Posted on 08/19/2008 5:06:57 AM PDT by raybbr
Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez signed an ordinance Monday that stops police from arresting or detaining anyone solely because of their immigration status.
The ordinance, passed last week by the city council, also prohibits other city employees from asking anyone seeking services about their immigration status.
Perez was previously lukewarm to the idea, maintaining that an order issued by Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts in March was adequate. It said that city police would not make immigration arrests unless there was also a criminal investigation.
In a letter to the city council, Perez also expressed concern about "codifying standards for internal police matters in the city code."
But whatever concerns he had were not enough to keep him from signing the ordinance. Once he had, Perez stressed that it would not affect how the city deals with potential criminals.
"Our obligation to comply with federal law has not changed," Perez said in a press release Monday. "The ordinance requires that the police notify federal authorities if an arrestee turns out to be undocumented. It also requires that city employees deny any federally funded services to illegal immigrants if required to do so under federal law."
City Councilman Luis Cotto, of the Working Families Party, introduced the bill and was surprised to hear from reporters that Perez had signed it.
That said, Cotto was pleased.
The new ordinance simply puts into the law what is already police procedure, Cotto said.
"We're just jumping on the side of saying, 'Hey, this is not our jurisdiction. Hartford has way too many things to worry about,'" Cotto said.
"If you are a law abiding resident of the City of Hartford, you should have no fear of reporting a crime to police and you should be able to utilize the city's services," he said. "People are here. We can't do anything about that."
ping
Let the word go out along the border: Connecticut welcomes all illegal aliens. TX and AZ may even expedite your passage.
Won’t take ‘em long to tear that city apart...
There ain’t much left to tear apart.
Hartford, New England’s Shooting Star.
Census Bureaus --Hartford, CT:
Speak a language other than English at home (population 5 years and over) 45.8%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race)--38.8%.
Hartford is more dangerous than Baghdad. It is a crime ridden community.
Probably just a coincidence that Hartford is a sanctuary city and has high crime stats.
Hartford has been finished for a long time. It’s time someone gave the eulogy and buried it.
Another racist politician comes out for criminals.
I guess it’s above their pay grade...
susie
I would love to see cities who decide not to enforce the law automatically get stripped of federal funding but that won’t happen.
Perez is just the point boy for Atzlan East.
ping
Why the heck is it that all these Americans with Hispanic surnames keep enacting and advocating for special privledges for illegal invaders - most of whom are Hispanic and no one notices it or takes them to task???
Put it another way - suppose white Americans started advocating more immigration slots for European immigrants to the U.S. What would the establishment media say about THAT???
Is these Hispanic Americans want to live in an Hispanic country, let them go the hell back where they or their ancestors came from and leave America an Anglo Country which it always was and should remain - THERE I SAID IT!!!
The elephant in the living room.
Hartford joined New Haven to help ILLEGALS in Connecticut. Rell do something!
Any bets on whether Mr Perez would've signed the bill if it were asians who were flooding into his town?
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