If this is the way it has to be done, so be it. If it happens enough maybe the Fed will get a clue. Or occassionally doing the right thing, like funding the border fence; as CommonSenseAmerica posted yesterday.
Cross posted from CommonSenseAmerica:
We are seeing more and more local officials taking on "the jobs our government won't do". It has become the responsibility of cities, both large and small, to take on the issue of illegal immigration and to enact laws that make sense for their citizens.
Missouri is no exception as a small, peaceful little city in the suburbs of St. Louis quietly implemented their own immigration laws.
Imagine, if you will, laws that actually protect legal citizens and discourage illegal behavior.
STL Today reports:
It began, the mayor said, when he was at work.
The mayor, who drives a truck for a local excavation company, was listening to the radio about a month ago and heard a story about a town in Pennsylvania passing a new law. It made English the city's official language. It mandated fines for landlords who rent to illegal immigrants. It punished businesses that hire them.
Good idea, Jeffery Whitteaker remembers thinking.
So the mayor asked the Valley Park city attorney to draft a similar ordinance. The Board of Aldermen passed it unanimously. There was little debate, Whitteaker said. No one showed up to protest.
And now this small city perched on the bank of the Meramec River is one of only a handful of communities across the country to have such a law on the books.
Experts on both sides of the immigration debate say the local ordinances are among the latest phenomenon in the battle over how to deal with the nation's growing undocumented population.
The most important aspect of the action of this city is that Valley Park, Missouri is not dealing with the problems many of our border states are facing. But this mayor seems to remember why a nation of laws has laws in the first place.
But Whitteaker didn't want to wait for a problem to pop up. He calls the law "preventative maintenance."
So, Mayor Whitteaker made an illegal immigration preemptive strike. You gotta love it.
Of course, cities that take on this issue have their critics.
Three other communities - Hazleton, Pa., Hazle Township, Pa., and Riverside Township in New Jersey - have passed a version of the law, said John Garcia of the New York-based Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. More than a dozen others are considering it.
"It splits the community," Garcia said. "That's the only thing you get at the end of the day. It gives carte blanche to people who are anti-immigrant and anti-Latino."
Mr. Garcia has it right. It splits the community into two groups. Legal and illegal. And it takes away the "carte blanche" from the illegal immigrant and gives it back to those that obey the laws of this nation.
And rightly so.
If Mr. Garcia wants to defend illegal immigration by stating that it is "anti-immigrant" or "anti-Latino" to expect everyone to play by the same rules, well then, he doesn't have much of an argument, does he?
The Valley Park law on illegal immigration:
English is the official language of the city. Official city business and communications will be conducted in English. A landlord who rents to illegal immigrants can be fined $500. A company that hires illegal immigrants will be denied a business permit and cannot get a city contract for five years.
Also blogging on Illegal Immigration:
DeMediacratic Nation, "Prejudice intrinsic to immigration debate"
The Uncooperative Blogger, "11 Immigrants Get Reprieve From Deportation"
The Amboy Times, "The Border, Sex and Slavery"
Border Pundit, "Colorado Governor signs tough immigration law"
**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.**
