One day after the nation observes the 17th anniversary of Sept. 11, the New York City Council will vote on a measure to prohibit the city from contracting with “entities engaged in immigration enforcement,” including those dealing with anti-terrorism training.
The measure introduced by City Councilman Carlos Menchaca, a Democrat, is so incredibly beyond reason and potentially harmful that even the Mayor Bill de Blasio has refused to back it – and he backs any item on the open borders agenda.
One of the primary arguments against it is the simple fact that the city only has two contracts with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), only one of which affects U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE’s parent entity, and neither agreement pertains whatsoever to civil immigration enforcement .
New York City Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Bitta Mostofi testified at a Sept. 6 council hearing that the city has one contract that allows DHS agents access to use a city lab to test the air for biotoxins.
The other contract gives agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) permission to use the NYPD’s Bronx firing range. HSI is the criminal investigations division of ICE, and is responsible for enforcing myriad federal statutes covering everything from terrorism to customs violations.
Mostofi noted the “contract serves extremely important national security interests, and is unrelated to civil immigration enforcement,” but that did not play on Menchaca’s deaf ears and mind.
Menchaca argued at last week’s meeting that “rogue immigration enforcement under ICE has been a problem since its inception,” which reinforced the need to “disentangle” the city from ICE .
He added that the issue is “not just about dollars and cents, about a contract with revenue, but also a message to a community that needs us to stand up and say no” and to “strengthen our standing as a sanctuary city.” In short, according to Menchaca, the benefits of the bill’s symbolism far outweigh any cost to security. He is, apparently, as convinced of his own virtue as he is that he has the votes necessary to pass the bill – regardless of the mayor’s position.
“This Council has done many things against the will of this mayor, so theoretically, absolutely we will have” the votes, he said, according to the New York Post.
The city’s sanctuary city policies already have created security risks in the Big Apple, but whether other council members are willing to undermine efforts to prevent another terrorist attack for the sake of appearances and immigrants’ feelings will be known Wednesday when they vote on the bill.
6 Comments
Do you notice it is always people of latino descent who wants to abolish borders and ICE so that the people from latino countries can come freely into the country, which will deplete our welfare benefits systems, and get american citizens jobs, even in ancient times, people defended their borders and lands ….. a country without borders is not a country….. so don’t listen to them
Good deter tourism for NYE &Macys Parade etc?? Awesome,
It would be funny if it weren’t so serious. The call to eliminate ICE came right on the heels of the discovery that illegal alien children were being separated from their illegal alien parents at the border. For whatever reason, those calling for the end to separating families went after ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Homeland Security agency that tracks down illegal aliens in the interior of the United States. It is U.S. Customs and Border Patrol that is tasked with stopping illegal immigrants at or near the border. They are the group that separated children from adults that were going to be held an indeterminant amount of time.
It would hardly be safe for children to be held in confinement with adults and continuing with the Obama era of ‘catch and release’ was not a viable option either since the vast majority of those illegal aliens told to come back on such and such a date were never to be seen again. It was then ICE who would be sent to apprehend them and turn them over to USCBP who would separate them if the parent were to be held.
Those protesting the separation should first find out who is doing the separating, which is not ICE, and then discover if the law was being followed. If it wasn’t, that would be an easy fix, tell them to follow it. If the law was being followed the fix is action by Congress which may be a lengthy process but the only legal one.
You can just see the newest leftist slogan. Abolish DHS. And the fact is that Abolish ICE means abolish borders. Just another case of where the media lets the people who say those things get away without explaining the bottom line of what they are saying. Because just calling for a “replacement” for ICE does not explain what that replacement will actually have the authority to do. Can they detain people who “only” are “undocumented”? Do workplace raids? One would not be too far off base to think that what they mean is you have to be a serial killer to get deported.
The media is a joke anyway. We supposedly have a “constitutional crisis” because some “White House official” wrote some op-ed for the NY Times. That term can actually apply to hundreds if not thousands of people who not only work in the White House itself but the several executive office buildings. Obviously the guy is just another NeverTrumper because of his lavish praise for McCain, who was a liar and war hawk.
When he had primary opponents in 2010 and 2016 he went hard right on immigration enforcement, and then the minute he was back in the Senate he and his pal Lindsey Graham were huddling with the Democrats on some unlimited amnesty bill.
There are web sites that focus exclusively on McCain’s support for every military intervention all over the world, including the disaster he and Hillary helped bring about in Libya. A couple years ago when Rand Paul suggested we were never supposed to be the policeman of the world, he was attacked by McCain and Graham. To which senator Paul replied, “This comes from a group of people wrong about every policy issue over the last couple decades”.
For illegal aliens, it’s now *********** on the citizenry of NYC. As the Rolling Stones famously said about the Big Apple – “Don’t mind the maggots!”
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