LGBT Rally in Support of Sanctuary City and ID Program

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: Indybay

Due to recent raids by ICE and attacks on San Francisco’s Sanctuary Ordinance by The Chronicle and anti-immigrant groups, Pride at Work, along with a coalition of other LGBTQ and immigrant rights organizations and it’s leaders will gather on Tuesday September 16th at the steps of City Hall to speak out to keep San Francisco as a Sanctuary City and to move forward with the Municipal ID program.



Pride Work denounces the ICE raid Thursday September 11th, the recent raid on a family's home in Visitation Valley and the May 2008 raid at El Balazo Taquerias. We call on all Federal, State, and Local officials to join with us in denouncing these raids. We are deeply troubled by the constant racist scapegoating by the Chronicle, and believe that their rhetoric is fostering an environment in which ICE has, without a warrant, invaded a family's home and interrogated a 15 year old girl without representation by an attorney and without a guardian. We are also troubled by the stunning silence by the City Administration in the face of this unconstitutional and egregious conduct. LGBT communities also understand what is to have families torn apart by unjust laws. While legislation moves in other states to outlaw queer adoption, we understand that true family values, ones that keep healthy families intact, are often not seen as valuable by policy makers. Unjust immigration laws destroy families and harm workplaces. The federal government is misdirecting their efforts and tax dollars to heavy enforcement instead of focusing on the immigration backlog. It's time for a humane approach to our immigration policies that give a real chance for citizenship.

Pride at Work calls on the City Administration to recommit to the City Sanctuary Policy. The preservation of San Francisco as a sanctuary city is vitally important to the LGBTQ community. Every year undocumented immigrants come to the United States fleeing economic and social hardships in their homelands, including persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity expression. The Sanctuary Ordinance in San Francisco is necessary to many undocumented LGBTQ persons and specifically important to transgender persons. San Francisco's Sanctuary Policy must be made real by consistent policies that uphold individual privacy and do not waste scarce City funds enforcing laws that are the responsibility of the federal government.

Pride at Work calls on the Administration to implement the City's ID program. Halting the Municipal ID program would jeopardize the health and safety of undocumented individuals of the transgender community . In addition to the immigrant LGBT community, the transgender community is depending on City ID Card being issued this fall as an ID that represents our gender identity.We call on the City Administration to set a date, and stick to it.


Read more: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/09/15/18538134.php

[Cherchez la Femme]

1. Wish I could be there physically

to join the march,
but as it is I'll have to just K & R in solidarity and support, brothers & sisters!

[Phred42]

2. They need to go home

[EFerrari]

5. While our government backs the multinational vultures

devouring their countries, it's not going to happen.

[nomorenomore08]

6. Exactly. He's putting the blame in the wrong place.

Sad to see even liberals falling for the bullshit... :shrug:

[Big_Mike]

3. If they are being persecuted in their home countries

and come here legally looking for refuge status, I will back them with every breath I take. If you go through any LEGAL process to come here and work and I'll happily join you. Have anyone cross the border illegally, and I'll cheer the bus taking them to the border.

Coming here is a privilege and it takes work. I'm no racist, I spent a career in the military working with every ethnic group we legally have in this country. As I retired, we even had some Russian (the ORIGINAL Evil Empire) kids. I want the government to create a fast, user friendly program to let people work here legally. We could have something up and running in months. Like with a college degree, so many quarters worked under the program leads to a green card. BUT...

1) I am a former small business owner and I think employers caught with illegal immigrant employees should be fined $10,000 per person per year of employment. After 10 such employees, $100,000 per person per year of employment. If you can't pay, immediate loss of business license and forfeiture of all business assets. Any and all monies so gathered are used to help offset the cost of providing medical care for illegals and their transportation back to their home countries. I'd bet that there would be NO unauthorized workers at any place of employment, and I'd bet wages there went up as well. Prices would rise, but that's the cost of doing business.

2) If you violate our laws to get here, all bets are off. You have no RIGHT to be here. You have basic human rights of protection from harm and life- or limb-sustaining emergency medical treatment. Not ER visits for colds and flu. You have no right to stay. You need an ER visit, you get treated and as soon as you recover, catch the bus ride home. You get caught in a traffic ticket, expect a trip to a border crossing for you and your family.

IMO, the whole idea of Sanctuary Cities is anathema. Any group or polity that supports violating its own laws is sure to fall into pieces. We cannot pick and choose those laws we wish to ignore. Shall we ignore those laws about denying housing based on race? What about those pesky laws about denying employment based upon sexual orientation? Women voting??? I am not prophesying a slippery slope; you cannot choose to ignore one law without someone else ignoring a law they don't like. I agree with some of the ideas floating around D.C. about denying federal funding to cities and states that knowingly reject the law. Put your ideas into legislation and change the law. Amend the laws legislatively. Work, organize, gather the votes and make it happen. Do not knowingly violate our laws and expect the government to continue supplying you with the continued means (federal and state monies) to do so. Do not simply disclaim "I will ignore the law about XYZ!" That way leads to ruin, both of our nation and of We the People.

[EFerrari]

7. Then to level the playing field, you have to find a way to evict

the US government backed corporations that invade those countries and strip mine everything there including the water these people need to live.

When you can do that, I'll back you cheering that bus

Until then, you're not seeing or addressing the bigger picture.

[Big_Mike]

8. You are definitely right, this needs to be curbed

Any company that is so stupid as to ruin an area for short term profit should also be penalized severely. AFAIAC, Union Carbide should have been destroyed after what they did in Bhopal. Don't even get me started on what those oligarchs are doing to Lake Baikal in Russia. There was a thread about the Chinese giving the death penalty to a Banker who swindled the people of China of hundreds of millions of dollars. I hope they follow their custom and bill his family for the bullet used to kill him.

All that being said, I'd rate the likelihood of what I want about the same as to the companies being responsible in the first place. Slim chance to none of anything positive happening. I am almost convinced that, rail as some of us might, we are doomed to our nation going under some time in the next 50 years or so. Too many think only of themselves, not of the nation. You don't necessarily have to serve in the military to serve your nation. A GOOD social worker, a decent counselor, many of the clergy and too many others who serve not only themselves but their community are what I am thinking of. Unfortunately, I see fewer and fewer choosing to place the good of the whole above personal desires. Too many are simply apathetic today.

[Siyahamba]

4. I'm pretty sure anyone opposing this...

has no problem with heterosexual Americans being able to bring their foreign spouse in legally.