Immigration
On April 23, 2007, Newsom again drew national attention when he announced at a community action held by the San Francisco Organizing Project that he would do everything he could to discourage federal authorities from conducting immigration raids. "Our action is to stand strong in opposition to these raids... to make sure that we are not contributing in any way, shape or form", Newsom said. "Even legal immigrants are fearful. This just sends a chill to a lot of people. There are a lot of cities that want these raids. That's where the federal government should be spending their time." Newsom supported city identification cards for illegal immigrants in 2007 to allow them access to city services and to be able to set up bank accounts in the city. In April 2008, San Francisco undertook a $83,000 advertisement campaign to inform city residents that San Francisco is a sanctuary city as part of the identification card program. In July 2008, following the high profile murder of a local father and his two sons by a previously arrested illegal immigrant, as reported on CNN, Newsom announced that San Francisco would change its policy of shielding illegal immigrants who had committed other crimes and that San Francisco would begin to cooperate with the federal government in that regard. However, the city remains a sanctuary for illegal immigrants.
Read more about this topic: Mayoralty Of Gavin Newsom
Famous quotes containing the word immigration:
“America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“I was interested to see how a pioneer lived on this side of the country. His life is in some respects more adventurous than that of his brother in the West; for he contends with winter as well as the wilderness, and there is a greater interval of time at least between him and the army which is to follow. Here immigration is a tide which may ebb when it has swept away the pines; there it is not a tide, but an inundation, and roads and other improvements come steadily rushing after.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The admission of Oriental immigrants who cannot be amalgamated with our people has been made the subject either of prohibitory clauses in our treaties and statutes or of strict administrative regulations secured by diplomatic negotiations. I sincerely hope that we may continue to minimize the evils likely to arise from such immigration without unnecessary friction and by mutual concessions between self-respecting governments.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)