Posted on 10/22/2009 8:43:31 PM PDT by La Lydia
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says the Board of Supervisors’ recent change to the city’s sanctuary laws is a violation of federal law and he will ignore it. The Board of Supervisors voted 8-to-2 yesterday to overturn a policy enacted last summer by Mayor Gavin Newsom that rolled back the city’s sanctuary policy as it relates to contacting immigration authorities when a juvenile is arrested on felony charges.
The new rule would require the city to contact immigration authorities only after a juvenile has been convicted of a felony. In City Hall, it’s been cast as a bit of political drama — count this the latest win for the supes in what has been an icy relationship between the board and Mr. Newsom’s office.
But at the heart of issue is a legitimate, lively and long-standing debate on whether local governments have the statutory authority to affect immigration laws. San Francisco adopted its sanctuary policy in 1989. When the mayor asked City Attorney Dennis Herrera to evaluate the bill approved by the board yesterday, Mr. Herrera’s staff responded with a memo detailing a number of legal problems the city might face, including challenges to other aspects of its existing sanctuary policy. The memo, which was leaked by the mayor’s office weeks ago to the San Francisco Chronicle, is also attached below.
Prof. Pratheepan Gulasekaram of Santa Clara Law School argues that the city’s sanctuary policy is defensible, and Prof. Rose Cuison Villazor of Hofstra Law School presents the case that immigration law should be the sole province of the federal government....
(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com ...
I know.
I don’t see politicians debating whether to support the government’s position on the environment or endangered species.
Somehow foreign nationals here in this nation illegally are sacred? I don’t think so; what part of ‘illegal’ don’t city councils understand?
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