Ballot Measure Would Ban Day Labor Centers, Impose Other Penalties

Echoes of Herndon, Virginia, where voter opposition to a numbskull proposal for a publicly-funded day labor center was a decisive factor in elections earlier this week for mayor and city council. It appears that legal citizens in San Bernardino, California are going to force a public vote quite soon on a ballot initiative that if approved would outlaw local day labor centers (which cater to illegal immigrants); and fine landlords for renting apartments to illegal immigrants. The measure includes other punishments for facilitating illegal immigration, in the spirit of the bill approved by the U.S. House. While the legality of all the provisions is unclear, the message is not. The Los Angeles Times has more.

(Save Our State Executive Director Joseph) Turner gathered 2,216 signatures to invoke a rarely used provision of San Bernardino's city charter that would force council members to vote on the proposal in 10 days, without any amendments. If the council rejects the ordinance, the measure automatically goes before voters on a citywide ballot. (In addition to banning day labor centers) the proposal would prohibit illegal immigrants from renting or leasing property, holding landlords liable and subject to a minimum $1,000 fine; allow police to impound vehicles used to transport undocumented workers; require the city to deny permits, contracts and grants to employers that hire illegal immigrants; and require city business to be conducted in English.

....Crackdowns on illegal immigrants have won some political support in the region. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors last year unanimously approved screening jail inmates for their immigration status, and Riverside County followed suit last month. Both boards of supervisors faced little of the discord that marked Los Angeles County's plan to do the same.

The growing backlash is against the "rights" demanded in nationwide protests this week and in the last month by illegal immigrants and their supporters, and the insulting manner in which those demands have been made. Democratic gubernatorial candidates in California distanced themselves from the May 1 protests, although there's nothing "strange" about it, as the SF Chron editorialized in a hed on this "objective" news article. These guys know how to count votes, after all. So does Santa Ana, California Mayor Miguel Pulido, a Mexican native and naturalized U.S. citizen.

The protestors have erred badly in several ways. First, by refusing to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. Second, by alleging "racism" from supporters of the tough immigration reform bill approved by the U.S. House. Third, they have erred by organizing voter registration drives directed at illegal immigrants, the mere suggestion of which makes a mockery of our elections process and the meaning of citizenship.

What the illegals and their sanctimonious, race-baiting supporters need to understand is that in politics, especially politics surrounding the problem of continued illegal immigration into the United States from Mexico, every action has an opposite and quite likely more-than-equal reaction. Further, unwarranted moral outrage directed at supporters of tough and enforced barriers to illegal immigration will only energize their efforts. Drop the hectoring and posturing, and make your arguments for broad amnesty and legalization based on the merits. If there are any. Oh, yes, in case anyone's wondering: I DO have a plan.

TECHNORATI TAGS: SAN BERNARDINO, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, DAY LABOR CENTERS, JOSEPH TURNER, SAVE OUR STATE, HERNDON, VIRGINIA, LANDLORDS, RACISM, VOTER REGISTRATION

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 5, 2006 04:22 PM

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