(California) State may opt out of federal deportation program

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(05-26) 17:06 PDT Sacramento -- The California Assembly approved a bill to allow counties to opt out of a controversial federal immigration program that lawmakers said rips families apart, leads to racial profiling and erodes trust between law enforcement and the immigrant community.

Under the Secure Communities program, instated by President Obama, the fingerprints of anyone booked into a county jail are automatically cross-checked against immigration databases, and if a person is determined to be undocumented, local authorities hand them over to federal officials for deportation.

A growing number of law enforcement officials and public leaders across the U.S., however, are criticizing the program, saying it undermines their trust with immigrant communities and separates people, who have not been convicted of crimes, from their families. They note cases where individuals were deported after a simple traffic stop but never charged with a crime.

The measure by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, seeks to allow counties to "opt-out" of participation in the program; two Bay Area counties - San Francisco and Santa Clara - have formally sought permission to do so, and several cities and counties around California have passed resolutions, are considering resolutions or have lobbied to support the bill, AB1081.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/26/BAP51JLJH0.DTL

[ccharles000]

1. good

[Philippine expat]

2. If California does this

then I don't want California to ever get another penny of federal money.
Illegal immigrants broke the law and need to be caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law

[defendandprotect]

4. These things are happening because of problems at higher levels -- like Elite greed ...

We need to address those problems and the harm they are doing to American citizens,

as well -- and not be so concerned with "punishing" people!


What kind of "punishment" did Reagan dole out to the -- what was it 3 million illegal

immigrants he granted amnesty to?



Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 - Wikipedia, the ...
Legislative...|Effect upon the...|See also|Referencesgranted amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the United ... The act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. An estimated 3 million unauthorized immigrants ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control_Act... - Cached.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control_Act_of_1986


Do you really want taxpayers to have to pick up the costs of shipping 11 million illegal

immigrants home?


This is pretty much the only nation where illegals can get a job here without having their

Social Security numbers checked immediately -- and it is the GOP/Repukes which block that

legislation for the benefit of elites who make money from this illegal labor.




"Beware of those with a strong urge to punish" --

[EFerrari]

8. Most of those people are only "illegal" because of NAFTA.

Second to that is the homocidal regimes our political establishment installs or supports in Latin America. That's how a fifth of El Salvador wound up here. Same with the wave from Guatemala fleeing the Mayan genocide. I haven't checked but bet that since the Obama-supported coup in Honduras, there's a new wave from there, too.

Foreign policy has consequences.

[defendandprotect]

10. True -- k/r for the additional info in your post --

If you're ever thought of leaving this country, the first question that enters

your mind is "where do I go where I won't become a victim of US foreign policy!?"


:)

[EFerrari]

12. LOL!

:)

[Lasher]

20. That's highly doubtful.

According to the US Department of Homeland Security, there were an estimated 11.6 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States as of January 2006. An estimated 6.6 million of them (57%) were from Mexico.

NAFTA, an agreement signed by the governments of Mexico, Canada, and the United States, came into force on January 1, 1994. You say, "Most of those people are only 'illegal' because of NAFTA." This claim would have a chance of being true, only if almost all of the Mexican illegals currently in the US came here during and after 1994.

According to the same report cited above, 36% of the total 2006 US unauthorized immigrant population (more than one third) entered the US earlier than 1995. It is unlikely that at least 5.8 million of the Mexican illegals (50% of the total US unauthorized population, or "most") in the US today entered the country after NAFTA took effect.

But for the sake of argument, let's say for a moment that those 5.8 million did actually come to the US during or after 1994. To defend your argument you'd still need to prove that every single one of them came here because of NAFTA. That's unlikely too.

[EFerrari]

22. The numbers you cite back my contention, not the other way around.

Immigration Flood Unleashed by NAFTA's Disastrous Impact on Mexican Economy
by Roger Bybee and Carolyn Winter
April 25 2006


The recent ferment on immigration policy has been so narrow that it has excluded the real issue: family-sustaining wages for workers both north and south of the border. The role of the North American Free Trade Agreement and misnamed 'free trade' has been scarcely mentioned in the increasingly bitter debate over the fate of America's 11 to 12 million illegal aliens.

NAFTA was sold to the American public as the magic formula that would improve the American economy at the same time it would raise up the impoverished Mexican economy. The time has come to look at the failures of this type of trade agreement before we engage in more and lower the economic prospects of all workers affected.

