Look, immigration is about an 80% issue. Most people in this country are of the opinion that people from other countries should respect us enough to enter this country legally. It simply makes sense for law enforcement agencies to at least make a phone call when someone is suspected of being in our country illegally.WINTER: APD SHOULD REPORT CRIMINAL ILLEGALS TO FEDS
Councilor to Address Mayor’s “Sanctuary City Policy” at APD
ALBUQUERQUE – City Councilor Brad Winter said today he will introduce a measure to allow the Albuquerque Police Department to determine the immigration status for individuals arrested for, or suspected of, committing a crime, and require that those suspected of being in the country illegally be immediately reported to federal immigration officials.
Winter said he intends to amend a 2001 resolution that sought to make Albuquerque an “immigrant friendly” city. Winter’s resolution will include the following language, “If a person is in police custody or is a suspect in a criminal investigation, law enforcement shall take reasonable steps to identify that person’s immigration status and shall immediately notify federal immigration officials if they suspect that person is not lawfully in the United States, where applicable.”
“The 2001 resolution was passed unanimously to protect the rights of immigrants and was never intended to make Albuquerque a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants who commit crimes,” said Winter.
Earlier this week, a copy of APD’s new change in “procedural orders” was obtained by a local news station. It stated clearly that “officers shall not inquire about… a person’s immigration status, even if an arrest is made for a non-immigration criminal violation.”
APD Police Chief Ray Schultz held a press conference to tout the new policy and said that local activist groups helped write it. After intense public outcry over the change, a new and altered copy of those “procedural orders” was released to the press. While Mayor Martin Chavez’s administration claims the second document was a “clarification,” it effectively did nothing to alter the original policy change.
“Our diversity is our strength and Albuquerque should always remain a welcoming and immigrant-friendly city. Anyone who is a victim or a witness to a crime should be able to call police for help without fear of having their immigration status investigated. But Mayor Chavez has gone too far. We can’t turn a blind eye to criminals who are in the country illegally,” said Winter.
Winter said he also wants to set up a task force to take a look at the larger issues raised in the 2001 resolution.
“We need to immediately clarify what city law requires of its local law enforcement, and then we need to take a look at the bigger picture,” said Winter. “We live in a border state in a post-9-11 world. The people of Albuquerque deserve input on how we deal with these issues.”- Press Release
Aug 16, 2007
Winter Calls for APD to Report Illegals
This afternoon we received a press release from Councilor Brad Winter's office. He's calling for a re-write of Albuquerque's illegal immigrant friendly ordinance that stipulates that APD shouldn't go out of its way to determine the status of suspected illegals.
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25 comments:
Great for councilor Winter, at least someone in city government is stepping up to the plate.
The APD must change and deal with the problem at hand!
It's too bad the Council Winter is not Mayor.
This immigration move will surely kill Mayor Chavez's chances for governor.
Just wait until the peoplein the southern cities here what here has done for Albuquerque and law enforcement.
That will pretty much do him in!
Winter has it right!
How does this compare with other non-criminal Federal Law enforcement by city police? If the police suspect someone of violating other federal civil laws (but no local or criminal laws), do they arrest people, or report it to the proper agency? Or do they figure they have enough to do in their own jurisdiction?
Thank You Brad Winter!
At least Councilman Winters has the balls to address this issue. Just about everyone in this country is so worried about being so f**cken potically correct that this country is going to hell. In the meantime there are young men and women fighting and dying in a war against terroism. Young kids too, and I for one believe we have the responsibility to do our part in this country in making sure terrorists aren't so easily able to come back and forth across the borders so easily, Canada or Mexico! Has everyone forgot September 11th? Come on folks wake up!
Common sense to look at terrorists like we look at drug interdiction. If it or they are moving by land in the Southwest they will take I25 or I 40. That means at some point they will pass thru Burque (or the "Q" as this admin likes to call it). The feds are looking at MORE enforcement from local law enforcement -- leave it to ALbuquerque to go backwards once again.
This is great, but it shouldn't matter if the illegal has committed a "crime". By being here ILLEGALY, he's already broken the law and should be reported to the feds. Already being in custody for another crime shouldn't be the "qualifier" for whether or not the feds get called. If he/she wasn't here ILLEGALY to begin with, he wouldn't be here to commit any other crime....in this country anyway.
