Saturday, May 15, 2010

New Law in New Mexico ends Sanctuary City Status

FROM EMAIL:

New Law in New Mexico ends Sanctuary City Status

Good law. Not great, but a step in the right direction. Obviously every city in America should be checking and identifying all criminals for immigration status.

Here is what is being done in Albuquerque as of May 13:

New Law in Albuquerque
Albuquerque mayor Richard Berry announced today that everyone who is arrested in Albuquerque will have their immigration status checked, regardless of race. Berry announced the plan, which Berry characterized as a “not an immigration issue” but “a public safety issue,” to end what he called Albuquerque’s sanctuary city status.

“This plan ends the sanctuary city policy for criminals while protecting victims and witnesses,” Mayor Berry said. “By making immigration checks mandatory for everyone arrested regardless of their nationality, skin color or language, we are removing racial profiling from the equation.”
In the release mentioning the new policy, Berry made multiple references to saying this would not be racial profiling. After enacting a new, controversial immigration law, Arizona is facing financial consequences because of what critics say is racial profiling.

Alfredo Campos, the acting field office director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention and Removal Operations in El Paso, said in a statement, “This is not a good day for criminal aliens who before today may have not been identified by ICE at the Metropolitan Detention Center.”

“As far as these new procedures are concerned, a person going about their day to day business has no reason to fear that they will be questioned about their legal status,” Berry said. “Further, victims and witnesses will not have their immigration status checked when they call for help or to report a crime.”

Immigration was a part of Berry’s platform as a mayoral candidate last year.

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