Texas Governor Rick Perry has called a special session of the Texas Legislature and the first bill debated regards local control and the ability of the state of Texas to outlaw sanctuary cities.
Sanctuary cities are established by local municipalities and restrict police officers from enquiring if subjects they stop, detain or arrest are illegal aliens. This conflict between police and those who encourage illegal immigration has come to a boiling point in the state of Texas and the city of Houston in particular. Houston has long been a refuge of illegal aliens. The problem was exacerbated by shootings of Houston Police officers Rodney Johnson and Rick Salter. Salter is still recovering and Johnson died from his wounds. Both perpetrators had been arrested and departed to Mexico for past crimes only to return and reoffend by shooting the officers.
The murder of Officer Rodney Johnson outraged the African-American community in Houston and Republicans and African-Americans are calling for an end to sanctuary cities in Texas. Sgt. Jocelyn Johnson, widow of slain officer Rodney Johnson has teamed with Governor Rick Perry doing a series of commercials calling for a ban on Sanctuary cities, where she states the issue “Goes against My Beliefs as a Democrat”. Democrats blocked the vote in the regular session by claiming local control and an anti Hispanic backlash at any attempt to ban sanctuary cities.
Illegal’s are protected by Houston Police Department General Order 500-5, prohibiting officers from enquiring about citizen status. This order was enacted under the pretense sanctuary cities support the cops program and encourage illegal’s to report crime and work with local law enforcement. This matter was addressed by the Missouri Legislature four years ago when sanctuary cities were banned by state law and forbidden when then Governor Blunt signed the anti sanctuary bill into Missouri law.
Anything having to do with immigration is always a controversial topic, and the issue of sanctuary cities is not immune to the controversy. Personally, I feel that there should not even be such a thing as a sanctuary city, because this entire country can be a sanctuary when entered the proper, legal way. In an article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth mayor Mike Moncrief is quoted as calling the legislation to end sanctuary cities an "unfunded mandate" to cities causing them to enforce federal immigration laws and thus cause litigation against the cities. The article also discusses people's claims that it will add burden to police departments, because they will have to train their officers in immigration. Well, as far as I know, police officers are trained to check id's already, and that's all there should be to it. Fort Worth police chief Jennifer White made the ludicrous claim that hispanics would be afraid to call the police if sanctuary cities went away. Why would they have any fear in calling the police if they had nothing to hide? The kicker in all this is that "
the chamber's six Republican Hispanics support the measure. Rep. Jose Aliseda, R-Beeville, a former prosecutor, said he has never been victimized by racial profiling and criticized "grandstanding politicians" who he said were mischaracterizing the bill". Interesting.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/05/10/3062993/texas-house-passes-sanctuary-cities.html#ixzz1Oi2R3Fkz
Posted by: J Starck | 06/08/2011 at 01:10 PM