October 25, 2008 Democrat Scowls At His Former City's Mayor As Anti-Sanctuary Lawsuit ReinstatedSanctuary, sanctuary, sanctuary—a concept when used by city governments to not enforce our immigration laws really burns us all. Our late, wonderful San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen used to call SF "Bagdad by the Bay", meaning I presumed "a wild Casbah of mixed-up liberals". The craziest mixed-up liberal of them all on immigration policy is Mayor Gavin Newsom. You might want to romp through his bio on Wikipedia. [As of October 25, 2008]Makes fun reading, including his personal life story and his marital gyrations. As a Democrat, and a long-time However, as Wikipedia reports, [As of October 25, 2008]
"On April 23, 2007, Newsom again drew national attention when he
announced at a community action held by the
San Francisco Organizing Project that he would do
everything he could to discourage federal authorities
from conducting immigration raids.
" ‘Our action is to stand strong in opposition to these
raids... to make sure that we are not contributing
in any way, shape or form,’
Newsom said. ‘Even legal immigrants are fearful.
This just sends a chill to a lot of people. There are a
lot of cities that want these raids. That's where the
federal government should be spending their time.’
"Newsom supported
city identification cards for illegal immigrants in
2007 to allow them access to city services and to be
able to set up bank accounts in the city. In April 2008,
San Francisco undertook a
$83,000 advertisement campaign to inform city
residents that San Francisco is a sanctuary city as part
of the identification card program. In July 2008,
following the
high profile murder of a local father and his two sons
by a previously arrested illegal immigrant, as reported
on CNN, Newsom announced that San Francisco would change
its policy of shielding illegal immigrants who had
committed other crimes and that San Francisco would
begin to cooperate with the federal government in that
regard. However, the city remains a sanctuary for
illegal immigrants."
[VDARE.COM note:
links added] Wow—take no action until some illegal aliens murder someone… Looking at sanctuary for illegal aliens that way is nutty, Mr. Mayor. You really got this issue wrong, wrong, wrong, as any sanctuary city policy is. ID cards for illegal aliens, access to taxpayer-funded services, leaving felons loose to murder citizens…in the latter case I guess you finally got wiser, but are still not really correcting of your loose cannon iimmigration views. The bright spot, however, is that
you got sued. A sensible SF citizen (there is at least
one besides me) filed a taxpayer lawsuit which accused However, a Superior Court Judge, in
a kooky ruling , dismissed the suit last year, saying
the We citizens should therefore be delighted with the decision by the First District Court of Appeal which has just disagreed. Its rationale is odd–it said the law, though it might affect immigration, is based on the state's legal authority to combat drug trafficking. But it serves the purpose As the October 23rd SF Chronicle article notes,
"The 3-0 ruling allows opponents of The Chronicle then quotes a co-plaintiff:
"This decision strikes at the heart of the sanctuary movement," said
Tom
Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative
group that joined the lawsuit after it was dismissed.
The court did not look into the city's reporting
practices, which will be considered later in the case,
but Fitton said he has "little doubt that It's a start, folks. This attitude that our Federal government can't get help on apprehending illegal aliens in sanctuary cities needs to be given a terminal whack on the head—which should include withdrawal of federal funding for any city that so opts, just like the enforcing of speed limits on states for federal highway funds. Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a board member of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own. |
