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City council approves measure to bar police from holding people for Immigration for non-criminal reasons

The City Council today approved a "trust act" under which Boston Police would be barred from holding people on "civil detainer" requests from ICE.

The measure now goes to Mayor Walsh, who has said he would sign it.

Councilor Sal LaMattina (North End, Charlestown, East Boston) said the measure would prove welcome relief to many people in his district who today do not report crimes for fear of being held for ICE

"My poor residents are getting robbed, they're getting assaulted, they're getting beaten and raped, and they don't report it," for fear of being turned over to the federal government, he said.

Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester), praised the proposal, introduced by Councilor Josh Zakim (Mission Hill, Fenway, Back Bay). He said the Pilgrims were not documented and recalled the days when such a measure might have faced opposition in the council.

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Comments

I watched it........they have all drank the kool-aid. What a disgusting display. According to Tito Jackson 'there can be no such thing as an Illegal person' (hmmmmm) - those words may come back to haunt him some day.

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Immigration is a civil matter, and not a criminal matter, thus it's not up to the police, whose jurisdiction is over criminal matters, to hold people for immigration violations. Just as the police wouldn't hold you if you were in default on a car loan, or broke the terms of a contract.

Until immigration becomes a criminal matter, this is the right thing to do, despite how much it pisses off the right wing bigot crowd. Now go home and get your fucking shinebox.

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IMAGE(http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view6/3473029/vw-oh-snap-o.gif)

Not to mention it's a federal issue. Local police shouldn't be doing the feds job.

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I think the point is that "illegal person" is a nonsense term. It's the act that's illegal, not the person.

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Thousands of grifting military contractors depend on your continued irrational fear to fund their mansions and yachts.

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See subject.

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= ICE

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Our national borders are a joke. And my parents were LEGAL immigrants, so please spare me snarks about my hating (fill in the blank), or my being the R-word.

And I'm sure Sal knows those 'undocumented' folks being robbed, beaten up, threatened are being robbed, beaten up, and threatened by other 'undocumented'. I know one guy from El Salvador who has been jumped, robbed and badly beaten up in East Boston and Chelsea multiple times, and each time it was by his own people who run in gangs and terrorize their neighborhoods.

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My husband is a legal immigrant, too, and I still think those who take the path of entering this country illegally are poor, desperate people looking to improve their situation. Let's give the people who took the initiative to leave a bad situation the chance to live here legally and see what they contribute to society.

And, as for those unaccompanied minors, my great-grandmother came to the US at 13 (pre immigration quotas) to meet up with an aunt. She never saw her parents again. She also never really learned English. This is nothing new.

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The money runs out eventually you know... right?

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Do you have evidence that immigrants, even illegal ones, are a net drain rather than a net contributor to the economy?

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If economics is zero sum, Houston we have a problem.

Whats the point of Capitalism then? How is it better than anything else?

Or maybe you can tell us how running a government is like paying off a credit card. Yeah, that's the ticket!

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I HAVE IMMIGRANT PARENTS!!!

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get new material. NOBODY falls for the racist line anymore unless they are a true believer or mentally challenged.

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Well I guess that settles it. If people and elected officials can pick and choose which laws they will obey and enforce, that should mean we can all do it. I will choose to no longer pay my taxes, refrain from littering or stop texting while driving..

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Congress chose to make it a crime to enter the country illegally, but not a crime to enter the country legally (on a tourist visa, for example) and then overstay illegally.

Simply being here illegally is not a crime, as much as you might wish it were.

Why should the local police, paid for with our local tax dollars, be in the business of enforcing a Federal civil matter?

Relatedly, the police also won't detain you for building code violations, zoning code violations, for mailing your taxes late, or for a host of other violations that, while illegal, are not criminal.

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To sneak into this country is a crime. Whether you, Obama, Deval or Pelosi like it or not.

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Not a local law. Not local jurisdiction. Learn the facts before you spew.

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IMAGE(http://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/straw-man.jpg)

Some murders get away due to finite resources, so lets all murder everyone! herp derp!

SMFH

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Did the Feds offer any inducement to the City for fulfilling these 'civil detainer requests' ? Is the City foregoing anything but thumbing its nose at the Feds?

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i think you have to be a special brand of idiot to think this measure is a bad idea

hi i just got raped & am afraid to report it because i dont want to be arrested because my parents came here illegally and i had no choice

yeah thats the america i want to live in

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f**k yeah, etc.

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If an illegal immigrant (either came in illegally, or overstayed their visa) is a victim of a crime, and comes to a local police station to report that crime, the local police would have no reason to determine whether or not that person was illegal, and I've never heard of local police department ever holding people (non-arrestees) for immigration violations, because they really have no way of knowing if they are illegal unless they fingerprint them.

those arrested and fingerprinted however, will have their prints sent to a federal database electronically before they are released (to determine identity), and the feds will now know if that person is wanted by ICE. ICE then usually calls the local station, and tells the police they are coming to pick up that arrestee. Now I think the legal term is called a "detainer", but what if the feds simply change the wording and call it a "warrant". Do local departments have authority to ignore federal warrants in NCIC?

And there is nothing to stop ICE from showing up to court, or the local police station and arresting the person anyway when they are released. This legislation makes it harder for ICE to arrest illegal immigrants, but besides local politicians trying to do the right thing, I'm not sure the legislation is going to do too much.

Maybe it will stop the Feds from taking custody of prisoners before they go to court or are released?

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If the illegal immigrant has not been charged with a crime, on what basis could ICE issue a warrant?

If Congress wanted to get serious, wouldn't it be possible to make illegal presence a crime?

There's a lot of political donor base that depends upon cheap, docile, illegal immigrant labor.

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But that's what I'm saying. Boston has never held victims of crimes before, so why would this be an issue now?

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Also... if an illegal immigrant victim cooperates with the investigation and prosecution they could apply for a U-VISA and then be able to stay legally. The law already provides measures to prevent people from being punished for reporting victimization by deportation.

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Good luck being a sanctuary city! I am outta here!

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good riddance

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Thank you scumquistador, you expressed my sentiments completely. Good riddance to the meals tax which is spent who knows where, to the Mayor who will for the next 4 years keep saying, "Well, uh...a previous administration..uh..." until his next election, to the slum lords who have been allowed to run roughshod over this city for decades, to the overblown budget that keeps climbing because the unions have had their bedroom buddy Mayor Mumbles sign anything they brought to him, to the underperforming schools that should be shuttered, to the City Council that will pass any feel good legislation just to keep up with "public" sentiment (really special interest), and now to the endless stream of illegal immigrants who will hopefully populate the very area you live in, take money away from your children for schooling, go to the front in line of the Veterans in your family for services and to the likes of people like yourself. Good riddance!

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That didn't work out well for us in the long run.

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I don't like this idea

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Good for them. A waste of police time, of questionable legal value & even more questionable ethical value. No municipality should have ever played around with this foolishness when it was first suggested.

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