Thread: MN: Tempers flare on House Floor over Immigrant Sanctuary Ci

Tempers flare on House Floor over Immigrant Sanctuary Cities

March 13, 2008



An effort to force a hearing on a controversial immigration bill led to an outburst of emotion Thursday on the floor of the Minnesota House. At one point Minority Leader Marty Seifert, a Marshall Republican, called the mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul "political hacks."

The remarks came after Representative Paul Kohls, a Republican from Victoria, asked lawmakers to support a bill outlawing so-called "immigrant sanctuary cities" in Minnesota.

Kohls complained he hadn't been able to get a hearing on the bill, and the deadline for first hearings on new measures is approaching. At the time of Seifert's comments, Kohls was attempting to force the bill directly to the floor. It's a maneuver that allows a lawmaker to bypass the committee process.

Seifert accused DFL lawmakers of stifling debate on the issue, and then attacked the notion that big city police chiefs oppose the idea.

"We've read in the papers about how the police chiefs don't like this," Seifert told his colleagues, "Never mind their political bosses, the mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the liberal Democrats who run the cities control their job."

The term "sanctuary city" is used to describe towns, such as Minneapolis and Saint Paul, with separation ordinances which prevent local police officers from arresting undocumented immigrants solely for entering the country illegally.

It's long been a sore spot for Republicans, who believe that local police should be an extension of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They've offered several bills that would cut off state aid to cities with such rules on the books.

Those large city police departments often do cooperate with I.C.E. on joint investigations involving state and federal crimes, such as human trafficking and drug smuggling.

But the police chiefs and mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul have defended their separation ordinances. Police don't want witnesses and victims of crimes to worry they'll be deported if they cooperate with police on criminal investigations.

Saint Paul's Chief John Harrington has made that point in testimony to legislators on several occasions. He also pointed out that citizens expect local police to make local crime a priority.

Seifert suggested those chiefs aren't speaking for themselves.

"Of course you're going to say you don't like it because your political hack boss is telling you you've got to tow the line!"

Those rules were in place long before the current mayors, RT Rybak and Chris Coleman, took office. In Saint Paul's case it dates back at least two administrations to the Mayor Norm Coleman's era.

In Minneapolis, former Chief Robert Olson at one point favored creating a special drivers license for illegal immigrants so that the authorities could better track dangerous drivers and repeat offenders on traffic stops.

In the end the House voted to table the motion to bring Kohls' bill out of committee and onto the floor. But they did so by the slimmest of margins, with 66 legislators voting to table and 65 voting to keep the bill alive.

That meant many Democrats either support the crackdown on sanctuary cities, or at the very least want to give the bill a full hearing in the House.

Seifert's home district was the scene of last month's school bus crash which claimed the lives of four children from Cottonwood, Minnesota. Because the driver of the van that struck the bus, Olga Marina Franco del Cid, was in the country without permission the tragedy added fuel to the immigration debate in the state.

http://www.kare11.com/news/ts_article.a ... yid=501580

Well, if he got upset and became outspoken on the issue, maybe Rep. Seifert had good reason to:

Seifert's home district was the scene of last month's school bus crash which claimed the lives of four children from Cottonwood, Minnesota. Because the driver of the van that struck the bus, Olga Marina Franco del Cid, was in the country without permission the tragedy added fuel to the immigration debate in the state.

After all, he is the one that had to explain to the parents of the children that were killed why the perp (Ms. Franco) was still in the country.
Personally, when I see a Rep. express a little emotion on an important subject, I think that is a good thing.