Libidiot left winger fishwrap wants Amnesty and says ther is no way to send the multi-millions of IAs home:


November 20, 2007
City action no answer to immigration mess

The Des Moines City Council should not pursue the idea of prohibiting local police from conducting raids on illegal immigrants in Des Moines.

America's immigration crisis is a national problem that Congress and the White House must address. Their failure last summer to pass comprehensive reform has made matters worse, but this issue cannot be resolved jurisdiction by jurisdiction.

Instead of passing local ordinances, city officials across the country should pressure national leaders to put politics aside and reach a practical, humane agreement.

The possibility of such a proposal was discussed with at least one City Council member, Christine Hensley, about six weeks ago, the Register reported Monday. Two immigration-rights groups have discussed the idea of an ordinance to ban city departments, including police, from conducting raids or inquiring about a person's immigration status.

Numerous U.S. cities and counties have policies to protect undocumented immigrants, based on a list on the National Immigration Law Center's Web site. For example, a Durango, Colo., resolution says no city resources will be used to identify undocumented immigrants for the federal government unless a crime has been committed. And Cook County, Ill., adopted a resolution declaring itself a "sanctuary county" and prohibiting county employees "to the extent legally possible" from helping in the investigation of the citizenship status of county residents.

It's generally a poor use of local law-enforcement resources to enforce federal immigration law. But it defies common sense and risks breaking the law for a city council to state that local officers must not cooperate in this regard with federal agents. Law-enforcement officers are sworn to uphold the law. There's no exemption for laws that a city council disagrees with.

In May, the Register's editorial page called for a moratorium on immigration raids, which disrupt workplaces and tear families apart, saying it was a contradiction to deport the very people who stood to benefit from then-pending immigration reform.

That reform effort must be resuscitated. And it still would be a humane decision to halt the raids, which amount to harassment for employees with legal status and terrorize people who have otherwise abided by the law after their illegal border crossing.

Almost everyone recognizes that the United States will not return all illegal immigrants to their home countries. Setting aside how difficult it would be to find everyone or whether the public could stomach the photos of mass deportation, the country will not return all illegal immigrants to their home countries because they are important to this country's economy. The only reason such raids are conducted now is to appease fierce anti-immigration foes.

So let's be realistic.

It's time for comprehensive immigration reform that - in addition to secure borders - includes a flexible guest-worker program that protects worker rights, a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million people in the country without documentation who otherwise have good records, and higher immigration quotas that recognize the need for a larger U.S. work force and family reunification.
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