Georgetown to vote on immigration rule

Georgetown to vote on immigration rule

06:30 PM CST on Tuesday, January 22, 2008

By ELISE HU
KVUE News

The Georgetown City Council will vote Tuesday night on a proposal to require contractors seeking to work for the city to prove their employees are all U.S. citizens. It's thrust the town into the center of a turbulent topic.

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"It's obviously an item that's on the larger, national agenda," said Keith Hutchinson, city spokesman.

In town, reactions are mixed.

"It's important that the people that are working here are also paying taxes here and that they've gotten into the country in an appropriate manner," said Emmet Cole.

Restaurant manager Corey Granstrand said the provision seemed redundant.

"I think the standards that employers go through right now are pretty sufficient, and I don’t know if there's a need for more steps being taken that way," Granstrand said.

Federal law already prohibits the hiring of undocumented workers. Measures like Georgetown's have already been OK’d by a patchwork of U.S. cities but struck down by the courts. Federal judges have ruled them unconstitutional.

“That's the question. Why do they bother to do it if there's the questionable constitutionality of it?" said Jim Harrington, of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
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Judges have said that the measures not only conflict with federal law, but raise constitutional questions about due process.

"It's surely immoral to deny people based on race," said Antonio Diaz, with the Texas Indigenous Council.

But council is expected to proceed.

"The city council will have an opportunity to look at that and decide if that's something they want to take action on tonight," Hutchinson said.

http://tinyurl.com/2hcehl

"It's surely immoral to deny people based on race,"

it's NOT based on RACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's based on legal verses illegal......how difficult is that to understand?

Georgetown OKs Revised Immigration Clause In City Contracts

Posted: Jan 22, 2008 08:27 PM PST


Georgetown took on illegal immigration Tuesday, focusing on wording in the city's service agreements requiring contractors to prove their workers are in the country legally.

Yet officials did not vote in favor of the proposed language, surprising many at the meeting. Instead they voted unanimously to change the language in the contracts, approving wording that is less controversial but perhaps a little confusing.

One by one, more than a dozen people spoke out against the change.

"It is not necessary to overburden employers, encourage discrimination against hard-working members of our community and bring further negative publicity to our town," said resident Sherry Dana.

"This proposal seems unnecessary, inappropriate and discriminatory," said resident Peter Dana.

Just one person spoke in support of Council Member Keith Brainard's proposal.

"I'd like to thank Mr. Brainard for simply saying, 'Let's enforce the law,'" said resident Jim Dylan.

"If this proposal consisted of language addressing all local, state and federal laws, it would be redundant and unenforceable," Dana said.

Yet that is what the council did. Members agreed to include language in contracts that will require those who do business with the city to abide by all federal, state and local laws, not just those that deal with illegal immigration.

The councilman who proposed the original change seemed to have a change of heart.

"Every elected official in the state of Texas takes an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States, and this proposal does that for me," said Georgetown Council Member Keith Brainard.

"I think the council got what they wanted -- to let contractors know that they expect them to comply with the law -- and we got what we had hoped for," said Rita Gonzales-Garza, co-chairwoman of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Many of the people who spoke Tuesday night expressed the idea that it is not the responsibility of the city to enforce federal laws.

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