Karin Dryhurst

California Guv Wannabe Calls Out San Francisco

Just as thousands marched for immigration reform in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, the Los Angeles Times published a fear-mongering op-ed by GOP governor hopeful Steve Poizner.

We have seen the tragic consequences that can stem from offering sanctuary to protect criminals who are in our country illegally.

Poizner goes on to recount the story of an undocumented immigrant that was charged with murder. Yeah--cause only immigrants can commit crimes.

Besides demonizing immigrants, Poizner makes sure to demonize cities:

Some have said that illegal immigration is an issue for the federal government, not the states, and that there's little a governor can do to fix the problem. Those people are wrong.

Confronting illegal immigration also means confronting those who offer assistance to those who are flouting the law. We need to end "sanctuary city" policies, in which communities (San Francisco, for example) openly offer haven to illegal aliens. Counties, cities and towns that put in place sanctuary policies should lose state funds.

So state government should take immigration reform into its own hands under GOP leadership, but cities that refuse to criminalize immigration under a broken system should lose state funds.

Poizner claims that "the consequences and costs of illegal immigration fall on the states," and he proposes eliminating "public benefit magnets" like social services to save money. And he wants to increase enforcement and workplace crackdowns.

But he forgets that local enforcement--like the 287(g) program--burden local enforcement while rarely catching dangerous criminals and that undocumented immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in social services. It would be nice if Poizner had some evidence to back up his claims rather than scare tactics.

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Posted at 12:41 PM, Mar 29, 2010 in Immigration
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