2008 Woodie Awards
Gavin Newsom rebels to do the right thing
Danny Acosta
Issue date: 5/1/07 Section: Opinion
Gavin Newsom has taken a stance against draconian measures.
Inside of Saint Peter's Church in front a largely Latino congregation, he recently declared San Francisco a "sanctuary city" for legal and illegal immigrants.
The city's position has been the same since 1989. Gavin Newsom merely reasserted the city's position. "Sanctuary city" has no legal meaning. It is a governmental phrase that hopes to comfort the afflicted.
Newsome has more important issues to pursue than excommunicating immigrants, immigrants who make up large communities throughout the city such as Chinatown and the Mission District, immigrants who empower and diversify socioeconomic networks.
Raids hurt the morale of the city. They do not guarantee those being raided are illegal immigrants. A Honduran immigrant, Porfirio Quintano, shared how a raid has terrified his two daughters, ages four and 10, American citizens. The raids are done at homes in excessive fashion with a before sun-up entrance ala Elián González. This sends a message of fear to the undeserving.
While immigration raids should focus on criminals, they have unfairly extended to those "suspected" of being illegal immigrants, also known as racial profiling. Newsome recognizes it is a social failure to impose systemic discrimination. With millions of tourists daily-the Golden Gate Bridge appears in more photographs than anything else in the world-it would be impossible to enact such a discriminatory social order.
These raids would be of detriment to everyone. Embattling the San Francisco Police Department in these raids would curtail their real job-stopping real crimes. San Francisco focuses on murders, hate crimes, rape, and domestic abuse. As long as the immigrants are not a danger, they should be allowed to stay. To suggest that they should be deported based on their mere presence is to call into question a human's existence.
Newsom's statement preserves and perpetuates San Francisco as a cultural epicenter in the world as it has been for over a century.
Inside of Saint Peter's Church in front a largely Latino congregation, he recently declared San Francisco a "sanctuary city" for legal and illegal immigrants.
The city's position has been the same since 1989. Gavin Newsom merely reasserted the city's position. "Sanctuary city" has no legal meaning. It is a governmental phrase that hopes to comfort the afflicted.
Newsome has more important issues to pursue than excommunicating immigrants, immigrants who make up large communities throughout the city such as Chinatown and the Mission District, immigrants who empower and diversify socioeconomic networks.
Raids hurt the morale of the city. They do not guarantee those being raided are illegal immigrants. A Honduran immigrant, Porfirio Quintano, shared how a raid has terrified his two daughters, ages four and 10, American citizens. The raids are done at homes in excessive fashion with a before sun-up entrance ala Elián González. This sends a message of fear to the undeserving.
While immigration raids should focus on criminals, they have unfairly extended to those "suspected" of being illegal immigrants, also known as racial profiling. Newsome recognizes it is a social failure to impose systemic discrimination. With millions of tourists daily-the Golden Gate Bridge appears in more photographs than anything else in the world-it would be impossible to enact such a discriminatory social order.
These raids would be of detriment to everyone. Embattling the San Francisco Police Department in these raids would curtail their real job-stopping real crimes. San Francisco focuses on murders, hate crimes, rape, and domestic abuse. As long as the immigrants are not a danger, they should be allowed to stay. To suggest that they should be deported based on their mere presence is to call into question a human's existence.
Newsom's statement preserves and perpetuates San Francisco as a cultural epicenter in the world as it has been for over a century.