Bay area opposes rule of law on immigration

NY Times:

It was not the typical Bay Area morning. Before dawn on March 6, dozens of federal immigration agents conducted surprise raids in San Rafael and nearby Novato, two comfortable Marin County suburbs where the idea of early morning excitement usually involves a trip to Starbucks.

The raids are part of the government’s Operation Return to Sender, in which more than 23,000 people have been arrested nationwide, including more than 1,800 in Northern and Central California, immigration officials said.

And while the raids have upset many pro-immigrant groups nationwide, that displeasure has been particularly acute in the Bay Area, a region that generally bends left politically and where many cities consider themselves so-called “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants.

“These people have been here many, many years and they have an investment in the community,” said Mayor Al Boro of San Rafael, a city of about 56,000 residents, a quarter of whom are Latino. “And we need to respect that.”

Several city councils have passed resolutions expressing their anger about the raids, and local religious leaders have issued stern proclamations. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, for example, said in late March that they were inhumane and called for their immediate end. The raids have also led to protests in several cities, with another round planned for Tuesday in the area’s three largest cities: San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.

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In Richmond, another economically challenged city just east across the bay from San Francisco, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a member of the Green Party, wrote a bill restating an ordinance that prohibits city employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. It passed the City Council unanimously in February.

That sanctuary sentiment was also echoed on Sunday in a speech by Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, a Democrat, who repeated his city’s noncooperative status, a move that drew a rebuke from a Republican lawmaker in Washington, Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado, who called the mayor’s actions “a clear and direct violation of the law.”

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"Economically challenged" is PC for poor. This lack of respect for the law is encouraging illegal conduct by people. The Times throws in a seven year old "victim" whose father has been fighting deportation for, can you believe seven years? The story evokes all the goo-goo liberalism of the bay area and the NY Times. Prepare to retch if you read the whole thing.