Sunday, April 29, 2007

Regarding sancutary cities

I would like to take some time to talk about the numerous 'sanctuary cities' that have recently made the news. Recently Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, and Mayor Ron Dellums of Oakland California publicly stated that their cities are sanctuary cites for illegal aliens. Special Order 40 in Los Angeles made it a sanctuary city. Executive Order 124 in New York City made it a sanctuary city. Houston, and even our nations capital, Washington D.C. are sanctuary cities. These cities all prohibit their law enforcement agencies from communicating with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement regarding suspected illegal aliens. These policies also prevent officers from questioning a suspect in regards to their immigration status.

The mayors of all these cities are in violation of numerous federal laws. The U.S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 8 states, "The Congress shall have power to...establish a uniform rule of naturalization" . Since the U.S. Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land and it supersedes all other laws, it is the responsibility of Congress to create laws regarding immigration and naturalization.

The U.S. Constitution also says in Article 4, Section 4 that, “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion...”

Therefore, according to the Constitution, it is the responsibility of the federal government to pass and enforce immigration law. Our immigration law can be found in Title 8 of the United States Code.

Section 1644 of that code clearly states, "Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, no State or local government entity may be prohibited, or in any way restricted, from sending to or receiving from the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of an alien in the United States."

Also, the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A) states,
A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:

-assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or

-encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or

- knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.


Penalties for violation of INA 274A(a)(1)(A) include, criminal fines, imprisonment, and forfeiture of vehicles and real property used to commit the crime.
Also, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 75, Section 1546 of the U.S. Code clearly states,

Whoever knowingly forges, counterfeits, alters, or falsely makes any immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration receipt card, or other document prescribed by statute or regulation for entry into or as evidence of authorized stay or employment in the United States, or utters, uses, attempts to use, possesses, obtains, accepts, or receives any such visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration receipt card, or other document prescribed by statute or regulation for entry into or as evidence of authorized stay or employment in the United States, knowing it to be forged, counterfeited, altered, or falsely made, or to have been procured by means of any false claim or statement, or to have been otherwise procured by fraud or unlawfully obtained; (emphasis added)

The penalty for violating this section of the U.S. Code is a fine or imprisonment of up to 15 years, or both.

Finally, Title 8, Chapter 12, Subchapter II, Section 1324 of the U.S. Code states that harboring illegal aliens is a crime.

Bringing in and harboring certain aliens

(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;

(iv) encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law;

The penalties for violation of this are as follows,

(B) A person who violates subparagraph (A) shall, for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs—

(i) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i) or (v)(I) or in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), or (iv) in which the offense was done for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain, be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both;

(ii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;

(iii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v) during and in relation to which the person causes serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of title 18) to, or places in jeopardy the life of, any person, be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and

(iv) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v) resulting in the death of any person, be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined under title 18, or both.

In 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed U.S. immigration laws and denied sanctuary as a defense, (USA v. Francine La May). Also in 1989 the Supreme Court upheld criminal convictions of sanctuary workers for violating immigration laws (USA v. Aquilar).

So, with all the evidence you can see that the mayor of any city that declares his city to be a sanctuary for illegal aliens is in violation of numerous federal laws and statutes.

My question then is this, where is our justice department in regards to this issue. These mayors are clearly in violation of numerous offenses, why have they not been taken into custody and charged for their crimes? By their inaction they themselves are complicit in the crime and should be charged as accomplices and imprisoned as well.

If the state legislators of these sanctuary cities had any respect for our laws, they would do as the state legislature in Colorado did. Written by Senator Tom Wiens, and signed by Governor Bill Owens, Colorado put into law Senate Bill 90. This measure prevents cities and local governments from implementing sanctuary policies by prohibiting grants to cities that declare themselves sanctuary for illegal aliens.

Our federal government could do the same. They could cut off all federal funds to the states that have sanctuary cities. That in turn would force the governors of those states to take action to repeal those policies, or imprison the mayors for their violation of our immigration law.

Nothing has changed, sanctuary cities still exist and flaunt their disregard for our laws and our national security by harboring these illegal aliens. All the way from the local level to the federal government the laws are disregarded, the will of the people ignored. For that I blame the American people for voting into office the same scoundrels who disregard their Constitutional obligations and cater to the special interests who demand a continuous flow of illegal aliens into this country. Unless the people of this country stop voting for these traitors nothing will change, American will be overrun by illegal aliens and we will no longer be able to call this country our own. I don’t intend to go down without a fight, do you?

1 comment:

CPSL said...

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