Oakland, California: City Of Refuge

[dgridley]

Oakland city officials today announced two new resolutions condemning recent federal immigration raids and formalizing the city's intention not to cooperate with the U.S. government effort to deport undocumented residents.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/25/BAGDNPFGV213.DTL

"Immigration is the Civil Rights issue of our time," Dellums said. "In order to realize the Model City vision, we must treat everyone fairly and humanely. It is not appropriate policy to intimidate and harm people that are already here. There are millions of immigrants in this country and we must approach this issue with enlightened and compassionate immigration policy."

Nationally, at least 20 other cities have ordinances restricting cooperation with the federal government on immigration while at least 80 cities and towns have laws designed to discourage illegal immigrants.

Tucker said the federal government currently does not seek police assistance on immigration raids and that local cops are not "in the business" of enforcing federal immigration law and are "too busy" fighting crime. But he added that police would still cooperate with the federal government on any "investigation of criminal conduct within the city limits of Oakland."

Both Tucker and De La Fuente also said that for police to get help from illegal immigrants in solving violent crimes, it is important to emphasize that Oakland officials will not report the immigration status of a crime witness or victim.

Quan noted that her great-grandfather was allowed to come to the this country to work but was not allowed to apply for citizenship. She said it is important not to repeat the mistakes of past generations. She said that immigration raids break up families because many children born here have parents who are here illegally.

"Children are unwitting victims of these immigration raids," Quan said. "Many Oakland families are afraid to send their children to school, and the children of those detained or arrested during raids become separated from their caretakers."

Anxious to see how this plays out both politically and in the media...

 

[Fewski]

They are here Illegaly.
If I do something Illegal, I would get arrested or some sort of punishment.

Why should they be treated different if they are breaking the law? It's alright for them to break the law, but not the citizens who actually pay taxes?

 

[commes]

Man i think it sure would suck if your children are legal, but you are not. Then you get split up from them and risk not seeing them again and everything. Besides, where would you go if you were caught as an illegal immigrant. Would you go back to the place you fled from, or would you go elsewhere?

 

[dgridley]

I understand you're point, of course, and I tend to agree, but I think it's become an issue that's not nearly so black and white anymore..

I've been reading about the 9th Amendment lately and "unenumerated rights".. are illegal aliens perhaps protected under the 9th Amendment? Is this one of the unenumerated tights the Founding Fathers had no way of forseeing specifically but intended to protect anyway?

And does the city or state government have a real obligation to investigate and enforce federal laws? I'd tend to think not in some cases as I'd rather see the ability of local governments preserved to act independently of federal rule if need be.

They are here Illegaly.
If I do something Illegal, I would get arrested or some sort of punishment.

Why should they be treated different if they are breaking the law? It's alright for them to break the law, but not the citizens who actually pay taxes?