Re: Sanctuary City?

October 4, 2007 - The federal government, bloggers and media have recently given attention to sanctuary cities. We note that ‘sanctuary city’ status for Corvallis held some appeal for two City Councilors last May as shown in their email exchanges archived in the Corvallis City Council Public E-mail Forum. Recent comments have been posted thus renewing interest in this subject. Below the fold are the conversations found on the public forum [in order of date/time stamp, earliest to most recent].

14 May 2007 16:04:32, Message 11138
From Stuart Wershow (Ward 6) to Mike Beilstein (Ward 5):

Re: Sanctuary City?
Mike,I have read about sanctuary cities. Did you want to ask the council if we wanted to become one? If yes, we might want to put it on the agenda for the next work session in June. Or, we could ask a group like NAACP to make a proposal. What do you want to do?
Stewart

[Article from Washington Post.com, April 10, 2007 included in full: Looking the Other Way on Immigrants Some Cities Buck Federal Policies]

15 May 2007 15:28:22, Message 11148
E-mail response from Mike Beilstein to Stuart Wershow:

Re: Sanctuary City?
Hello Stewart-I don't intend to make any proposal to the city council. What I would like to do is to have a public forum on the issue, with input from CPD about current policy on immigration issues. For example, under what circumstances would the department notify Immigration enforcement of a person's undocumented status? Does the CPD ever detain suspects on immigration violation charges? Would Immigration (used to be INS, I think it's ICE now.) be informed if a person presented a fake or fraudulently obtained driver's licence in a traffic stop?

I think CAD, CPF, NAACP, or the Multicultural Literacy Center, or gteh Bill of Rights Defence Committee, or ACLU would be potential sponsors for the forum. The target audience would be both the hispanic community and the "civil rights" advocacy community, in addition to policy makers like city council.

We might eventually want to be a "sanctuary city," but there are probably other less radical steps we could take. Before we do anything we need to examine what the need is. The forum would be a way to start assessing the situation.

Thanks for your intetrest.
Mike Beilstein

15 May 2007 18:57:48, Message 11150
Stuart Wershow to Mike Beilstein:

Re: Sanctuary City?
Mike,Thanks for the feedback. The Forum will be soon making plans for its next year schedule and I will bring this topic up. Another group to have a involved would be the Cesar Chavez Center on campus. The forum has met with them in the past and I have wanted to go back. I believe CPD will be coming to NAACP in July. We could start the conversation with that meeting.
Stewart

24 Sep 2007 07:09:35 -0700, Message 12164
Enquiry email from Angelo to War 6:

Re: (web)What?
Why in the hell would you openy advocate making Corvallis a sanctuary city? First off, it's wrong on so many moral and ethical levels it's not funny, and secondly..you are asking that Corvallis become a haven and a magnet for people who have no problem breaking laws.

Why would you even suggest this? At the very least, it's a career killer for you and anyone who supports the idea. Think of all of the negative media conerage. Is there anything POSITIVE about being a sanctuary city? I can't think of one.

24 Sep 2007 13:24:59 -0700, Message 12169Enquiry email from: Gary to Ward 6:

Re: (web)Sanctuary city?
Hi, it's a bad idea. Would one make their house a sanctuary house for criminals? Haven't you seen what happens as a result of sanctuary policies?
Thanks.