suburbanites from Broken Arrow and Sand Springs flock to Tulsa metro to spend money (in a six dollar parking space while doing a gotta pee dance).
Sorry to hear it's the same place it was.
I wish we had Mr. Inhofe as one of our Georgia Senators now!
What a shame, I lived in Tulsa in the laste 60’s early 70’s when I was a kid. Learned to play golf there, learned to play football there....used to be a fantastic town...just a shame
Interesting legislation....how much support is it getting?
Bttt!
Didn’t mean to rant at you personally...I always just respond to the “last post” — maybe when I mean a general post to all who may read (even some liberal “dipwad” who wanders in) I should just post “To all liberal dipwads who haven’t gotten it yet?” ;-D
Grab your ankles - - the entire country might soon become, “a haven for illegal immigrants”.
Uhhh ... Check your map. Tulsa is in Oklahoma ... and Oklahoma is part of the southwest.
Get a grip, I didn’t say it WAS in the southwest. I was merely pointing out that in California, which IS in the southwest, along with Az. and other states, we have been bitching for years...and people OUTSIDE of the southwest (like, ya know, Oklahoma) often times turned up their noses with “well, we don’t have them here, that’s YOUR problem” - well yeah, you didn’t care when we reported the southwest infested with people, now that they are seeping into every corner of American, now the REST of you “get it.” Notice how there’s a period BEFORE my sentence that starts “In the southwest....” You see “in the southwest” is a subordinate clause to the sentence it’s in. It didn’t go with the previous sentence. Learn to read.
If the Senate bill becomes law all those illegals will suddenly turn legal and get to stay. Won’t that be wonderful?
Seattle, too.
This is happening in hundreds of cities all across America!!
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