Thread: Phoenix councilors say they don't back Mayor Gordon on his p

Phoenix councilors say they don't back Mayor Gordon on his plan to sue

234 comments
by Scott Wong - Apr. 27, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Most Phoenix City Council members said Monday they will not support a plan by Mayor Phil Gordon to file a lawsuit against the state seeking to block the new law that targets illegal immigration.

Gordon, a Democrat, has called the legislation "unconstitutional," saying it will lead to racial profiling. He intends to put the proposal to a vote at a council meeting set for 2 p.m. today, said his chief of staff, Debra Stark.


But the council's five Republicans - Sal DiCiccio, Bill Gates, Claude Mattox, Peggy Neely and Thelda Williams - told The Arizona Republic they won't back a legal challenge to the law, which they say deals with immigration problems long ignored by Washington.

They also said it is fiscally irresponsible for Arizona's largest city to launch a taxpayer-funded suit when other entities, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, are contemplating litigation.

"The last thing we should be doing is spending money on this lawsuit when we have so many pressing needs in this city," Gates said. "We know there will be other entities bringing lawsuits - ACLU, MALDEF - we know that will happen."

Williams said the state had to toughen its illegal-immigration policies because of inaction by the federal government.

"I don't think people in Phoenix, people in Arizona need to be subjected anymore to the crime and drugs pouring across the border," said Williams, who formerly worked for immigration-hardliner Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Today, Gordon will ask the nine-member council to direct the city attorney to prepare a lawsuit seeking an injunction to prevent the law from taking effect.

For days, the mayor has refused to speak to The Republic's City Hall reporter, but he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday that he personally would sue the state if he could not corral the five necessary votes.

Gordon added that he's troubled by recent calls for economic boycotts of Arizona. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will consider a resolution banning the city from doing any business in Arizona-based firms or the state.

His CNN appearance was part of a days-long media blitz to drum up opposition to the law and support for potential litigation. Since Senate Bill 1070 was signed by GOP Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday, Gordon has given interviews to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, ABC's "Good Morning America Weekend" and CBS News.

The law "unconstitutionally co-opts our police force to enforce immigration laws that are the rightful jurisdiction of the federal government," Gordon wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

The law makes it a state crime for a person to be in Arizona illegally and requires police officers to make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person if there is suspicion that person is in the country illegally.

www.azcentral.com

So...say you live at home wih your parents and brother and your parents say it's your brother's job to do the dishes every night. BUT your brother is lazy and irresponsible and he doesn't do his job like he's supposed to....but if he does, he only washes one plate every other week or sometimes every other month....what do you and your parents do? Do you continue to live in a filthy kitchen, eating off of dirty plates, waiting for your brother to get his a_ _ in gear and do his job or do you take the initiative and do it yourself for your own health, safety and peace of mind?

The Feds aren't doing anything they're supposed to be doing to keep this country and it's citizens safe or healthy in the realm of illegal immigration, so the States owe it to their CITIZENS to take the initiative and start enforcing the laws that the Feds refuse to enforce!

Thank you for posting this article. This is great news to learn that the Phoenix City Council doesn't support Mayor Gordon's position and I hope they deny him funds for such a ridiculous lawsuit as he's advocating against his own state on behalf of foreign nationals who aren't even supposed to be in this state under federal and constitutional law to begin with.

Yesterday he dared to express the stupidity of comparing the new AZ immigration law to Jim Crow laws in the South, as if an illegal alien being questioned, processed and deported is the same as the terrible plight of freed slaves, and Nazism in Europe, as if confirming your immigration status in the US is equivalent to the Holocaust of the Jews. It's the worst possible example of diminishing the experience of Black Americans in our country and the Jews during WWII. The voters of Phoenix should recall him on that basis alone, before they even get to the reasons of why he wants to give illegal aliens the sanctuary to steal jobs, incomes, wages, benefits, resources, public services, educations, lives and futures of US citizens and legal immigrants in Phoenix and the state of Arizona.

Pose this question to Mayor Phil Gordon:

"Mayor Gordon, when illegal aliens in the City of Phoenix steal a job, income, wage, benefit, resource, public service, education, life and/or future from a US Citizen, whose civil rights were violated under US law and the US Constitution?"

Illegal immigration violates all US immigration, US labor and US civil rights laws. Any public official anywhere in our country who supports illegal immigration and opposes enforcement of our immigration, labor and civil rights laws should be removed from office.