Sancutary for whom?
By John Horgan
Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 9:56 am in Uncategorized.
People of faith have a problem. And so does anyone else who cares. A number of mainline churches, especially those of the Catholic and Protestant persuasion, are pursuing a policy that is directly at odds with a significant portion of the American citizenry. The churches’ advocacy of the so-called sanctuary movement is nothing more than an outright slap in the face to U.S. taxpayers. San Mateo County has its own version of this syndrome. Pressure on local authorities to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials is growing. Church people and other activists are in the vanguard of this misguided effort. By offering illegal immigrants in danger of deportation protection and assistance, the churches are not just flouting the law. They are putting society at risk. And that includes immigrant communities. Those targeted for deportation are in serious violation of immigration rules. Often, their related offenses are criminal in nature. So what we have are churches attempting to give aid and comfort to individuals who, in some cases, are potentially dangerous. One argument is that deportation would separate families. Not so. Their families can return to their countries of origin with them. It’s a matter of choice, right from the moment the illegal immigrant decided to come to these shores. At some point, the impact of illegal immigration on the county’s systems of public education, health care, social services and law enforcement is going to hit critical mass. The sanctuary movement is helping to hasten that day. If the churches want open borders, no rules and absolute carte blanche for any and all unfortunates from all over the world, so be it. They just should get it all out on the table and admit it.
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July 27th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Some of the newspaper articles reporting on the San Mateo County Sheriff’s comments to a mostly Hispanic crowd that local law enforcement wouldn’t target anyone for their immigration status were headlined with the words ICE raids. I went to the Redwood City Council meeting on Monday, the 23rd, to comment. Here is my speech.
There’s been a lot of media attention given to the plight of illegal immigrant because of what has erroneously been labeled ICE RAIDS or Sweeps. Has anyone in this room seen an ICE RAID? Well, maybe because you live right but according to a local Immigration and Customs agent there hasn’t been a “raid” in 10 to 15 years. ICE doesn’t have the manpower or resources to conduct mass roundups. ICE has a set of priorities to maximize the safety of all citizens. They are not interested in the street corner day laborer. They target felons and chronic visa violators. The ICE website indicates that they are interested in enforcing the law against gangs, child exploitation, human trafficking, securing the borders, worksite enforcement, and more.
On their website is the picture of a felon, Luis Albeira Pena~Pena, wanted for cocaine trafficking, money laundering, and kidnapping an ICE agent. Now if this person was caught in a house in Redwood City everyone in the house would be suspected of harboring a criminal-of aiding and abetting this dangerous person. The police would have failed in their duty if they didn’t check out all the people in the house. If they found a person with a warrant for a traffic ticket that person should be arrested. ICE checks out all associates of known criminals and if the friends and family are illegal or undocumented persons they are deported as a by product of the felony arrest.
The county Sheriff and our own police chief have vowed to not ask for the citizenship status of anyone unless they have committed a crime. I feel that if our top law enforcement officials are unable to recognize and enforce federal law they should be replaced.
At the same time I caution you to be aware of inflammatory reporting and the outright deception and lies of the open border crowd.
That ends the speech I presented to the City Council. However I would like to add that I attended a meeting given in Spanish to approximately 150 Hispanics who were taught their rights by an immigration lawyer who demonstrated to them how to hinder a police investigation by not volunteering any information. After an hour went by the Chief of Police of Redwood City stood up and asked for a show of hands from anyone who was from El Salvador or Mexico. About 75% of the people raised their hands. The Chief pointed his finger at the crowd and said.”You failed the test. We told you not to tell” We need a new set of high level law
enforcement officers for our own good. The street level police are good by the way.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:04 am
There is a lot of pandering going on in these parts. But, from all indications, local law enforcement officials are, indeed, doing their jobs when it comes to such matters as reasonable searches, assistance with outside agencies and the general tracking down of suspected felons, probation-violators, etc. I agree that too many top cops and politicians continue to parrot the desires of the open-border folks. But, in the end, San Mateo County does not appear to be a wide open, anything-goes territory when it comes to law-breakers, regardless of their immigration status.