Three West Coast mayors are asking the leaders of other cities to take a stand against workplace immigration raids that they say hurt local economies and may force companies to relocate.
At the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors this week in Miami, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will ask their colleagues to challenge how the government raids businesses in search of illegal workers.
They want Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to focus on businesses that exploit workers, such as those that violate wage and safety laws, not “responsible employers” that contribute to economies, their resolution says.
“We’ve never taken the position that you shouldn’t enforce the law,” Villaraigosa says. “What we’ve said is, in a time of limited resources, we should prioritize our enforcement. At a time when we don’t have the resources to go after criminals, we’re going after legitimate businesses and workers instead. That doesn’t make sense.”
The resolution will be discussed by a committee Saturday and, if approved, will go to all the mayors for a vote Monday.
Supreme Court eases rules for ‘Illegals’
Supreme Court eases rules for foreigners with expired visas to try to stay in US.
The AP reports that the Supreme Court has issued a ruling that will make it easier for foreigners who overstay their visas to stay in the U.S. legally.
The 5-4 ruling allows “someone who is here illegally may withdraw his voluntarily agreement to depart and continue to try to get approval to remain in the United States.”
Arizona Wants Labor – Not Laborers
Again, if this wasn’t so sad it would be funny. Arizona is looking at ways to get workers from Mexico into the United States to aid their industries, agriculture, steel, travel/tourism etc… Radical idea here folks require those that are already here to become legal and offer them a path! Then we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot by damaging our commercial, residential real estate markets, protect businesses and productivity, and stop the non-sense of kicking them out before we have to invite them back.
Stewart Distances Himself from FAIR
According to Chairman Stewart, he supports more legal immigration both in skilled and unskilled areas. Additionally that Stewart acknowledges that there is a national immigration problem and not solely in the area of enforcement is a step in the right direction. The fact that our immigration policy is reviewed about once a decade indicates there’s a problem. We have fluctuating job markets that need addressing from year to year. Consider, how could a policy implemented during the ‘dot-com’ bubble still be relevant today? That immigration policies aren’t reviewed more frequently is a big part of the problem.
I would however strongly disagree that the undocumented are any more likely to commit crimes than the average citizen. Of course, one inevitably will point to the 20% housed in the local jail as ‘evidence’ that this is the case. However, those statistics were compiled after they have begun detaining ‘illegals’ so using those numbers present an inaccurate picture.
And just to be accurate, Federation for American Immigration Reform(FAIR) has be named a HATE GROUP and the President of Help Save Manassas – Greg Letiecq has been named a NATIVIST.
