I don't ever post controversial posts but I read this article in our local paper and it really bothered me. I don't understand these "activists' logic. Anyone who comits ANY crime deserves to be punished.
Thousands expected at immigration rally in Santa Rosa
Thousands of Sonoma County immigrants, their children and their supporters are expected to participate in what has become a perennial springtime cry for a new federal law that would give millions of illegal immigrants a shot at legal residency.
The downtown Santa Rosa march, scheduled for noon Sunday, coincides with an immigration rally in Washington that is expected to draw tens of thousands of participants.
Organizers of the rally in Washington are drawing comparisons with the marches of 2006, which drew millions across the country, including a staggering 500,000 people in Los Angeles alone.
"We're expecting more than 70,000 so far, but I don't know how big its going to get to," said Shuya Ohno, a spokesman for Reform Immigration for America, the national umbrella group coordinating the Washington rally.
Expected participants in the Santa Rosa march are mobilized by the push for change, but also to protest a Sheriff's Office policy that calls for sending fingerprints of people arrested to the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
"In 2006, people remember how families took the street," Ohno said. "No one was hurt. Not a single window was broken. It was an unprecedented activity," he said. But while politicians took notice of the marches, immigration overhaul stalled, taking a backseat to the economic crises that enveloped the nation.
Thursday, Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced a plan that would overhaul the country's immigration policy. The plan, outlined by the two lawmakers in a Washington Post editorial, would require biometric Social Security cards to stop illegal hiring; strengthen border security and interior enforcement; create a temporary worker program; and establish a "tough but fair" path to legalization.
President Obama quickly applauded the announcement, which seemed to be timed in advance of Sunday's rally in Washington.
Oh no said immigrants and their supporters are tired of waiting. He said that even as congressional efforts to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants have failed in the past few years, tougher enforcement measures have been enacted.
UFW organizer Casimiro Alvarez, a principal organizer of the rally in Santa Rosa, said the Sheriff's Office's policy of sending fingerprints to ICE is one such enforcement policy at odds with the notion of change.
"We're sending a message to the Sheriff's Office that they should stop cooperating with ICE," he said. "What we're seeing is that we have people taken into custody who are not criminals."
He said that local law enforcement officials are "profiling" and landing people in jail on trumped up charges.
Sheriff's Capt. Matt McCaffrey strongly disputed that claim. McCaffrey said the fingerprint policy is applied to absolutely everyone who is booked into Sonoma County Jail, regardless of immigration status or someone's appearance.
"There's no benefit to anyone in doing that," McCaffrey said, referring to the profiling charge. "Part of the legitimate process of becoming a naturalized citizen is not committing a crime," he said. "We're not talking about fingerprinting kids coming into a school or people going into the emergency room. We're talking about people being booked into jail."
McCaffrey said Sheriff's deputies will not be directly participating in the security operations surrounding Sunday's march. That's being handled by the Santa Rosa Police Department's traffic division.
"We're human beings and we're reasonable as well," he said.
I have NO PROBLEM with immigration as long as it is done LEGALLY!
there should be lots and lots of police there to send these illegals back to where they came from....they MUST go through the process legally....i have to go and get a passport if i want to go into mexico, the same should be for them too.......i agree...i have no problem with immigration as long as its done legally.
Quoting Bekah062205:there should be lots and lots of police there to send these illegals back to where they came from....they MUST go through the process legally....i have to go and get a passport if i want to go into mexico, the same should be for them too.......i agree...i have no problem with immigration as long as its done legally.
Quoting Bekah062205:there should be lots and lots of police there to send these illegals back to where they came from....they MUST go through the process legally....i have to go and get a passport if i want to go into mexico, the same should be for them too.......i agree...i have no problem with immigration as long as its done legally.
They won't do it. ICE and Immigration will not show up. Here is a rebutal from the sheriff's dept. The numbers are not surprising either. Just keep in mind, where I live, 60% of the crime is from illegal immigrants.
