Candidates: Immigration reform due
JOE FERGUSON
Posted: Monday, February 15, 2010 5:05 am | 8 Comments


..The latest campaign forum didn't do much to distinguish the 11 Flagstaff mayoral and council candidates from each other.

They all gave roughly the same answers Sunday to four questions on budget accountability, weatherization, immigration and neighborhood safety.

Collectively, the three mayoral candidates and eight candidates for Council all agreed to incentives for property owners to retrofit rental properties, support continued city funding for an afterschool program at FUSD, lobbying Congress to begin comprehensive immigration reform and increase funding for translation services at the police department.

The forum, sponsored by the Northern Arizona Interfaith Council and held at St. Pius X Catholic Church, had given candidates the questions days before the forum was held. Candidates were also given a brief background statement on each of the issues from NAIC's point of view.

Prior to the candidates answering the questions, a local woman who said her name was "Leticia" addressed the candidates and 120 people in the audience.

The woman spoke entirely in Spanish, explaining how a routine traffic stop in Flagstaff resulted in her being separated her from family for more than a month while federal officials held her over questions about her immigration status.

Through a translator, Leticia said her whole family suffered while she was being detained. She cried as she remembered the conversations she had with her children. She said her children's grades plummeted while she was gone and her husband struggled to feed their children.

REFORM OVERDUE

The candidates did not respond directly to Leticia's story, but they did address immigration in explaining why they supported lobbying Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl over comprehensive immigration reform and funding for translation services.

Councilmember Joe Haughey, a former police officer, was asked to address the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Flagstaff.

Haughey said he supported their presence, but only if they are going after violent and dangerous criminals like human smugglers. He said he was proud that the city did not target those working in Flagstaff, trying to make a life for themselves and their family.

Haughey also emphasized the need for reform at the federal level.

"It's broken; we need to fix it," Haughey said.

Another mayoral candidate, Kara Kelty, said she has already lobbied McCain and Kyl in 2007 while she served on an immigration task force for the National League of Cities.

"I have already signed letters to Kyl and McCain," she said. "The immigration system is broken."

Mayor Sara Presler said in the days following last year's ICE raids in Flagstaff a year, she and other members of the city recorded messages reaffirming the city's position supporting human rights. City police did not assist in the ICE raids.

The raids, although billed by ICE as targeting only illegal aliens wanted on criminal warrants, resulted in the majority of arrests being for noncriminal immigration status violations.

Presler defended the city's decision not to give free rent to ICE or any federal agency.

Posted in Elections on Monday, February 15, 2010 5:05 am Updated: 7:54 am. | Tags:


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