Posted May 31, 2007


Meeting tonight to discuss immigration petition

Press-Gazette

A petition opposed to a proposal to regulate illegal immigration through licensing will be the focus of a meeting tonight.


Both the Green Bay City Council and the Brown County Board have proposed ordinances to require anyone granted a city license of any sort to adhere to federal immigration laws.

The informational meeting on the petition is set for 6 p.m. tonight at the Brown County Library auditorium.

The petition, reprinted below, is addressed to Green Bay City Council members, Mayor Jim Schmitt and City Attorney Jerry Hanson. The petition is dated June 5.


The petition, verbatim:

“We the undersigned hereby oppose the adoption of the ‘City of Green Bay Citizen and Legal Immigration Protection Act.’

“First, the proposed ordinance undermines the rule of law by failing to lawfully and adequately address enforcement. As was discovered in the Protection and Welfare Committee meetings dated 5/9/07 and 5/23/07, the Green Bay Police Department is ‘not interested in pursuing this’ and ‘any information the Police Department gains in an investigation couldn’t be acted upon’. These tatements made on public record are consistent with the efforts of many police departments, which have reaped the benefits of community policing that encourages all victims, whether immigrant or not, to come forward to report crimes. These departments recognize that safety is undermined for the whole community if immigrants, because they fear deportation, are afraid to report crimes to the police. As a result, many local police departments, including our own, are wary of enforcing immigration law at any level. Additionally, the City Council is already aware, any proposed consequences to a business must first arise out of a federal finding of non-compliance with Federal employer sanctions law. However, it was also said on 5/23/07 that the County Sheriff’s Office is ‘only interested in pursuing options with ICE under 287g on the corrections level.’ Furthermore, of the seventeen entities that have entered into a MOU with ICE, none are municipalities. The enforceability of such an ordinance is greatly and significantly diminished by local law enforcement’s symbolic desire to separate itself from this proposed ordinance as well as the federal government’s desire to not enter into localized enforcement arrangements.

“Second, the proposed ordinance fails to lawfully and adequately address federal inaction on the matter of Immigration Reform by imposing undue burdens on local small business owners and by fostering an environment that invites increased discriminatory practices in hiring. The proposed ordinance states in its purpose that the City in no way intends nor condones discriminatory practices, however, the proposed ordinance does nothing to prevent it from happening. Furthermore, local industries, which do not require city licensure or permitting, would remain completely unaffected by this ordinance. The unequal application of this proposed ordinance upon the local business community based on the City’s limited reach in this matter will create an unfair advantage to those industries unregulated by local code.

“This proposed ordinance is shown to be ineffective by strongly encouraging licensees and contracted businesses to utilize the flawed Basic Pilot Program. The Basic Pilot Program is flawed in five major areas: (1) the system does not check if a Social Security number is being used in more than one geographical area at the same time, (2) an employer must first hire the applicant before checking whether that employee is eligible to work, (3) employees already hired before the employer joins the Basic Pilot Program cannot be checked against the system, (4) there is a three day window in which a newly hired employee must be verified, otherwise the employer cannot check them, (5) the system is currently voluntary; businesses that rely on low wage undocumented labor have no reason to participate.

“Thirdly, the proposed local ordinance may be rendered invalid by federal legislation currently under consideration. H.R. 1645 and S. 1348 both provide for a guest worker program that would allow for businesses to actively hire previously undocumented workers as part of ‘visiting worker’ program also known as a Y Visa. A compromise bill would supercede the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and thereby eliminate the basis for any possible localized immigration ordinance regarding undocumented workers. For this reason, we the undersigned, support only federal efforts on this matter and recognize that impending federal legislation will effectively and completely reverse the legitimacy of any adopted City ordinance.

“We are further concerned that this ordinance has engendered a rhetoric in the community which is both angry and divisive. With the prospects for this effort to have any impact on immigration policy in the country being remote at best, such debate can only be deemed counterproductive. However, because you are resigned to passage of this ordinance and because, as its authors and supporters have acknowledged, the final language (irrespective of intent) does no more than codify existing law, we will direct our energies toward influencing the federal debate but want to leave a record of opposition to an ordinance which makes no attempt to address federal inaction on the matter of Immigration Reform. Legal precedence shows this ordinance to be vulnerable to challenge based on preemption, flawed and un-actionable in its execution, and ultimately unenforceable in its effort to investigate and/or collaborate with the Federal government to determine a business’ non-compliance. We the undersigned, further recognize that the efforts of the City Council on this matter will become invalid after impending Federal legislation is passed. We strongly urge the City Council of Green Bay to return to doing the work of the City and to refocus on issues that benefit citizens and not divide them. For these reasons, we oppose the use of and the dedication of any further resources towards implementation of this proposed ordinance.â€