I know this is long but worth reading
Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill said Friday he wants to clear the air over a key local issue expected to turn out thousands of Latino immigrants and their supporters to a march and rally in downtown Santa Rosa on Sunday.
The issue is a new system in which fingerprints taken from people booked in the county ail are sent electronically to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, databases.
Cogbill said Friday the new program is not a local policy, nor is there any official agreement between the county and ICE, an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"We didn't have a choice in it," Cogbill said. "They came to us just to let us know this is happening."
He said that even before the "biometric" fingerprinting program was launched in Sonoma County this month, fingerprints were routinely sent to the state Department of Justice, which would then have them checked for criminal history against databases maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
But under a new initiative being rolled out gradually across the country, the FBI now is sending fingerprints to ICE.
Cogbill said he personally approves of the program because it helps more effectively identify illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds. But he stressed, "we're not doing anything different from our end" and there's no agreement between the Sheriff's Office and ICE.
ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the program, known as Secure Communities, is the latest tool being used to target illegal immigrants with dangerous criminal backgrounds, many of whom would otherwise "slip through the cracks."
Top priority, she said, is illegal immigrants who commit crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, kidnap and drug offenses.
"Our desired outcome is to see that person removed from the United States," Kice said.
But immigrant rights advocates say it's not just people with serious criminal backgrounds that will be affected. Organizers of Sunday's march charge that local jails hold illegal immigrants who have committed minor infractions, such as traffic violations.
"They're not just taking cars, they're putting people in jail," said Alvarez.
He said he believes law enforcement officials are "profiling" immigrants based on their appearance, a claim Cogbill and other local law enforcement officials strongly reject.
Secure Communities, Kice said, recently has been expanded to Orange County, bringing the number of participating counties to 12. The others are Los Angeles, Ventura, San Diego, Imperial, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento, Solano, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.
There are 120 jurisdictions in 16 states now on board, she said. By next year, Secure Communities should be present in every state and should have nationwide coverage by 2013.
Since its inception, Kice wrote in an e-mail, the program has identified "more than 18,000 aliens charged with or convicted of Level 1 crimes, such as murder, rape and kidnapping - 4,000 of whom have already been removed from the United States."
Most of those who have not yet been deported are completing their sentences, she said. An additional 25,000 illegal immigrants charged with "Level 2 and 3 crimes," such as burglary and serious property crimes, have been deported. This latter category of crimes represents 90 percent of the crimes committed by illegal immigrants, she said.
Why all of this feeling of entitlement from illegals?? They have NO RIGHT to be here. They need to go back to their own country. They are hurting this country more than they are helping it.
Quoting Bekah062205:there should be lots and lots of police there to send these illegals back to where they came from....they MUST go through the process legally....i have to go and get a passport if i want to go into mexico, the same should be for them too.......i agree...i have no problem with immigration as long as its done legally.
I have a stupid question... if there are a bunch of illegals gathered in one place (like a rally/march or just standing on the street looking for manual work), why dont the cops arrest them?
Quoting FranksHoney:
Why all of this feeling of entitlement from illegals?? They have NO RIGHT to be here. They need to go back to their own country. They are hurting this country more than they are helping it.
I totally agree.
And yes I honestly believe illegals being in Cali is one of the main reasons why this state is so broke. Its sad really. But they do do these rallies all the time.
But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
---Umberto Eco
Quoting serioussifL:
I have a stupid question... if there are a bunch of illegals gathered in one place (like a rally/march or just standing on the street looking for manual work), why dont the cops arrest them?
I have no clue, that question comes up every year. I think immigration does not come out becuase honestly there would probably be a Full out riot. When you mix violence in a crowd of tens of thousands of people, it's just not good. No matter if there are "scores" of illegals in a concentrated group.
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- gavansmommy
on Mar. 20, 2010 at 6:04 PM