Thread: UT:Residents ask West Valley to stop enabling illegal immigr

Residents ask West Valley to stop enabling illegal immigration

By Rebecca Palmer

Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009 9:00 p.m. MST
5 comments


WEST VALLEY CITY — Opponents of illegal immigration are taking their fight to the municipal level.

About a dozen men and women attended the West Valley City Council meeting Tuesday, asking city leaders to stop helping undocumented people.

Gundi Jones, who emigrated to the U.S. from Germany years ago, may have summed up the group's position best.

"I have lots of friends," Jones said. "I don't care if they're Hispanic, black, Asian or purple with pink polka dots. They should be treated all the same. (Immigration) has to be a legal issue, and it has to be fair because we're all the same under the law."

Coming into the United States legally cost her and her family thousands of dollars, she said. On top of that, ensuring that her heating business follows all local and federal laws has cost more than $8 million over the years, Jones said.

Led by former mayoral candidate Adam Leffler, West Valley residents asked that the city become involved in illegal immigration. Leffler wants police to respond to complaints of undocumented people living in city neighborhoods, among other things.

They were rebuffed by Salt Lake City resident Tony Yappias, who spoke in behalf of Proyecto Latino de Utah.

"Immigration is a federal issue," Yappias said. "It needs to be dealt with at the federal level."

West Valley City council members made similar comments to the Deseret News prior to Tuesday's meeting.

Councilman Corey Rushton said he hopes changes under the new Obama administration will result in the federal government relinquishing some of its immigration-enforcement power to state and regional governments. For now, though, West Valley needs to focus on other issues, Rushton said.

The council as a whole did not respond to residents' comments Tuesday, as they were not on the agenda.

During the meeting, Leffler presented a letter to the city from Utah House Representative Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City.

"(Illegal immigration) has surpassed public education as the most important public policy issue to residents here in West Valley City," Bigelow wrote. "I do believe that many of the problems associated with individuals in this country illegally could be addressed by the city."

Bigelow said the city should become involved in issues such as the conversion of homes into apartments, yards in disrepair, unrelated individuals living in same house, unregistered businesses, auto repairs on the streets, loud music and parties, and homes being trashed and vacated in the middle of the night.

Gaylen Stewart didn't speak in the meeting, but said beforehand that cities shouldn't be made into safe havens for the undocumented population.

"You have to take away the enabling," Stewart said.

Leffler has created the Web site saveutah.net to collect information about illegal immigration.

"I'm trying, from my standpoint, to take emotion out of the issue," he said.

E-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,51 ... 31,00.html

"Bigelow said the city should become involved in issues such as the conversion of homes into apartments, yards in disrepair, unrelated individuals living in same house, unregistered businesses, auto repairs on the streets, loud music and parties, and homes being trashed and vacated in the middle of the night."

LOVE this! This ALL is happening in my once lovely rural setting, I would love to be able to complain and actually see something done.

"I do believe that many of the problems associated with individuals in this country illegally could be addressed by the city."

Should the State Unemployment Offices be E-Verifying I-9 forms of Immigrants? State Unemployment Offices only E-Verify Migrate FARMERS. So all other immigrants are NOT being checked.

Video is at the link and they are getting a lot of comments:

Group wants West Valley to take on illegal immigration now
January 27th, 2009 @ 10:12pm

(KSL News) A group of West Valley residents says their city should take on illegal immigration. At tonight's city council meeting, the group encouraged city leaders to address the issue.

They say West Valley City is encouraging illegal immigrants to live there by failing to crack down on businesses that hire them. "If there's no work here, or the perception of no work because they're going to be caught, they are not going to be here," said West Valley resident Adam Leffler.

But West Valley's mayor says other cities in the United States have been successfully sued for enacting laws against illegal immigration. He says the issue needs to be handled by the federal government.

"The federal law preempts the city and the state from acting on many of the things that were brought up in the meeting tonight," Mayor Dennis Nordfelt said.

A representative with the Hispanic community was also in attendance. He says tonight's discussion concerned him because it promoted discrimination.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5440311

But West Valley's mayor says other cities in the United States have been successfully sued for enacting laws against illegal immigration. He says the issue needs to be handled by the federal government.

Use E-Verify? Call to get Congress to make it law that more than migrate farmers are E-Verified by State Unemployment Offices.

A representative with the Hispanic community was also in attendance. He says tonight's discussion concerned him because it promoted discrimination.

Yes we know we are all racists and prejudiced against peoples that break our laws. GIVE IT A BREAK!

They have got to be the first and only words they learn (in English) when they incredibly appear in our country overnight

What the hell is with LaRaza? (The Race) Sounds more like something you would hear about Hitler!

Here in NYC I hear Chinese, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Arabic and languages I can't tell what they are. They're coming from everywhere and I want them ALL to go if they didn't come here legally!

Yes, and why doesn't the people in Congress understand this fact. The fact of which 80% of Citizens demand. Is Congress hoping the 14th Amendment is going to melt our hearts? Fix the 14th Amendment on "Anchor Babies".

Councilman Corey Rushton said he hopes changes under the new Obama administration will result in the federal government relinquishing some of its immigration-enforcement power to state and regional governments.

I could only hope this would happen, as it would STOP every single lawsuit claiming illegal immigration is a Federal only matter.

However, it's not gonna happen. The ACLU, La Raza, LULAC, etc. would raise bloody hell if someone tried to change the rules that way.

Changing the focus to state and local governments would make the Farmers Branch ruling COMPLETELY constitutional, and every lawsuit where a judgement against the city enforcing illegal immigration would be thrown out.

Not going to happen.

TexasGal