The Republic of Hartford

Journal-Inquirer Managing Editor Chris Powell weighs in this weekend with an editorial critical of plans under consideration by the Hartford City Council to adopt a sanctuary policy like the one in place in New Haven.

Excerpt:

Forbidding police from inquiring about citizenship when it has no relevance to the investigation of crime is one thing. Giving identification documents to people who are in the country illegally, precisely to facilitate their remaining in the country illegally, and refusing to cooperate with the national government’s enforcement of immigration law are something else — subversive and treasonable.

Is there a failure of immigration policy in this country?
Should it be strengthened and better enforced, or should it be liberalized?
How much of an impact does illegal immigration have in Fairfield County?
Should local law enforcement be deputized or trained for immigration enforcement?
Are you more in tune with Danbury; or New Haven?

  • Retired Yes

    the cost of educating the children of illegal aliens is way beyond what most would estimate.
    State of Connecticut does not allow for asking for citizenship to register for school. No, we don’t want illiterate masses.
    But- if the illegals were not here- the cost would disappear as well.
    Imagine the costs absorbed by Hartford for nonpayment of health costs.
    Go Danbury.

  • anon432

    Danbury is no different than Norwalk in the number of illegals. Where Danbury the problem has come to a head because of certain events in the past few years that just ended with the accident that involved a motorcycle accident. A resident was knocked off his motor bike and the person who hit him was an illegal who has been returned to Mexico twice before this accident. As for education, we are paying through the nose for ELL classes where students are here for a few months then disappear maybe to be seen again two years later. They take books with them, do damage to the schools and then we never see them again. They don’t come back for their records and they are often older than the neighborhood kids. Is it a problem? Yes, we should ask for citizenship papers to register and we should have unannounced house checks to see just who is living where. I could go on for ever about this topic. It is draining a lot of our assets.

  • Anonymous

    The Hartford and New Haven elites need cheap labor: gardners, nannys, handymen and dishwashers, subsidized by taxpayers. Its not about altruism; its about money.

  • anon432

    Untrue #3. There a lot of low income US citizens who would love the work.

  • Old-timer

    People have been saying the same kinds of things about “aliens” for a very long time. Robert Kennedy once read into the Congressional record an editorial decrying just about everything about immigrant aliens. Only after he was finished did he identify the piece as something published in the late 1800s about the Irish. The immigration reform act of 1965 was being debated at the time.

  • Charles the Hammer

    The point that Chris Powell emphasizes is not centered on the problems which may arise from whatever group currently makes up a tide of illegal immigrants, but rather the folly of intentional disregard for the law.

    If we are to remain a nation in which the people govern themselves, laws instituted by our representatives will lose legitimacy if the various subordinate levels of state governance pick and choose the statutes they should like to to follow. The so-called “sanctuary cities” like Hartford and New Haven violate the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause. Matters concerning immigration are clearly the domain of the national government. Control over territory and those permitted to cross international borders is a fundamental prerequisite for sovereignty. Those cities blatantly disregarding Federal law by their illegal and foolish policies do everyone wrong because they ignore the agreed upon order of our country. They subvert the rule of law and, in doing so, the authority of the citizens that endorsed such law through the processes of election, appointment, and confirmation.

    Should Hartford and New Haven be permitted to choose other Federal statutes to flout? How about laws governing voting rights, the environment, or the printing of currency? Perhaps the Hartford city council might like to open treaty talks with foreign powers or New Haven could begin to raise its own navy. Are these deviations from the constitutional blueprint any less ridiculous than having individual towns proclaiming which immigration laws they will observe and which they will ignore?

    If citizens in Hartford or New Haven believe that U.S. immigration law is flawed, they should air their grievances and address those concerns where they properly belong, in the Congress. Open defiance of legitimate Federal law is wrong and those who engage in it should be prosecuted.

  • Anonymous

    If U.S. Federal immigration law was the rule of law, then all this would be moot. Enforce the law. Apply fines to those who violate it by hiring illegals. The incentive to come this country is diminished by doing so.

    The Feds (and in particular, the Bush Administration) have set a non-example in the way they’ve handled immigration. Bush, having been governor of the state of Texas, where educating the children of illegal immigrants costs the state $4 billion every year, knows all too well what the problems are.

    Let’s just be thankful that terrorists haven’t somehow figured out how easy it is to slip unnoticed into this country. Maybe they have and the other shoes hasn’t dropped yet.

    Build a wall? What a joke. Anyone can see that’s political grandstanding.

    Cities will stop providing havens for illegal immigrants, once this nation stops doing it.

  • Ex-cop

    Federal immigration law is the rule of law, but the people responsible for enforcing it have very little support from congress. Without adequate funding, INS enforcement is a joke. Imagine local law enforcement with the police budget cut down to 10% of current levels. For years there were only two INS field agents covering the entire State. The occasional raid you read about usually required agents borrowed from other places and a lot of manpower borrowed from local police. Most illegal immigrants that get arrested are released on a promise to come back to court as they have no place to detain anybody.

  • Anonymous

    The City of Hartford will initiate a curfew on teens under 18 starting this week, Mayor Eddie Perez announced Monday.

    Before you all think thats what Norwalk needs the city spent millions on two detention centers and juvenlie court expanse and 100 more officers.Brought in overnight ICE and ATF and all other agencies to fight crime starting today.Wonder where the reporter got his scoop for a sancturary?

    So what thats Hartford,where does the crime and drugs and crimminals usually go after a move like this? To greener pastures where there isn’t the resources manpower or brains to stop this gee I wonder what city has the least committment to law and order.

    This is great for Hartford and now Bridgeport and Stamford where the state knows they have spent money time and resources they will get money first to fight crime they have spent the most now havn’t they?

    Be interesting what the Journal says now.

  • Anonymous

    oh I forgot 11 shot sat including a kid in a stroller amazing how things change overnight.Thank god it can’t happen in Norwalk.

  • Anonymous

    adopt a sanctuary policy? what would this mean for every illegal boarding house we have in Norwalk? Every illegal needing somewhere to stay would find a home within a foreclosed house.

    McDonald and McKinney said there are concerns about another piece of the legislation intended to help innocent tenants renting an apartment in a foreclosed building to stall eviction.

    McKinney said there is the possibility the law would allow tenants to remain in an apartment rent-free for several months.

    This would be great for Norwalk!