Resolution opposing illegal immigration fails in Glendora
By Daniel Tedford, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/29/2010 05:20:51 PM PDT

GLENDORA - A pair of Glendora city councilmen this week made an abortive attempt to get the city to weigh in on the national immigration debate.

At the request of Councilman Doug Tessitor and Mayor Ken Herman, the city's staff on Tuesday presented a resolution intended to show that the city supported a tough policy against illegal immigration.

But the resolution failed 3-2, with Herman and Tessitor voting in its favor.

Councilman Gene Murabito said the resolution did not take a clear-enough stand against illegal immigration.

Council members Terry Kent and Karen Davis said Glendora already supported any state and federal immigration laws. They did not see need to express any further opinion on the matter, they said.

"We are already doing it," Councilman Terry Kent said during the meeting. "I don't know why we are here, to be honest with you."

Davis agreed.

"It is my feeling that we already uphold federal law," councilwoman Karen Davis said. "And in terms of trying to be more specific on the immigration issue ... it is beyond our jurisdiction."

Tessitor said the resolution would have passed if it had stronger language against illegal-immigration.

Tessitor, who supports Arizona's SB 1070 immigration bill, said the resolution's intent was to take a stand against sanctuary cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, which he said openly refuse to enforce immigration laws.

"If I had my way, I would buy-cott Arizona," Tessitor said. "I would like to arrange a tour from southern California to Arizona to show what they are doing."
Although he voted in favor of the resolution, he also thought it wasn't clear enough.

One section read: "The City of Glendora supports the rule of law and that enforcement of all government laws, rules and regulations must be done in a fair and equitable manner so that its citizens believe that regardless of their race; family status; religion, creed or financial ability they will be treated in the true spirit of Justice being blind to those elements."

Murabito said he would have voted for one terse statement regarding illegal immigration. The proposed resolution was mostly about supporting current immigration policy and had little about supporting tough enforcement, he said.

"If we want to make a statement that we support the laws, why do we then in one paragraph here get very specific to immigration law?" Murabito said at the meeting. "To me this whole resolution is saying in essence, we support the laws ... and then oh by the way we are going to draft this to address immigration."

Tessitor called the resolution "vanilla."

Other cities, such as Costa Mesa, have passed resolution's declaring themselves "Rule of Law Cities" in a stance against illegal immigration.

Tessitor said he would consider bringing the resolution back, this time with different language.

"I have to think about whether or not it is something I want to push or not," he said.

Tessitor said the issue had nothing to do with implications of racism in Arizona's law or immigration enforcement, but was merely a legal matter.

"It is not a matter of race," he said. "The key word in this whole discussion is illegal. That is the operative word. What I don't get is what people don't understand about the meaning of that word illegal."

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