"The time is now for local governments to protect vulnerable residents, as the Trump administration is prioritizing removal of every noncitizen in this country regardless of whether the individual has a felony conviction, or just a traffic ticket," said ACLU of Maryland Legal and Policy Counsel Nick Steiner. "We thank those councilmembers who voted in favor of CB-9, a bill that will allow local law enforcement to focus on community policing and the public safety of Howard County, not enforce the priorities of federal immigration authorities and participate in unconstitutional police practices. The bill will benefit all of the county's residents, including the most vulnerable, and we urge the two councilmembers who voted against the bill to reconsider given the tangible benefit this law would have on even those immigrant communities in Howard County that have legal status."
The ACLU letter includes a personal story of real fears experienced by noncitizen residents every day. Pratishtha Khanna is a long-time Howard County resident who testified in support of CB-9. Born in India, she traveled to the U.S. on a valid tourist visa when she was 10 years old, and has lived in the U.S. ever since. Despite being an exceptional student, her undocumented status made her ineligible for federal student loans to make higher education possible. The Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program under former President Barack Obama allowed Ms. Khanna to receive a social security number, work authorization, and legal presence. Yet, Ms. Khanna is still vulnerable to the immigration enforcement policies of the Trump administration. Like all people of color, she can be targeted because she fits the profile of being a foreigner in the United States.
"I am motivated to speak out in memory of my father, an upstanding, hard-working, law-abiding, first generation immigrant laborer in the United States, who suffered because his rights as a worker were violated," said Pratishtha Khanna, who is working hard to go to medical school. "I refuse to let this moment for just immigration laws in a country that proclaims itself to be a torch bearer to immigrants, be highlighted by hate that minimizes my worth to a mere criminal. The passage of council bill 9 is necessary because diversity, a quality that is the pride of Howard County, is in jeopardy, under threat by hateful executive orders. I hope that all council members understand that the current regime has chosen to dismantle and divide the immigrant community, attack basic civil liberties, and insinuate fear amongst the most vulnerable in the community."
Howard County has protected its immigrant communities by rejecting the use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers to prolong the jailing of detainees beyond their release date. However, a law that affirms these protections would reinforce the County's policy of rejecting ICE detainers, and recommit Howard County to protecting all of its residents, not just its citizen residents. CB-9 is not a purely symbolic bill. It is one of many possible bills that insulates Howard County from some of the unconstitutional immigration enforcement practices that we are already witnessing under the Trump administration.
The Howard County Council voted 3-5 in support of the bill, CB-9. Voting yes were Councilmembers Calvin Ball, Jen Terrasa and Mary Kay Sigaty. Voting no were Councilmembers Jon Weinstein and Greg Fox. One more yes vote is needed to successfully override Kittleman's veto.
6 comments:
Now they are just "non citizens", not undocumented, not illegal! This is to give the impression they have a legal right to be here no matter how they got here. The ACLU has lost focus on reality!
The aclu is nothing more the a liberal focus group they do not care about America and its laws. All part of the plan to destroy this once great country. Thank God for president Donald Trump the only one with the balls to stop the madness.
The ACLU is using this story of a non criminal Indian girl who is allowed to be here on a Visa as long as she obeys all our immigration laws in order to protect MS13 gang members who are here illegally going through the "most vulnerable" if our legal citizenry, killing and raping at will.
The ACLU wants America destroyed, period.
From the ACLU website:
In the years following World War I, America was gripped by the fear that the Communist Revolution that had taken place in Russia would spread to the United States. As is often the case when fear outweighs rational debate, civil liberties paid the price. In November 1919 and January 1920, in what notoriously became known as the “Palmer Raids,” Attorney General Mitchell Palmer began rounding up and deporting so-called radicals. Thousands of people were arrested without warrants and without regard to constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure. Those arrested were brutally treated and held in horrible conditions.
In the face of these egregious civil liberties abuses, a small group of people decided to take a stand, and thus was born the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU is non-profit and non-partisan.
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When you go to another country do you have a passport? Do you enter the country legally? Do you obey the laws of the country you're visiting? Do you keep your papers in order and leave in the specified time? If you don't, do you expect it to just be fine and dandy? Get real folks. It's not okay to be in the country illegally. There is a legal process for entering the US just like other countries.
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