While there has been some media coverage of NAFTA's ruinous impact on US industrial communities, there has been even less media attention paid to its catastrophic effects in Mexico:

* NAFTA, by permitting heavily-subsidized US corn and other agri-business products to compete with small Mexican farmers, has driven the Mexican farmer off the land due to low-priced imports of US corn and other agricultural products. Some 2 million Mexicans have been forced out of agriculture, and many of those that remain are living in desperate poverty. These people are among those that cross the border to feed their families. (Meanwhile, corn-based tortilla prices climbed by 50%. No wonder many so Mexican peasants have called NAFTA their 'death warrant.'
* NAFTA's service-sector rules allowed big firms like Wal-Mart to enter the Mexican market and, selling low-priced goods made by ultra-cheap labor in China, to displace locally-based shoe, toy, and candy firms. An estimated 28,000 small and medium-sized Mexican businesses have been eliminated.
* Wages along the Mexican border have actually been driven down by about 25% since NAFTA, reported a Carnegie Endowment study. An over-supply of workers, combined with the crushing of union organizing drives as government policy, has resulted in sweatshop pay running sweatshops along the border where wages typically run 60 cents to $1 an hour.

So rather than improving living standards, Mexican wages have actually fallen since NAFTA. The initial growth in the number of jobs has leveled off, with China's even more repressive labor system luring US firms to locate there instead.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0425-30.htm

[Lasher]

34. Now that's just ridiculous.

Of the unauthorized Mexican immigrants living in the US today, do you believe all of them entered the country after NAFTA went into effect in 1994? Do you believe none of them came to the US prior to then? Of course you don't, it's silly to suggest such a thing. But in order for you to support your claim that "Most of those people are only 'illegal' because of NAFTA," then you're going to somehow make that case.

Do you believe these same unauthorized Mexican immigrants are all in the US today because of NAFTA? Do you think none cane here after 1994 for any other reason? That's pretty unlikely too but you're also going to have to prove that if your claim is going to stand up to the Department of Homeland Security numbers that I furnished.

So far you have offered nothing whatever to support your assertion.

[defendandprotect]

26. Elites/rw profit from illegals who come for jobs -- We need immediate Social Security check...

as other nations have -- that's where the problem lies --

and with the trade agreements --

Korea/Colombia up next --

Unfortunately, President Obama chose to listen to greedy multinationals and the Washington insider lobbyists of our most chronic job-offshoring corporations. He’s pushing all three of Bush’s job-killing trade pacts. Unless we stop them in Congress, we’ll be hit by more of the failed trade policies that have screwed America.

Public Citizen

[JDPriestly]

5. California pays more into the federal tax pot than it takes out.

So, are you suggesting that California be simply excluded from the United States? Do you want to push us out because we are a state that is kind to immigrants both legal and illegal?

[EFerrari]

6. You know, of course, that we send the Feds more than we ever get.

Should we just keep the change, in your opinion? Maybe you don't want California's money, either?

[CreekDog]

13. children?

lots of illegal immigrants are children.

or do you want them spared, but orphaned.

[Philippine expat]

24. Send the children home with their parents

Plus any child born in the united states to illegal immigrants should be considered illegal

[alp227]

27. That's not the case right now per the 14th amendment,

but you can write your state/congressional legislator and ask to re-amend this passage "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside" if you wish; see Article 5.

[Philippine expat]

33. I have already suggested it to

my Rep and my Senators the problem is neither party takes
the illegal problem seriously

[CreekDog]

30. Malkin?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

32. Deporting American citizens? Cool.

lol

[La Lioness Priyanka]

39. watch where you go, the illegals will get ya!

you know after wall street, health care, mortgage scams by your bank, credit card rates, unnecessary unemployment

whatever is left after that, illegals will get ya!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

38. so we should trash the 14th amendment? because you said so?

[coalition_unwilling]

14. California contributes way more to the federal budget coffers than

it receives in federal expenditures.

So cut us off from 'federal money' and we'll just stop paying federal income taxes. Deal?

EPIC FAIL!

[tinrobot]

17. If you're going to punish people to the fullest extent of the law...

Start on Wall Street, then work your way over to California.

Wall Street has done far more damage than a simple immigrant ever will.

[The Second Stone]

19. Yeah, well you are not going to get what you want

so deal with it.

[Liberty Belle]

21. you're so ignorant it hurts. Here are the little-known truths about immigration:

Poor people in Mexico cannot get legal immigration status. You have to own property and be wealthy. That is a fact.

So if you have no work and your family is starving, you too would risk crossing the border--even though that's now a dangerous and expensive proposition; most have to save a couple of years to earn the $2K to pay a coyote, smuggler.

