Seattle in Rebellion - U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum

Commodore · #1 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

King County OKs 'don't ask' law on immigration

Quote:

King County will continue providing services to residents without regard to citizenship or immigration status, under an ordinance adopted Monday by a divided County Council.

The council voted 5-4 for the law, which sponsor Larry Gossett said is intended to discourage racial profiling and "ratchet down the fear level" when people who are in the country illegally seek public-health services or deal with sheriff's deputies.

The law, which prohibits sheriff's deputies from asking about people's immigration status in most circumstances, continues current practices of the Sheriff's Office and Public Health — Seattle & King County, Gossett said. "The reason we wanted to codify it is in a few years there will be different members on the King County Council and a different executive."

The Metropolitan King County Council passed the ordinance after sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said the county's "don't ask" policy has assisted law enforcement. "We could not do our job," he said, "if people were afraid to come to us as victims, as witnesses to crimes, if they were afraid that they were going to be deported over it."

Public Health Director David Fleming said, "Denying access to care because of citizenship status is not good medicine and is not cost-effective."

But council member Kathy Lambert said after voting against the ordinance, "We've been doing this since before 1992, so why do we have to put it in code?"

Lambert said she believes the county jails should investigate the citizenship of repeat offenders — something they don't now do.

Craig Keller, of Respect Washington, which advocates local enforcement of immigration laws, told the council, "If you pass this ordinance, you're throwing out a welcome mat to a greater population who are in the country illegally. ... The larger problem is the increasing population of illegal aliens and political corruption that comes with them."

The ordinance was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, the King County Labor Council and other groups.

Voting in favor were Councilmembers Gossett, Dow Constantine, Bob Ferguson, Julia Patterson and Larry Phillips. Lambert, Reagan Dunn, Jane Hague and Pete von Reichbauer voted no.

County Executive Kurt Triplett will sign the law, first proposed by his former boss, then-Executive Ron Sims, said Triplett spokeswoman Natasha Jones.

And people wonder why the states are going bankrupt. Why health care is so expensive. Why gangs are running the streets. Why corrupt politicians keep getting elected.

Donkey_Left · #2 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Good move, King County.

fishjoel · #3 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

The Metropolitan King County Council passed the ordinance after sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said the county's "don't ask" policy has assisted law enforcement. "We could not do our job," he said, "if people were afraid to come to us as victims, as witnesses to crimes, if they were afraid that they were going to be deported over it."

You mean like reporting their own crime of being here illegally? And to the poster above me. Good, have your rates and taxes adjusted, leave mine alone.

Donkey_Left · #4 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishjoel

You mean like reporting their own crime of being here illegally? And to the poster above me. Good, have your rates and taxes adjusted, leave mine alone.

You can whine all you like about tax rates, but the facts will continue to be the same, that immigration is an economic boost, documented or undocumented.

fishjoel · #5 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donkey_Left

You can whine all you like about tax rates, but the facts will continue to be the same, that immigration is an economic boost, documented or undocumented.

categorically incorrect.

Tautog · #6 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donkey_Left

You can whine all you like about tax rates, but the facts will continue to be the same, that immigration is an economic boost, documented or undocumented.

Right, because overpopulation isn't an issue at all in the US, and we have pleanty of extra cash laying around to take care of other countries bottom rung of society who, not only have nothing to contribute, but by definition of thier illegal status cannot contribute anything........

And yeah, there are pleanty of jobs too, and the only ones they are taking are ones real americans don't need, it's not like 1 out of 10 americans are out of work or anything.........

Donkey_Left · #7 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishjoel

categorically incorrect.

Yeah, k.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...IGz-RKzQPWQcmA

Tautog · #8 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donkey_Left

Yeah, k.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...IGz-RKzQPWQcmA

Most of that link is about legal immiagrants and does not apply to this thread or the question of illegal immigration.

fishjoel · #9 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donkey_Left

Yeah, k.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...IGz-RKzQPWQcmA

Legal immigrants are fine. Illegal are not. They cost each and every state billions in health care. They cost each and every state million in education. The list goes on and on. You can even get produce, that are harvested by Americans or documented immigrants, for as good as a prices as produced harvested by illegals.

Donkey_Left · #10 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tautog

Most of that link is about legal immiagrants and does not apply to this thread or the question of illegal immigration.

No it's not. Try to keep up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishjoel

Legal immigrants are fine. Illegal are not. They cost each and every state billions in health care. They cost each and every state million in education. The list goes on and on. You can even get produce, that are harvested by Americans or documented immigrants, for as good as a prices as produced harvested by illegals.

Just keep on ignoring the facts, bro.

Captain Trips · #11 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donkey_Left

Just keep on ignoring the facts, bro.

Lets not ignore the facts "bro."

Of course it's easy to ignore them, when you don't know them. Or, if you do, you refuse to accept them.

Try to keep up.

Tautog · #12 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donkey_Left

No it's not. Try to keep up.

Well let's see then:

Quote:

Regarding both legal/illegal immigration, and thus irrelevant:
Immigrants make up a larger share of the U.S.
workforce (15 percent) than they do the
population (12 percent). Their labor force
participation is higher and their unemployment
rate is lower than that of native-born workers.1
Immigrants fueled about 50 percent of
workforce growth in the last decade.2
In 2005, the level of entrepreneurial activity –
defined as the establishment of a business –
was 25 percent higher among immigrants than
native-born Americans.3

Immigrants in the
Washington, D.C. metro
region alone paid nearly $10
billion in income, payroll,
property, sales and other
“consumption” taxes at the
federal, state and local levels
in 1999-2000.4

Foreign-born workers typically have different
skill sets than native-born workers. If
immigrants’ skills complement those of nativeborn
workers, then the productivity and wages
of those native-born workers rise. If
immigrants’ skills substitute those of nativeborn
workers, then the wages of those nativeborn
workers may fall. Research shows that
both dynamics are
in effect in the
U.S. economy:
• Immigrants
slightly depress
the wages of
native-born
workers without
a high school
degree – about 10 percent of the nativeborn
labor force.7
• Immigrants have a positive impact on the
wages of 90 percent of the native-born
workforce. Native workers see total annual
income gains of between $30 billion and $80
billion from immigration.8

Quote:

Regarding just illegal immigrants:
Many undocumented workers file income tax
returns through the use of an Individual
Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), which
the IRS has given to more than 8 million people
without regard to immigration status. “A
significant but not precisely known number of
ITIN holders are illegal resident aliens,”
according to the Government Accounting
Office.6
Undocumented immigrants are barred from
receiving many federal benefits, including food
stamps, temporary cash assistance (welfare),
permanent housing, social security, the earned
income tax credit and most forms of Medicaid.
State and local governments vary in the range
of services they provide to undocumented
immigrants, though the government is
constitutionally bound to provide emergency
medical care and elementary and secondary
education to them.

Which list is longer?

Rahmota · #13 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Well this is a good start. I mean we need to abolish nationalism, dissolve national borders and recognize that we are all children of Earth.

Tautog · #14 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahmota

Well this is a good start. I mean we need to abolish nationalism, dissolve national borders and recognize that we are all children of Earth.

And while we're at it, we should abolish property rights too, eh? I mean, what right do you have to tell someone they cannot come in your house, we are all children of the earth!

Donkey_Left · #15 (**permalink**) 11-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tautog

Well let's see then:

Which list is longer?

Uh... by your own specification, the first list applies to undocumented immigrants as well. And that second list is all about taxes anyway...

God it's like talking to... eh.

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