During the Johnson County Board of Supervisors candidates forum last week there were a number of interesting exchanges. Things like CAFOs and gender identity surgery and treatment are well worth listening.
I would like to draw attention to one question in particular: Do you support Johnson County being a sanctuary county?
Please feel free to share this link and the transcript or tag people that might be interested.
Minute 33:38
Do you support Johnson County being a sanctuary county?
Pat Heiden: I do support the stance that the county has taken as far as embracing the immigrant population and will also not be involved in voluntary detaining of immigrant or any type of raids that may take place in the county. It is incumbent upon us to really reach out in partnership with our immigrant communities and support them in any way we can. So if that means supporting a sanctuary city, then you bet it does.
Phil Hemmingway: I support immigrants. My wife is a first generation immigrant. My mother-in-law is here legally and has her citizenship. My brother-in-law, Danny, went through the legal process to become a citizen. It took him seven years, and he’s a doctor, to get in here legally. So this is a national issue that has to be addressed. I know first-hand what it is like to be working in a foreign country. This is my Social Security card from Belize. This is my driver’s license, unfortunately, it has expired. This is my Permanent Resident card which I obtained which allows me the ability to work there. So it is important that we follow the rule of law, but still we be welcoming to immigrants in our community.
Janelle Rettig: I don’t believe human beings are illegal no matter what. I believe human beings are human beings, and that immigration has made this a great country. Everyone in this country, forever, immigrated from somewhere. So I believe that the war on immigrants is shameful and I am not interested in being a county that participates in that. The county is not a sanctuary county. There’s actually not a definition of sanctuary county or city. You’re only a sanctuary county if you say you’re a sanctuary county. What we said is that we would not illegally detain people on an ICE request. And I say illegally because you are taking away their civil liberties. If someone is arrested for public intox or some other reason or is brought to the jail for a misdemeanor, holding them beyond the time we normally would should be illegal in this country and has been illegal by court rulings. I fully support the county not allowing our employees to participate with the ICE and not detaining people longer than they need to for whatever they were arrested for.
No comments:
Post a Comment