So how are these people "criminals" for trying to save their families or themselves? What alternative would you leave them -- starve and die? That is not compassionate.

We need immigration reform that allows at least a quota each year of people to immigrate legally from Mexico and Central America who are NOT wealthy. This is the big untold story. If people knew they could have a reasonable chance of getting here legally if they just saved up and waited their turn, they wouldn't risk dying crossing the border (600 are buried in our local cemetery, and that's just the border crossers who died in Imperial and San Diego Counties. There are closer to 10,000 nationwide since the Border Wall construction began.) For centuries we had no wall and no such animosity toward our Mexican neighbors.

Now for why there are so many poor and desperate Mexicans now as opposed to 20 or 30 years ago or earlier? One word answer: NAFTA. NAFTA allowed the U.S. farmers to make money by selling corn and other crops cheaper in Mexico. This competed against Mexican farmers and drove them out of business. That took away the agricultural jobs that were the basis of Mexico's economy in most areas.

So the U.S. bears the blame for a large part of the immigration problem - and the hatred and immigrant bashing is fueled by rightwing corporate-run media and people like the Kochs brothers.

If instead US workers would join with Mexican immigrants in calling for the repeal of NAFTA and a human and reasonable immigration policy, with quotas much like we've had in the past to limit (but not eliminate) flow of immigration from other places (ie from European countries when everyone was fleeing the Holocaust) then we would all be better off. Mexicans would have more jobs in Mexico and a chance for a better life here if they followed the new law, and the harm done to the U.S. economy by NAFTA could begin to be undone.

[alp227]

29. GREAT explanation right there!

As the situation with the border deaths shows (60 Minutes last year did a story about migrant deaths at the All-American Canal) the bottom line is that immigration is bound to happen to an economic powerhouse like the US no matter the risk. Clearly, more enforcement and rejection are NOT the solution.

[Tempest]

23. Works for me

And we'll stop sending money to the federal government.

Red states would go bankrupt without the extra money California sends to the feds and doesn't get back.

[Xicano]

35. "Broke the law" ? How very hypocritical..

Or should I also say: What fucking law? Yes that's what I said....what law?

Since YOU are so big on citing "they broke the law", then, put this in your pipe and smoke on it.

Here, lets test how big you are about the law regarding this issue. Go read the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In this link read the section titled "Terms" and guess what happened to those "terms" (laws) mostly (but not only) during around the time of the 1849 gold rush. Ok, now that we have established the fact that the U.S. "broke the law" with respect to the terms of this treaty. In my book that pretty much makes all the other terms of this treaty void due to a breach of contract. Therefore....if we are all big on respecting the law, then, technically California and other South Western parts of the U.S. are Mexican territory. Lol..

However, of course you would scoff at such an idea because after all its not about THE LAW for which you're so concerned about is it. No, rather, its about something else isn't it. Or, on the other hand, at the very least you're only concerned about the law when its a law you enjoy, but, fuck everyone else....especially if they have brown skin.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

37. thankfully you are not king of the universe. nt

[defendandprotect]

3. good --

[EFerrari]

7. Go, Tom. Obama's deportation policy is horrendous.

He's stumping on supporting the Dream Act while his administration deports working people and destroys their families. We can't opt out fast enough.

[alp227]

9. well, as far as deportations go, I'm not in favor of destroying families,

but we should acknowledge that there **are** illegal immigrants here who deservedly should get out and stay out because of a criminal record or willful fraud like visa overstay. I think that Obama's deportation policy is to avoid becoming a target of a "soft on crime" campaign. Of course, the right WANKERS conveniently ignore how illegal immigration has decreased over the past decade and simultaneously deportations have increased to say "OMG look at all thoz illegals with there anchor babyz leeching are wellfair and public skoolz and YOU'RE tax money". That being said, we've got to find a solution between 100% deportation or 100% amnesty...the Dream Act being one of them...ironic how those conservatives are out stumping for lower taxes yet demand the most expensive solutions such as big military and 100% deportation and a border wall with Mexico.

[EFerrari]

11. Obama keeps saying he's deporting violent criminals

and he's doing nothing of the sort. For one thing.

And for another, until he or someone changes our Latin America policy, there will be a flow of economic refugees to the north. But that won't happen in an Obama administration. He's backing all the same anti-democratic entities that Bush was and then some.

Someone brought up an interesting point on Amy's show the other day. It was a Congressman who pointed out that our border towns are among the safest in the nation and have a lower homicide rate than the communities in Boner's district.

