Time For Good Lawyers To Start Suing Mayors

Much of the recent commentary about the Supreme Court rulings last month had to do with Obamacare and Chief Justice Roberts' controversial decision. Not much has been said about the earlier immigration decision which ruled that Federal immigration laws have precedent over states in most cases. Well, imagine that. This means that all those mayors of U.S. sanctuary cities are breaking federal law and should be sued by the taxpayers. Let's not kill all the lawyers as Shakespeare's character Dick the butcher suggests in Henry VI, let's give them a chance to redeem their reputations by fighting for us.

Ironically, in that play, lawyers were deemed an impediment to a revolution. Today they are generally considered part and parcel of an ignoble and sinister element in society as the majority members of Congress are attorneys. Now, however, they have a choice at redemption by undoing the damage done to our economy by city officials who flaunt federal law by protecting and providing benefits to illegal immigrants.

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled in this case that only the federal government has power in the area of immigration, therefore sanctuary cities and sanctuary states are unconstitutional because they exist to defy federal immigration law.

A 1996 federal law [the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA)] requires local governments to cooperate with Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but many large urban cities (and some small) have adopted so-called "sanctuary" policies. These sanctuary policies instruct city employees not to notify the federal government of the presence of illegal immigrants living in their communities. They also end the distinction between legal resident immigrants and illegal immigrants--so illegal immigrants often benefit from taxpayer funded government services and programs too.

There is no justification for creating sanctuary cities under the guise of protecting immigrant rights because illegal immigrants are not immigrants -- immigrants come to the US legally, and maintain their legal presence. They wait for years and go through an expensive and arduous process to get green cards or to be naturalized. It took a friend of my daughter from El Salvador twelve years to become a citizen.

Immigrants like her are adamantly opposed to amnesty or any program that allows illegal immigrants to escape punishment for their unlawful entry into the US.

I watched a cable news broadcaster complain about the rising cost of health care but I did not hear the anchor mention the costs that health providers incur caring for the millions of illegals protected in sanctuary cities.

California spends over $21 billion on benefits for illegal immigrants. Governor Brown threatens the legal residents with cuts or tax increases instead of solving his problems by easing the support of illegal immigrants. There are over 30 sanctuary cites in California and over 11 here in New York State. These cities offer welfare benefits to those entering the United States illegally and we taxpayers fund these benefits that attract more and more of the "undocumented" thus depleting valuable resources for citizens and legal immigrants.

After the SCOTUS ruling, conservative talk show host, Mark Levin, who happens to be a constitutional scholar, said, "If this case stands for the point that only the federal government has power in the area of immigration, then let me suggest that sanctuary cities and sanctuary states are unconstitutional because they exist to defy federal immigration law." He added, "In-state tuition clearly is unconstitutional because Congress has not authorized it for illegal aliens," he said. "Again - if the court's position is that the federal government has complete preemptive authority over this issue, the federal government has not authorized in-state tuition for illegal aliens of any kind. So sue your state if they've instituted in-state tuition for illegals."

Nearly, every day we read about another municipality filing for bankruptcy. Hospitals are going broke and closing as well. The sad truth is that there are fewer people paying into the system than there are people feeding off it. On the Internet, there's a photo being circulated with the heading, "See any gray hair?" It was taken by a photographer in a Milwaukee Social Security office and the room is crowded with individuals who are neither seniors nor disabled. Nor can they be asked if they are here legally as Milwaukee is a sanctuary city. Apparently after 99 weeks of unemployment, one can apply for disability and voila! They are no longer unemployed.

In January of this year, immigration agents were obligated to go through a deportation training session. As reported in the New York Times, "The training course is the clearest sign yet that administration officials want to transform the way immigration officers work, asking them to make nuanced decisions to speed deportations of high-risk offenders while halting those of illegal immigrants with clean records and strong ties to the country."

Nuanced decisions mean dismissing non criminal deportation cases allowing the illegal immigrant to continue living here under certain circumstances. The union representing deportation agents of ICE is resisting this training because it amounts to officials ordering agents not to enforce federal law. Chris Crane, president of the union, testified before a House Judiciary Committee last October and said, "Law enforcement and public safety have taken a back seat to attempts to satisfy immigrant advocacy groups."

Meanwhile, these leftwing advocacy groups are mounting a PC campaign to change the term illegal alien to "undocumented immigrant". CNN contributor, Ruben Navarette, Jr. writes, "Undocumented immigrant? Really? That's politically correct, but it's also absurd. Most of these people have plenty of documents. A woman who makes living cleaning homes in my neighborhood once explained to me that she had a drawer full of fake green cards and IDs saying she was - pick one - a native-born US citizen, legal resident or exchange student. Many illegal immigrants have Matricula ID cards issued by Mexican consulates, foreign passports, drivers licenses in some states and phony Social Security cards where all nine digits are "0s."

How refreshing it is when someone in the mainstream media tells the truth. Here's another truth. Cities across the nation are going broke providing services for those who have broken the federal law. The feds are not enforcing their own laws and now the states can't do anything to protect their citizens.

It's time to hold the politicians and government officials responsible for this mess and if it takes a lawsuit to do that, so be it.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com