Thread: Albany, NY: Are you a citizen? No need to ask

Are you a citizen? No need to ask
Albany measure would guide police on issues dealing with undocumented immigrants

By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
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First published: Sunday, July 19, 2009

ALBANY -- City lawmakers will consider a resolution Monday night that would instruct police and other public safety workers to refrain from asking people their immigration status and unnecessarily detaining documented and undocumented immigrants.
The measure, which more broadly calls for the city to "support a welcoming and compassionate environment for immigrants" by things such as providing equitable language access in city offices, is nonbinding on law enforcement.

But it touches on a controversial national debate about the role of local police in enforcing federal immigration law.

Some communities have embraced it and even signed special agreements with federal authorities that deputize officers to enforce immigration laws. Others, including most recently Kalamazoo, Mich., have rejected such measures.

At stake, according to advocates, is whether or not immigrants, whose families often are a mix of people who are both documented and undocumented, feel safe enough to dial 911 when they need help or report crimes against them.

"They won't access these basic services if they're afraid it's going to set in motion this whole series of events that are going to divide their families," said Councilwoman Barbara Smith, the measure's chief sponsor.

Smith stressed the resolution, which unlike an ordinance or local law carries no legal force, is not a response to anything specific that has happened.

"What this resolution is getting at is those situations where there is no real reason for a discussion of immigration of status to arise," said Smith, who represents the 4th Ward in Arbor Hill and North Albany.

Albany has not signed an agreement with the federal government under the Immigration & Nationality Act and currently has no policy about whether or how police and other public safety personnel can ask people about their immigration status, said Detective James Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

"That's not what they're concentrating on," Miller said of the city's police officers. "They're out there to suppress and deter crime."

Smith and other city lawmakers would like to keep it that way -- in part in recognition, they say, that immigration policy is an issue that needs to be addressed by the federal government.

"God knows we have enough shootings, car thefts, you name it, for the police to work on," said Councilman Glen Casey, who represents the 11th Ward and chairs the Human Resources & Human Rights Committee, which unanimously endorsed the resolution last week. "This is a federal issue, and the police department has enough on its plate right now."

The committee made just two amendments to the resolution, Casey said: One to include the county in the discussion and the other recommending the administration use its Human Rights Commission to help with outreach.

Fred Boehrer, director of the Capital District chapter of the New Sanctuary Movement, which conducts outreach to immigrant communities, said one concern is when police arrest someone for something unrelated to immigration, yet inquire into his or her status anyway.

Those inquiries, Boehrer said, can result in people being held for lengthy periods of time on federal immigration "detainers," even for minor crimes that would normally warrant little to no bail.

"We feel that if someone is being arrested for violations or misdemeanors or felonies that have nothing to do with immigration, it's just not relevant for there to be any sort of check into someone's immigration status," Boehrer said.

"Immigration is a very complicated part of our life in the United States, and it's really up to the federal government to sort through that," he said.

But he stressed that, by and large, the Albany area has proved welcoming to immigrants. "Despite the negative tone of immigration debates nationally ... locally immigrants have found a second home here in Albany," he said.


www.timesunion.com

Albany is going the route of the Sanctuary City I see....

"God knows we have enough shootings, car thefts, you name it, for the police to work on," said Councilman Glen Casey, who represents the 11th Ward and chairs the Human Resources & Human Rights Committee, which unanimously endorsed the resolution last week. "This is a federal issue, and the police department has enough on its plate right now."

Hey, Stupid! It's not a federal issue if it's happening right there where you live! And has it ever occurred to you that some of these crimes are committed by the very people you refuse to check out?

City lawmakers will consider a resolution Monday night that would instruct police and other public safety workers to refrain from asking people their immigration status and unnecessarily detaining documented and undocumented immigrants.
The measure, which more broadly calls for the city to "support a welcoming and compassionate environment for immigrants" by things such as providing equitable language access in city offices, is nonbinding on law enforcement.

Good grief! Just another example of illegal invaders achieving protected status in another one of America's cities! What do the LEGAL immigrants and American citizens have to say about this proposed resolution? You know, the ones who call Albany home!

And you wonder why illegal invaders walk around with a sense of arrogance and bravado equal to none!

They'll probably come to Houston and get trained in how to do this....

They'll probably come to Houston and get trained in how to do this....

why would they violate their oath of office???

Albany had a gun violence committee. Why don't they have a committee to establish that each job held by an illegal alien will cause them to have a family member lose a job??
How quickly would they repeal their request to the police?

why would they violate their oath of office???

Albany had a gun violence committee. Why don't they have a committee to establish that each job held by an illegal alien will cause them to have a family member lose a job??
How quickly would they repeal their request to the police?

Just once I'd like to read:

After holding Public Hearings on the issue.

Just once I'd like to read:

After holding Public Hearings on the issue.