I don't know who Obama is trying to please by deporting people wholesale. It isn't the Latino community, that's for sure, no matter how many ships he christens with Spanish names or how many times he claims to support the Dream Act.

[alp227]

15. "nothing of the sort" really?

I googled that and found this article in PolitiFact rating as "True" this statement from Obama's El Paso speech a few weeks ago:

...I want to emphasize we’re not doing it haphazardly. We’re focusing our limited resources and people on violent offenders and people convicted of crimes -- not just families, not just folks who are just looking to scrape together an income. And as a result, we’ve increased the removal of criminals by 70 percent.

PF cites this Occtober 2010 press release by the Dept of Homeland Security: "Secretary Napolitano’s announcements reflect this administration’s continued focus on smart and effective immigration enforcement over the past 20 months—prioritizing the identification and removal of criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety."

PolitiFact concluded:

DHS statistics show that under Bush, overall deportations more than tripled between 2001 and 2008 -- going from 116,782 to 369,221. But in the latter part of Bush's presidency, the biggest jump was in the deportation of illegal immigrants who were were not convicted criminals. During the eight years of Bush's presidency, deportation of convicted criminals rose from 71,079 in 2001 to 114,415 in 2008. That's a 61 percent increase over eight years.

In the first two years under Obama, the data suggest a policy shift toward prioritizing the deportation of convicted criminals.

I've heard anecdotes about immigrants (both legal and illegal) deported over misdemeanors! There's even a law journal article about that.

[EFerrari]

16. How Immigration Reform Got Caught in the Deportation Dragnet

snip

When President Obama entered the White House, he promised to push a “comprehensive immigration reform” bill in his first year. Doing so, he apparently calculated, would require a compromise. To garner bi-partisan support for opening new paths to citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., the president, congressional Democrats and key Beltway advocates came together around a troubling political strategy: They would endorse a hawkish buildup of deportation and border security in hopes of creating space for broader reforms. In a major speech on immigration this past July, the president outlined his approach, vowing to “improve our enforcement policy without having to wait for a new law.”

Almost two years into the Obama presidency, however, no bi-partisan support for a broader bill has emerged from this hawkishness—in fact, the few Republicans who once backed immigration reform have fled. Worse, the Democrats’ would-be political trading game conceals a larger, more troubling fact: Even if the strategy eventually works, the “comprehensive” schema Obama supports will undermine itself with its massive and indiscriminate deportation dragnet. This week, Sen. Robert Menendez introduced the latest version of a “comprehensive” bill. Nothing in it would have prevented Hossain, or hundreds of thousands like him, from being needlessly deported.

The enforcement programs that Obama supports purport to target immigrants convicted of serious crimes and to stop guns and drugs from crossing the border; the reality is that they are driving a system that’s come unhinged. In the three years since Hossain was expelled from Texas, a million other people were removed from the U.S. An enforcement structure that looks anything like the one both parties have built can do little better than indiscriminately deport any non-citizen caught in its expanding net, no matter their ties to the U.S. or their immigration status.

snip

http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/10/how_immigration_reform_got_caught_in_the_deportation_dragnet.html

[alp227]

18. So I'm reading this story and wow this is so messed up.

The government should not have been so arbitrary with Hossain's green card that he got after getting convicted of shoplifting. Either let him have the green card and move along or deny it completely. "He was 19 at the time of the mischief and it had not barred him from getting his green card." Seriously? This is just soooo stupid. And wow, the private prisons have got a say in this? Disgusting.

We can all sensibly agree that illegal immigrants who break into homes or mug people should face an immigration judge ASAP. But c'mon, why waste time on people with broken taillights or who spray paint brick walls? Then, deporting sometimes doesn't really work, such as the case of the Mexican who was deported 9 times and arrested for rape in 2010...it doesn't appear he served too much prison time for his crimes. The political madness just never ends. Thanks for this article!

[alp227]

28. Check out these articles too

SF Bay Guardian: "SF in top 38 counties nationwide that deport "non-criminal aliens""

And DeportationNation.org

[EFerrari]

31. Thanks, I will.

Plus, we hear a lot about Latino immigrants. I don't even know what is happening in the Asian or Pacific Asian communities and there are a lot of immigrants out on this coast. That's concerning especially when you consider how vulnerable and isolated immigrants can be and how the private prison industry has a profit motive.

[Xicano]

36. Hi EFerrari.. :)

:hi:


Always enjoy reading your posts.. Right on the money.. :)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

25. I (heart) Tommy!

I am proud to have voted for him for Mayor here in SF. :loveya: