News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
A Rasmussen poll this month shows that by the definitions of some most Pennsylvanians are right-wing extremists.
In a poll of 500 likely voters, Rasmussen found that 53 percent supported an immigration law like the one recently passed in Arizona, 71 percent believed a police officer should check driver’s for immigration status during traffic stops and 61 percent supported the repeal of Obamacare.
Philadelphia City Council, May 6, passed a non-binding resolution asking Mayor Michael Nutter to divest any business from Arizona and to encourage area business to reconsider conventions there.
The resolution is non-binding and the vote was 14-3. It was introduced by Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez and was in response to Arizona SB 1070 which neither Ms. Sanchez nor the 13 other council members who voted for the resolution apparently bothered to read
As pointed out by Philadelphia Daily News columnist extraordinaire Stu Bykofsky, the Philly resolution claims that the Arizona law “gives local police broad, unprecedented power to detain individuals
based on the vague grounds of suspicion that they are undocumented.”
Well, it doesn’t. It says that that police must check on a person’s immigration status — a driver’s license would suffice, btw, — during a “lawful contact”, which, btw, is being changed in HB 2162 to the even more restrictive “stop,
detain or arrest” standard. Aren’t Philadelphia Police expected to ascertain the identify of people they “stop, detain or arrest?”
As a service to Philadelphia City Council the text to SB 1070 can be found here and the text to HB 2162 can be found here.
And it appears State Rep. Daryl
Metcalfe (R-12) was very wise in binding the law enforcement authorities to check immigration status in the bill modeled on the Arizona law that he just introduced in Harrisburg.
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-12) submitted a bill, May 5, that would give state and local in Pennsylvania powers akin to those held by Arizona authorities under that state’s recently passed law, and require that “every agency or political subdivision of this Commonwealth shall verify the lawful presence in the United States of any natural person 18 years of age or older who has applied for Federal public benefits, State public benefits or local public benefits . . that are administered by an agency or a political subdivision of this Commonwealth” with some exceptions such as treatment of an emergency medical condition, in-kind emergency disaster relief, immunizations and services such as soup kitchens and short-term shelter.
House Bill 2479, or the Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act, prohibits any political subdivision from adopting policy restricting enforcement of Federal immigration laws to less than the full extent permitted by Federal law — are you reading Mayor Nutter — requires every law enforcement officer, whether state or local , who “has lawfully stopped, detained or arrested, for a violation of a law of this Commonwealth or any political subdivision” and who should be reasonably suspected of being unlawfully present in the United States” to make “a complete, full and appropriate attempt shall be made to verify the person’s immigration status with the Federal Government.”
Another provision of the bill makes it a state law to knowingly employ an alien and creates a complaint form allowing any person to report a suspected violation to the district attorney of the county in which the employer conducts business.
The bill also makes it illegal for an unauthorized alien to “apply for work, solicit work in a public place or perform work as an employee or independent contractor” in the state.
The bill also allows police to impound vehicles of those suspected of being illegal aliens or transporting illegal aliens.
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-12 ) said he will introduce tomorrow a bill that will give Pennsylvania police the same powers in dealing with illegal aliens that the controversial Arizona law has given state and local law enforcement in that state.
The Arizona law — State Bill 1070 if you are so inclined to look it up — does not, despite claims by certain prominent people, allow police to stop people and random and ask for identification.
It simply requires them to check on their immigration status if they are unable to produce acceptable identification i.e. a driver’s license during a lawful contact, which will soon be changed to an even more restrictive “stop, detain or arrest” standard.
Of course it does other things to such as make it a state felony to knowingly smuggle people for profit or to attempt to hire people for work from a highway.
If you don’t feel like looking it up here’s a link to a pdf of the AZ SB 1070 .
If Metcalfe really wanted to make liberals dance around like headless hens he should submit a bill based on Mexico’s immigration law.