Thread: Sacramento to be the scene of fierce debate on immigration

Sacramento to be the scene of fierce debate on immigration
By Harrison Sheppard, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Article Launched:02/20/2007 12:00:00 AM PST

SACRAMENTO - Lawmakers are expected to take up the fierce debate over illegal immigration again this year with a host of bills meant to deny or expand benefits to the undocumented.
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Already in this new legislative session, Republicans have proposed bills to deny public benefits to illegal immigrants, crack down on employers who hire them and give law enforcement new tools to arrest them.

And reflecting sharp party-line splits, Democrats are looking to expand opportunities available to undocumented immigrants, including granting them the right to drive and providing subsidized health coverage.

But, as in previous efforts, little significant action is expected to emerge on the controversial topic as lawmakers remain wary of the complexity of the issue and California voters' views.

"California voters are bipolar," said David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University. "They want to think of themselves as progressive and liberal, and that California is the epitome of the American Dream.

"But by the same token, they don't want to pay for or provide access to those who came into the country illegally."

Republican lawmakers say they are motivated by saving money for taxpayers and by stepping in where the federal government has failed to enforce immigration laws.

"They've got free medical, free education, they qualify for welfare benefits," said Sen. Tom Harman, R-Costa Mesa. "This is all about money. We're in tough fiscal times."

Harman has proposed a bill that would authorize local and state law enforcement agencies to charge illegal immigrants with trespassing simply because they are in California without authorization.

Enforcement of illegal immigration is primarily a federal responsibility now. Many local police departments do not get involved in investigating the immigration status of those they arrest or question.

The Los Angeles Police Department for more than two decades has followed Special Order 40, which prohibits officers from investigating the immigration status of suspects or witnesses.

Harman's bill would not necessarily lead to deportation of the undocumented, but would authorize police to ticket them and possibly jail them for short periods.

Harman also has authored a bill to require public and private employers in California to do more stringent background checks for citizenship status of job applicants.

Other Republican proposals include bills from Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucaipa, that would essentially seek to deny most state benefits to illegal immigrants; and bills from Cook and Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, that target in-state resident tuition rates.

Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature, are expected to oppose most of the GOP proposals, and analysts say most of them won't have a chance to get out of committee.

"They will have no success," said Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, who has led efforts to protect immigrants. "None whatsoever. They're wasting their time."

Californians have historically demonstrated mixed views on immigration. In the 1990s, voters approved Proposition 187, which sought to deny most public benefits to illegal immigrants.

But the divisive politics behind the measure also caused a backlash that has been credited with a surge in Latino voter registration that helped the Democratic Party. The measure was later overturned by the courts.

A new, similar ballot measure authored by conservatives is being circulated.

It would prohibit illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses, college tuition benefits and any other benefits not required by federal law.

The Republican proposals aren't likely to make it to a floor vote, McCuan said, though they could have potential as ballot measures.


http://www.dailybulletin.com/search/ci_5263450


Augustin Cebada;
We’re here today to show L.A., show the minority people here, the Anglo-Saxons, that we are here, the majority, we're here to stay. We do the work in this city, we take care of the spoiled brat children, we clean their offices, we pick the food, we do the manufacturing in the factories of L.A., we are the majority here and we are not going to be pushed around. We're here in Westwood, this is the fourth time we've been here in the last two months, to show white Anglo-Saxon Protestant L.A., the few of you who remain, that we are the majority, and we claim this land as ours, it's always been ours, and we're still here, and none of the talk about deporting. If anyone's going to be deported it's going to be you! Go back to Simi Valley, you skunks! Go back to Woodland Hills! Go back to Boston! To back to the Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You're old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you, leave like beaten rats. You old white people, it is your duty to die. Even their own ethicists say that they should die, that they have a duty to die. They're taking up too much space, too much air. We are the majority in L.A. There's over seven million Mexicans in L.A. County alone. We are the majority. And you're going to see every day more and more of it, as we manifest as our young people grow up, graduate from high school, go on to college and start taking over this society. The vast majority of our people are under the age of 15 years old. Right now we're already controlling those elections, whether it's by violence or nonviolence. Through love of having children we're going to take over." Other demonstrators: "Raza fuerza (brown race power), this is Aztlan, this is Mexico. They're the pilgrims on our land. Go back to the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria."
--Augustin Cebada, Information Minister of Brown Berets, militant para-military soldiers of Aztlan shouting at U.S. citizens at an Independence Day rally in Los Angeles, 7/4/96

Does anybody know if Augustin Cebada is an illegal alien?

The next time we send out faxes or Emails to our representatives we should all include that little speech by Mr. Augustin Cebada.

Just a bunch of poor, hard working people that we should all feel sorry for and gladly accept into our hearts and our pocket books.