Email from Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch on IA Cases
From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:
California Battles: Oral Arguments This Week in Two Judicial Watch Immigration Lawsuits
This was an amazingly busy week for your Judicial Watch. Our legal team went to court this week in California to make oral arguments in two landmark immigration enforcement (and sanctuary busting) lawsuits:
Fonseca v. Fong, Case No. A120206: Judicial Watch filed an appeal on behalf of a San Francisco resident challenging the San Francisco Police Department's sanctuary policy that, in violation of state and federal law, prohibits police officers from notifying federal immigration authorities when they arrest a person for various narcotics offenses whom they suspect to be an alien (legal or illegal).
On Tuesday, our own Jim Peterson took on lawyers for the City of San Francisco as they tried to argue that San Francisco is above the law and should not have to follow a state law requiring certain reporting to ICE. The appellate panel was energetic and gave an extraordinary amount of extra time to our case's oral argument, with one member of the court commenting that the matter was "important." Our lawyers are cautiously optimistic that we could prevail and San Francisco's sanctuary policy could receive a serious blow.
Garcia v. Dicterow, Case No. G039824: Judicial Watch filed a taxpayer lawsuit in the Orange County Superior Court against the City of Laguna Beach for spending taxpayer funds to operate the Laguna Beach Day Worker Center, a day labor site that helps illegal aliens find jobs and provides other public benefits, including English language instruction. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of residents Eileen Garcia and George Riviere.
see: http://www.judicialwatch.org/laguna_beach.shtml
Our lawyers tell me that the panel was interested in the issue and asked many questions. Our litigation director Paul Orfanedes made the argument on behalf of our taxpayer clients. This is groundbreaking litigation and we expect the appellate court will carefully grapple with the legal issue of whether California local taxpayers can be forced to subsidize the hiring of illegal aliens, an activity that is in obvious violation of federal law. Let's hope they rule in our favor and local governments in California and elsewhere get out the business of misusing tax dollars to help illegal aliens obtain illegal jobs.
We expect decisions in both cases within 90 days.
I'm proud of our work in California. To be sure, Judicial Watch has taken its battle against illegal immigration to almost every corner of the country. Our goal is to put an end to illegal alien sanctuary policies that not only violate our nation's federal immigration laws, but also worsen an already out-of-control illegal immigration crisis.
You can see that we are on the front lines of the battle, and we can't do this excellent legal and education work without your support. To make a donation to help our good fight for the rule of law and to expose and prosecute those who abuse the public trust, please click here.