A good starting point -- I think what really messes with everyone's head politically is that immigration is a "80%" issue or more. Even here where we are a Hispanic majority city, or darn nearly so, we poll over 80% all the time on stringent immigration enforcement. Maybe its time the politicos on all sides went for the easy votes and cracked down on ilegals from all nations.
You go Councilor Winter....make APD's admin tow the line. The troops are behind you.
"How does this compare with other non-criminal Federal Law enforcement by city police?"
That's a good question, Michelle.
There are so many federal laws and policies for which a typical Albuquerque citizen has had such minimal representation in enacting. Yet for some reason, on this particular one, we're expected to spend our local tax dollars investigating and enforcing DC's policies? What's so *special* about this one? Ever since we implicitly repealed the 10th Amendment, there has been an explosion of federal regulation in a wide variety of areas, but I mostly just hear about APD working on very traditional crimes, such as murder, theft, etc: violations of state (or even city) law.
In addition to there being federal standards for being allowed to live here, have the people of Albuquerque gone out of their way to set some standards of their own? Do we even *care*? I don't recall taking a test, when I moved here from another state in 1975. So just what stake _do_ locals have in Washington's immigration standards, such that we're willing to spend our own resources on it, rather than leave it to the feds?
I already pay far more in federal income tax than I pay in any other kind of tax. If you're going to take that money from me, then enforce your distantly-made laws out of _that_ budget! APD should be enforcing _our_ laws, not someone else's.
Or if we are going to enforce laws that we didn't actually choose for ourselves, then at least enforce them all with the same level of integrity. Get APD out there checking smokestacks vs federal emission standards, get APD investigating violations of federal copyright law, get APD out there wasting our money on every sort of special interest passed by senators from Alaska to Florida. It would be absurd, but consistent with giving a damn about immigration policy.
Your taking your argument to an extreme and it just doesn't work. First off when I sworn in as a police officer I sworn to uphold not only the law of Albuquerque and New Mexico but also of the United States. Now the feds have just as many laws that are not enforced as the state has. As an APD officer I was never out there checking cattle for rustling, but it is on the state books. I will tell you that about 7 years ago APD did assist the FBI at Louie's flea market with confiscating copyrighted material. I have also been there to assist the IRS in seizing property. See that is what law enforcement is supposed to do, we assist each other so the country can be safer. Local cops don't deport anyone, but we should notify INS when we fell we have someone who is here illegally. If local law enforcemen in New Jersey would have been allowed to do that, three college students would be alive today. That is what law enforcement is supposed to do, assist each other. I have called INS many times when the person I had in custody I felt was here illegally. City resolution be damned, I feel it is more important to protect my country. After 9/11 it is important for all of us to do so.
If you want to be here...follow the rules...if you cant, then we'll send you home. We use the same policy with our schools...we kick kids out for their inability to follow the rules. It is a simple idea that we ask our children to learn and obey...why can't the "adults" that run our govvernment figure it out?
Brad, Thanks for fixing YOUR mistake. You created this problem. Please admit that Monday.
OH HI IF U HATE APS WHY SEND YOUR KIDS 2 APS IF U DOING THIS HO MY GOD
meth is hard on ya huh sparky?
Brad is listening a lot more to the citizens than King Marty is.
4 posts up.
What happened in 2001 was a non binding resolution. It was Mayor Marty who has decided to allow illegal aliens to overrun our town. I think it is cowardly of him to point to the 2001 council non binding resolution and say that is where the problem lays. This problem is at Marty's doorstep. He owns it. Good for Brad for listening to the real citizens.
Thanks Brad for stepping up to the plate, and fixing Marty's problem.
Thanks Marty for stepping up and fixing the problem Brad created.
Do you not read the papers, Marty owns this one and Brad is going to fix it.
Marty fans, you will get over it.
I read the paper & saw who voted this mess onto the books last time. Thanks Mayor for steppin to clean up Brads mess.
At this point I dont care who "owns" it, that can all be in somebody's campain commmercial later on. What is utmost in importance is fixing this S*&T before it goes any further. According to the news polls last week about 82% of ALbuquerque agrees. Find, fix, deport, incarcerate, whatever it takes but STOP THE DARN RECONQUEST
I agree, throw Daren & Brad to the dogs, lets get this over with, off with their heads!
How Daren can be shown culpability in this mess will require a serious suspension of disbelief. How can the County Sheriff be tainted by a reconquista mayor and council?
Where have you been man? Of course it's Darens fault. Geeeez, keep up with the blog or get off of the porch.....
Signed,
Big Dog
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