Posted: Friday, 04 May 2007 4:38PM

Petition Drive to Oppose Sanctuary for Illegal Immigrants



REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KCBS) -- A petition drive is underway on the Peninsula to urge San Mateo County and Redwood City not to provide sanctuary for llegal immigrants.
The group, Golden Gate Minutemen Project, is gathering signatures on Cinco de Mayo because it said it does not want the peninsula to go the way of San Francisco and Oakland, which have declared their opposition to federal immigration raids.

"We want to see disincentives in this country for people to come here, to cross the border illegally," said Charles Birkman, spokesman for the Minutemen.

The Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition has been lobbying Redwood City and the county to adopt a policy refusing to cooperate with federal immigration agents. It said sanctuary cities protect all residents, not just undocumented ones.

Golden Gate Minutemen claims to have roughly 500 members. The group has chapters in Redwood City, San Carlos, Fremont and Castro Valley.

http://kcbs.com/pages/420520.php?conten ... tId=469900