Thread: CA: Governor candidates oppose sanctuary cities

Governor candidates oppose sanctuary cities
August 3, 2010

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer


Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman both say they oppose sanctuary policies established by San Francisco and about a dozen other cities to limit their role in federal immigration enforcement. But the candidates' plans to carry out their views if elected governor are both divergent and perplexing.

Brown's campaign says he thinks sanctuary cities violate federal and state law, but would take no action against them. Instead, he intends to lobby for a long-stalled overhaul of federal immigration laws that would make local refuge policies unnecessary.

Whitman says she would do "anything we can do to eliminate sanctuary cities." But the action she proposes to take, withholding state funding from the cities, appears to be beyond a governor's authority.

Their stances are part of a campaign in which each is wooing Latino voters, who are now 21 percent of the California electorate, while trying not to look soft on illegal immigration.

Brown, the state's attorney general, has a built-in advantage with Latinos, who have voted overwhelmingly Democratic in California since 1994. In that year, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson - now Whitman's campaign chairman - sponsored Proposition 187, which denied all public services to illegal immigrants and required teachers and social workers to notify federal authorities about anyone they suspected was in the country illegally.

A federal judge overturned Prop. 187, saying it interfered with federal authority to regulate immigration.

But Brown has angered immigrants'-rights advocates by supporting a new federal program called Secure Communities, which requires cities to share fingerprints of arrested adults with federal immigration authorities, and by refusing to let San Francisco opt out of the program.

Brown said in May that the program "advances an important law enforcement function by identifying those individuals who are in the country illegally and who have a history of serious crimes or who have previously been deported." Opponents say it sweeps up people charged with minor offenses and undermines the sanctuary law.

Tough talk
Whitman took a hard line on immigration during her Republican primary campaign against Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, who made opposition to illegal immigrants a central theme and called for the revival of Prop. 187.

Whitman said she wouldn't punish the children of illegal immigrants but promised to be "tough as nails" on the issue. She said she favored banning the undocumented from public colleges and campaigned frequently with Wilson.

During the general election campaign, by contrast, Whitman is trying to attract Latino voters with an immigrant-friendly message in Spanish-language ads, proclaiming her opposition to both Prop. 187 and Arizona's show-us-your-papers immigration law.

But she told a conservative talk show last week that the Arizona law, while inappropriate for California, should be left intact and that each state should decide its own immigration policy.

More than 80 cities in the United States have sanctuary policies, which vary locally. San Francisco's 1989 ordinance, enacted while churches were offering safe haven to Central Americans fleeing civil wars, prohibits city officers and agencies from asking about a person's immigration status or relaying that information to federal officials, except as required by state or federal law.

The ordinance allows officials to contact immigration authorities about adult noncitizens after they are booked on felony charges. Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that he would extend that requirement to juveniles in 2008 after The Chronicle reported that the city had shielded some youthful felons from deportation, including one later charged with a triple murder.

The Board of Supervisors overruled Newsom last year, allowing reporting only after a juvenile has been convicted of a felony. But the mayor, citing a city attorney's office opinion, said the restriction violates federal law and has ordered city officials to continue reporting juveniles after felony arrests.

Newsom, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, says he still backs San Francisco's sanctuary law, which the state Republican Party has described as Newsom's "support for harboring illegal immigrant criminals." Brown, at the top of the ticket, says he opposes all such laws, but the extent of his opposition is difficult to determine.

"As attorney general, Jerry Brown doesn't support actions that conflict with existing state or federal laws," said campaign spokesman Sterling Clifford. "Brown supports comprehensive federal immigration reform, which would eliminate the need for any sanctuary city policies."

The proposed federal law, stalled for years in Congress despite support from both President Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, includes provisions that would allow illegal immigrants to apply for legal status.

Whitman opposes it. She also plans to use the governor's veto power to "withhold funding for municipalities that have adopted this (sanctuary) policy," said spokesman Hector Barajas. "She will use a targeted approach not to cut vital services to the residents of the community."

Barajas said public safety is a vital service, but he declined to define others. He said Whitman believes she could selectively cut state funding for sanctuary cities while sparing other cities.

Recourse unclear
But representatives of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties said the state budget and other laws that allocate virtually all state funding to local governments don't distinguish between individual cities or counties, using formulas based on population and other neutral factors.

"Whether you live in San Francisco, Mono or Fresno, everybody gets the same services - Medi-Cal, foster care, welfare, mental health, substance abuse," said Jean Hurst, a lobbyist for the counties.

She said a governor couldn't withhold funding from a particular city or county - San Francisco is both - without a change in state law, which would be challenged in court.

Dan Carrigg, lobbyist for the league of cities, said a governor could try to thwart a city's application for a project funded by state park or housing bonds, or for a share of gas tax money that is used for road maintenance. But these days, he said, nearly all city services - including police and firefighting - are funded by local taxes, not state aid.

Perhaps the only recourse for a governor determined to cut funding to a specific city, Carrigg said, is to "veto the entire (state) budget, or threaten to," unless the Legislature allows budget cuts that are directed only at sanctuary cities.

That would be self-defeating, said San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, author of last year's ordinance that prohibited city officials from reporting the arrest of juveniles - at least until they are convicted - to immigration authorities.

Campos said sanctuary cities have survived legal challenges and promote public safety by maintaining police contact with immigrants, who can report crimes without fear of deportation.

The goal, he said, is "making sure that the focus of local law enforcement remains local law enforcement, not immigration enforcement."

www.sfgate.com

Whitless is a little left of Arnie on illegals , While she wouldn't sign a drivers license bill , she would do other things to help them,

If Brown gets in you might as well open the border down there, he loves the illegals. One bill Gil would be loving life , Brown would sign them all

The only candidate for California Governor who openly supports Arizona's SB 1070 is Chelene Nightingale. Like always, the media and the two major parties work hard to exclude third parties.


http://www.nightingaleforgovernor.com/

Originally Posted by Justthefacts

Whitless is a little left of Arnie on illegals , While she wouldn't sign a drivers license bill , she would do other things to help them,

If Brown gets in you might as well open the border down there, he loves the illegals. One bill Gil would be loving life , Brown would sign them all

Last I heard they were both neck and neck for Gov. Thats scary!!!!

I just found this on the Internet. I'm not sure what to make of this.
Nightingale For Governor, 2010?

LINK: http://ning.it/94VAva

Birther, truther, poisonous chemtrails in skies, The Bilderberg Group, with the Rothschilds and drug cartels control of America, Communists in our government are building desert prison camps for enactment of martial law, personal bankruptcy in 2007, post bankruptcy personal finance-related legal problems Chelene and Michael Nightingale were lent approximately $6000; judges who presided awarded judgment ($6200) to the loan plaintiff, Frank Jorge(Antelope Valley Minutemen) with the money judgment remains unpaid, Nightingale gave up her position as Save Our State's Managing Director (she was the acting head of SOS for about 18+ months), the organization had practically no money left; so Save Our State lost its corporate status because proper papers had not been filed and necessary fees hadn't been paid.