Thread: Stop immigration crackdown

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-immi27.html

Aldermen: Stop immigration crackdown

April 27, 2006

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Advertisement

Calling federal immigration raids a "scare tactic" designed to intimidate "the new civil rights movement," the City Council on Wednesday demanded a moratorium on sweeps while Congress debates a new immigration policy.

Twenty-six immigrants employed by IFCO Systems in McKinley Park were arrested last week and taken to an INS office in Broadview. The Chicago workers were among 1,100 people arrested nationwide.

They were released on their own recognizance after terrified family members and church leaders came to their rescue.

"I was just thinking about my family -- what my family was going to do. I'm the only one supporting my family. If I don't work, they don't eat," said Ricardo Villasenor, one of the arrested workers.

Aldermen voice anger



To Ald. Danny Solis (25th), the purpose of the sweep was clear.

"These raids are not only illogical. They are strategic in nature to try to intimidate the great outcry seen in this country since March 10, when we began a demonstration here in Chicago that has brought forth millions of people -- undocumented as well as documented, Hispanics as well as other nationalities -- looking for a humanitarian resolution to this issue," Solis said.

Community activist Emma Lozano called the raids an obvious attempt to "intimidate the . . . new civil rights movement" in America.

"It makes absolutely no sense to go after these working people in the name of homeland security when they all know they had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 or any type of terrorist activity in this country," Lozano said.

Mayor Daley questioned the timing of the INS raids. "Why all of the sudden? Where were they six months ago, five years ago?"

The resolution approved at Wednesday's City Council meeting urges the INS to call a halt to the immigration raids while Congress debates what Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) called an "admittedly complicated" immigration issue.

'I see heartbreak every day'



Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd) noted that his Northwest Side ward is a melting pot that's home to 124 nationalities speaking 40 languages.

"I see this heartbreak every day. I see folks [who] have children born in America and have the possibility of being deported back to the country where their grandparents" were born, Mell said.

The U.S. Senate is debating legislation that would tighten border security while enabling illegal immigrants to become citizens.

Any bill produced by the Senate would have to be reconciled with a get-tough bill passed earlier by the House of Representatives. That version would turn illegal immigrants into felons and compel private individuals and employers to report them.

Wednesday's vote marks the second time in recent weeks that Chicago aldermen have taken a political stand on an immigration issue that has divided the nation.

Last month, they turned a 1989 executive order on immigration into law. That means that if the great immigration debate now raging in Congress is decided in a way that turns illegal immigrants into criminals, Chicago Police officers and other city employees will not enforce it.

fspielman@suntimes.com

Oh my heart bleeds for all of these heartbreak stories. These illegals can go back to Mexico where they belong.
As far as any police who will not keep the law --- they should be fired. We are in such a mess because of the bleeding hearts.
How about the heartbreak stories of Americans who have lost decent paying jobs due to the scab labor of illegals and the greedy employers who give them jobs? And the illegals are already breaking the law. What part of ILLEGAL don't they understand?

Imagine if there were no bleeding hearts. Society would go to hell. All those hawkish, aggression based, and punitive types would roam all over and any tragedy would blur away. That's not what you or anybody would want to happen to yourself or to your family.
Just because they're illegal doesn't mean they deserve harch treatment. You've got to put your sentiment in proportion to people's characters and habits, not just your prejudice and hyperbole.
You can spin the illegal mantra as much as you like. There's more to these people than a lacking status. Many of them are good, hardworking, and you wouldn't want to hurt them if you knew any of them more closely. That's why this is bullshit. There are terrorists and murderers who want to blow up America and its people. Yet 90% of hostility seems to be targeted against the illegal immigrants who have nothing to do with these enemies. You've got to be whacko pretending they're so bad simply because they lack status. Because they're obviously humans, with feelings, and some of them are young, and you've got be a jerk to find it conscionable to scare these people to death, let alone displace them, oblivious to what they're about as people.
That they came here with an agenda to take away jobs from Americans, sure, in propaganda world. Most who spin these notions live away from illegals and view them, not as humans that can be humanely related to, but as concepts that can be approached like cotton and other material stuff.
Being illegal may be wrong, but treating people badly deliberately, is worse. There's nothing noble in going after law breakers for the sake of it. They're not here to do harm. You treat them like shit, then you're bound to see harm done, regardless if you've heart to care or not.
As for heart bleeds. We'd see how big your cocky mouth was if your dad had died in the desert in pursuit of a better life. Better revise what you stand for as an American besides the law, because the law is just one aspect of a good society. You and others seem to view illegal immigrant removal as a matter of pest eradication, i.e. something you just do because it's desirable and there're tools and protocols in the book that support it. If kids and wifes cry it doesn't matter. One can then only wonder what you cry over.


Many companies would outsource without this cheap labor. You think all companies would happily raise salaries way above once all illegals are gone? Dream on. That's just one more myopic aspect of your thinking. This is market capitalism, not socialism. Half the corporations would just relocate to Mexico, or Asia if so be it. They're not going to go Communist just because a few intolerant whiners who can't stand to see their "greed'.

Just because they're illegal doesn't mean they deserve harch treatment.

The equal application of the law is not harsh treatment. Harsh treatment is what Mexico does to IT'S illegal aliens.

That they came here with an agenda to take away jobs from Americans, sure, in propaganda world.

No, in the REAL world. If you were one of the millions who have lost their jobs because they couldn't afford ANOTHER pay cut, you might understand. Selling yourself to the lowest bidder gives no dignity.

There's nothing noble in going after law breakers for the sake of it. They're not here to do harm.

The law is the law, period. Just because it hasn't been enforced doesn't mean it's NOT the law. Illegal aliens should be grateful they've gotten away with their crimes as long as they have.

Better revise what you stand for as an American besides the law, because the law is just one aspect of a good society.

You should go back and read the Constitution and the writings of the Founders. In THIS country, the law is EVERYTHING!

You think all companies would happily raise salaries way above once all illegals are gone?

Not as happily as they LOWERED them, but they'd get over it. For you to expect ANYTHING from this country, you should RESPECT this country, and the laws that make this country the best in the world. We're not perfect, nobody is, but we're the most generous and gullible people in the world. Our gullibility has caused this mess, and now we're going to clean it up. Our generosity has caused this mess, now we're going to tighten up.

We've come to the conclusion that the country we love will no longer exist if we don't act NOW! Nothing personal, amigo, I want the illegal Irish out, TOO!

Imagine if there were no bleeding hearts.

Yep-- without them we wouldn't have 20 million and rising illegal aliens in this country shrieking Reconquista!

Open your eyes Ronald! Look around you! Maybe you are one of the illegals and maybe you aren't. But you are definitely a sympathizer. If you are an American at all, you have no business sympathizing with people who have sworn to be enemies.

You are right, many are ignorant masses come to "work." Unfortunately, there are no jobs because Americans need to work, too, and even though our own government refuses to recognize us, we were here first.

It is the ones who aren't here to work at those menial jobs that make life miserable for the ones who are. Some are drug dealers, car thieves and human trafficers. Do you think those are honorable professions?

Others of the less savory characters inspire marches in the streets, calling even more attention to the evil that these people are being brought here to do that has nothing to do with working menial jobs.