Thread: Group focuses on legal issues

Group focuses on legal issues
By Steve Ramirez/Sun-News reporter
Article Launched: 08/31/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT


By Steve Ramirez
Sun-News reporter

LAS CRUCES — Based on case law, New Mexico municipalities would be wise to take a wait-and-see approach before considering ordinances intended to prevent illegal immigration, city officials from throughout the state were advised Thursday.

Benjamin E. Griffith, a Cleveland, Miss., lawyer, and Scott H. Howard, a city attorney in Glendale, Calif., offered the legal opinion to members of the New Mexico Municipal League during the league's 50th annual state conference at New Mexico State University. Griffith, Howard and Marcella Diaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Fe organization that supports immigrants' rights, presented a seminar on immigration issues at the conference.

Because Congress has not enacted immigration reform legislation, Griffith said municipalities that pass their own immigration laws run the risk of having judges find some ordinances unconstitutional because of wording or content in an ordinance could be deemed discriminatory.

"If there begins to be a push of those types of ordinances, MALDEF has a lawsuit ready to go," said Griffith, referring to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "Based on what's happened in the past, the work and research on those lawsuits has been very thorough."

Howard said an anti-solicitation ordinance in Glendale was challenged in court. The ordinance was adopted by elected city leaders based on what was perceived as unsafe conditions created by employers who were recruiting day laborers on Glendale streets.

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore said the presentation could lead to a possible review of the city's anti-solicitation ordinance to determine if amendments might need to be made. There could also be consideration of a potential council resolution in support of immigration reform.

"Those may become necessary topics of discussion at some point," Moore said. "It would be imperative for city government to do as much as it can."

Griffiths said he believes immigration reform could happen sooner, and Diaz added communities should consider resolutions in favor of reform, including the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act.

"Be warned of all the negative and be informed of all the positive aspects," Diaz said.

Steve Ramirez can be reached at sramirez@lcsun-news.com

http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_6765482

"Based on what's happened in the past, the work and research on those lawsuits has been very thorough."

They have been using our Focus Campaigns. Your welcome. Oh, that was premature, they really should thank us first.

Dixie

Marcella Diaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Fe organization that supports immigrants' rights, presented a seminar on immigration issues at the conference.

Her name says it all

Because Congress has not enacted immigration reform legislation, Griffith said municipalities that pass their own immigration laws run the risk of having judges find some ordinances unconstitutional because of wording or content in an ordinance could be deemed discriminatory.

"If there begins to be a push of those types of ordinances, MALDEF has a lawsuit ready to go," said Griffith, referring to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "Based on what's happened in the past, the work and research on those lawsuits has been very thorough."

These opinions seemed to have been formed in a spirit of advocacy. Every local government has the right, if not the duty, to pass ordinances that protect their community. To suggest that they should abandon their common sense and retreat because of the threat of a MALDEF law suit is absurd. Such a suggestion in effect turns over the government to any band of vigilantes who can produce a renegade lawyer.

It is interesting to note that these opinions were offered up to New Mexico Municipalities by lawyers from Cleveland Mississippi and Glendale, Arizona. Governments at every level have counsel designated to provide advice on legal issues. It is puzzling how these attorneys were called on to advise this group when seemingly superior sources would have been available in New Mexico.