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Anti-illegals group is outraged Rocky allows 'sanctuary' in S.L.
By Brady Snyder
Deseret Morning News
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600144106,00.html
A Friday meeting between Mayor Rocky Anderson and a trio of immigration reform advocates confirmed their expectations: They have little, if anything, in common.
While the advocates gave Anderson credit for even meeting with them — many politicians in Utah won't — their efforts to stem illegal immigration definitely won't include the mayor.
In fact, Salt Lake's future is better off without him, too, the reformers said, promising to launch a public relations campaign aimed at getting Anderson voted out of office should he run for a third term.
"Salt Lake City is a place I love, and I'm not just going to sit by and let Rocky destroy it," Alex Segura of Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (UFIRE) said. "Salt Lake City has been undergoing a Hispanicfication, if you will, and Rocky supports that. Maybe it will affect his election if he tries to go again."
Of course, other conservative groups have tried to influence Salt Lake City politics, with little success. In his 2003 election, a conservative group called Fed UP Utah, based in Davis County, launched a campaign to get Anderson unseated.
Some criticized the attempt, saying it backfired in politically liberal Salt Lake City.
On Friday Segura, along with Wally McCormick of the Utah Minuteman Project and Jeff McNeil of Save America, asked Anderson and Police Chief Rick Dinse to reconsider the city's policy of "sanctuary."
It's a policy employed by most, if not all, local police forces across the nation and simply calls for police not to inquire into the legal resident status of the people they deal with. Dinse has said if local police went around inquiring about immigration status it would discourage people from seeking help from the police.
Immigration reform groups maintain local police should be doing the inquiries and thus could help in getting illegal immigrants out of the United States.
"There's no plan certainly on the police department's part to make a change in that (sanctuary policy)," Dinse told KSL Radio after the meeting Friday. By asking about immigration status "we would turn away a large portion of the community that we are here to serve."
Illegal immigrants "are victims more than they are suspects," Dinse said. "We need to protect those victims."
Anderson's office did not return calls for comment after the meeting. A day earlier his spokeswoman Deeda Seed said the mayor didn't plan on commenting because he didn't want to turn the meeting into a media circus.
In the past Anderson has often stood up for illegal immigrants' rights. In 2001 he chastised the federal government for a raid at the Salt Lake City International Airport that netted 69 arrests.
Immigration reformers maintain radical action is needed to curb illegal immigration. Segura said the influx of illegal aliens causes cultural problems within a community that will eventually undermine that community.
"You can see areas of Salt Lake that look like areas of Los Angeles. Every sign is in Spanish and the neighborhoods are run down," Segura said. "I want it to be one community, not segregated between Hispanics and citizens. This is America, not some multicultural hodgepodge."
By Brady Snyder
Deseret Morning News
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600144106,00.html
A Friday meeting between Mayor Rocky Anderson and a trio of immigration reform advocates confirmed their expectations: They have little, if anything, in common.
While the advocates gave Anderson credit for even meeting with them — many politicians in Utah won't — their efforts to stem illegal immigration definitely won't include the mayor.
In fact, Salt Lake's future is better off without him, too, the reformers said, promising to launch a public relations campaign aimed at getting Anderson voted out of office should he run for a third term.
"Salt Lake City is a place I love, and I'm not just going to sit by and let Rocky destroy it," Alex Segura of Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (UFIRE) said. "Salt Lake City has been undergoing a Hispanicfication, if you will, and Rocky supports that. Maybe it will affect his election if he tries to go again."
Of course, other conservative groups have tried to influence Salt Lake City politics, with little success. In his 2003 election, a conservative group called Fed UP Utah, based in Davis County, launched a campaign to get Anderson unseated.
Some criticized the attempt, saying it backfired in politically liberal Salt Lake City.
On Friday Segura, along with Wally McCormick of the Utah Minuteman Project and Jeff McNeil of Save America, asked Anderson and Police Chief Rick Dinse to reconsider the city's policy of "sanctuary."
It's a policy employed by most, if not all, local police forces across the nation and simply calls for police not to inquire into the legal resident status of the people they deal with. Dinse has said if local police went around inquiring about immigration status it would discourage people from seeking help from the police.
Immigration reform groups maintain local police should be doing the inquiries and thus could help in getting illegal immigrants out of the United States.
"There's no plan certainly on the police department's part to make a change in that (sanctuary policy)," Dinse told KSL Radio after the meeting Friday. By asking about immigration status "we would turn away a large portion of the community that we are here to serve."
Illegal immigrants "are victims more than they are suspects," Dinse said. "We need to protect those victims."
Anderson's office did not return calls for comment after the meeting. A day earlier his spokeswoman Deeda Seed said the mayor didn't plan on commenting because he didn't want to turn the meeting into a media circus.
In the past Anderson has often stood up for illegal immigrants' rights. In 2001 he chastised the federal government for a raid at the Salt Lake City International Airport that netted 69 arrests.
Immigration reformers maintain radical action is needed to curb illegal immigration. Segura said the influx of illegal aliens causes cultural problems within a community that will eventually undermine that community.
"You can see areas of Salt Lake that look like areas of Los Angeles. Every sign is in Spanish and the neighborhoods are run down," Segura said. "I want it to be one community, not segregated between Hispanics and citizens. This is America, not some multicultural hodgepodge."
