Our campaign for fair and honest government proposes San Diego become an “Amnesty City.” Any immigrant who can prove that they have lived within the city of San Diego for 10 years continuously and who have children born here will be considered “city residents” and will get legal assistance to sustain their path toward U.S. citizenship.
2. “Insecure Communities” and the misinformation of the federal Government
I suggest that city of San Diego sue the county for entering into an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which was (1) based falsehood and (2) not discussed with local law enforcement agencies and the public within the County of San Diego.
The so-called Secure Communities program, which allows Homeland Security and the FBI automatic access to the personal information of anyone being detained, was put forth as a program to get undocumented dangerous criminals out of the United States. However, Bridget Kessler of the Immigration Justice Clinic, accuses the Feds of “misrepresenting the program,” which has seen 26 percent of those deported nation-wide as non-criminals. In San Diego, an incredible 63 percent of the deportees, many young people, hadn’t committed a single crime – just detained and processed. This is more than the 54 percent of innocent people snared by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s posse. In Travis County, Texas 82 percent of those evicted have been non-criminals.
Commenting on these statistics released in August, 2010 by the National Day Laborers Network, San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey, who opposes the deceptive program said, that the Feds are “throwing a gill net over the concept of immigration reform.” He also warned that linking local law enforcement with ICE will mean that victims and witnesses will not report crime.
Sunital Patel, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights added, “what we see is the separation of families, years of community policing wasted, a poisoning of police-community relations, our legal presumption of innocence has been thrown out and it also has had negative fiscal impacts.
3. No Immigration Checks for Housing
We propose an ordinance which prohibits landlords from immigration checks for applicants to rent housing and current renters. It has been noted that the AFSC office in San Diego receives a number of complaints of attempts to intimidate by landlords or managers. Renters are threatened to be reported to immigration authorities for complaining about unsafe conditions.