| City's policy acknowledges immigrant roots (4/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Ana Billingsley | |
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From Chinese laborers arriving to build railroads in the 1850s to Mexican farmers invited to work California’s land from the 1940s to the 1960s, the racial diversity San Francisco boasts today owes its thanks to its immigrant roots. But alongside this pride is controversy over the number of immigrants entering the country illegally. In 2004 unauthorized immigrants in California numbered 2.45 million, according to a study by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. . This number reveals an issue significant to cities throughout California, yet it is also an issue each local government should be able to address individually according to its needs.
An $83,000 campaign this spring will advertise San Francisco as a “City of Refuge” for immigrants. On local radio and television commercials, billboards and bus stop signs, the campaign follows a 2007 reaffirmation of the city’s 1989 City of Refuge Ordinance. Under the ordinance, city residents do not have to reveal their immigration status to local law enforcement unless federal or state law specifically requires such a declaration. This policy does not invite immigrants into San Francisco illegally. Nor does it hide illegal immigrants who are being investigated by the U.S government, as the name “City of Refuge” may imply. It does prevent employees of the city government from detaining illegal immigrants or from requiring information on immigration status in order to access services or benefits, including public health clinics, hospitals, schools and, most importantly, the protection of local law enforcement. “We have worked with the Board of Supervisors, Department of Public Health, labor and immigrant rights groups to create a city government-wide public awareness campaign so that immigrants know the city won’t target them for using city services,” mayor Gavin Newsom’s spokesman Nathan Ballard stated in a Feb. 28 article in The Examiner. By enacting this policy and promoting such a campaign, the city is recognizing that undocumented workers have been, are and will continue to be a part of the city’s community, and that it is in the city’s best interest to guarantee them access to basic benefits. The policy ensures that undocumented immigrants will report crimes to the police. “There is a whole mixture of people in these communities, some recent, some illegal, and it’s going to cause the entire community to fear going to the police if they feel going to the local cop is essentially going to the immigration service,” said Lucas Guttentag, the director of the Immigrants Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. All citizens benefit directly from the police protection this policy provides. San Rafael mayor Al Boro, Richmond police chief Chris Magnus and city district attorney Kamala Harris have all stated that the trust local law enforcement agencies have built in immigrant communities is an important part of ensuring general public safety, according to an April 27, 2007 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Unreported crimes endanger everyone, illegal citizen or not. Those who condemn refuge policies believe they encourage illegal immigrants to enter the United States and remain undocumented in defiance of federal government. But while this policy may not follow the “spirit of the law,” it does follow the “letter of the law,” Newsom explained during an April 4 interview on the KFOG radio station. Section 12H.2. of the City of Refuge Ordinance clearly states that the city will assist the state and federal government when “required by federal or state statute or court decision.” While this legislation does not directly defy federal statutes, it sends a clear message of opposition to policies that have a negative effect on the city. Operation Return to Sender, a federal immigration program that began in May of 2006, resulted in large-scale immigration raids sweeping through the Bay Area. Thirty-seven percent of the 18,149 people arrested across the country through Feb. 23 of 2007 were not fugitives who had ignored deportation orders, according to the April 27, 2007 Chronicle article. San Francisco is not alone in adopting a so-called “sanctuary policy”: Approximately 50 cities and counties in the United States have enacted similar ones that deal with the realities of immigration head-on. Newsom acknowledged that illegal immigrants form a significant portion of the city’s population. “We can ignore this reality, we can walk away from this reality, or we can choose to deal with it in a thoughtful and realistic manner,” he said during the KFOG interview. Newsom and the Board of Supervisors were right to re-affirm this policy, and the upcoming campaign, costing less than 1 percent of the city’s annual budget, is a wise investment that serves the city as a whole. |
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