Commentary: A July 4th reply to Robert Goodlatte on federal Sanctuary City initiatives

In his July 4^th Legislative Update, it appears that Congressman Robert Goodlatte is alleging that Sanctuary City protections are geared to shield convicted felons; and is lumping ALL a city’s undocumented immigrant population into the potential “dangerous felon” category.  That is FAR from my understanding of what Sanctuary City policies are designed to accomplish.

Rather, I believe they are geared to prevent the mass federal gathering up of an entire undocumented immigrant population under a blanket stereotype of “potential murderer” for crimes as petty as traffic or jaywalking tickets – there was even a report of an undocumented Hispanic woman being picked up and detained at a courthouse when she went to file out a protective order against an abusive partner.

On Jan. 25, 2017, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order designed to withhold federal funds from so-called Sanctuary Cities. On April 25, a federal judge blocked that order citing a likelihood plaintiffs challenging the order would succeed in proving it unconstitutional. During WW II there was another executive order targeting an entire group of people. Public Domain Photos

Mr. Goodlatte cites three examples of horrendous crimes to justify lumping immigrants – working people, families, college students, a generally law-abiding economically-contributing population desirous of becoming American citizens – into one targeted whole.  He does not elaborate on how many undocumented immigrants were in this nation (about 12-million); or how many crimes were NOT committed by THAT population over the same time frame during which the 3 murders he cites occurred.  I wonder how many native-born American citizens murdered someone over that same time period. – Maybe we should detain and deport us too.

Images of the gathering up of Japanese-American citizens into interment camps during World War II. One might note that German-and-Italian Americans were not gathered up during the war.

Goodlatte’s rationale employs a negative stereotyping that he, like our president, seems very comfortable with.  It is the type of stereotyping used historically by oppressors around the world to justify their oppression – not of actual criminals or terrorists, but of entire demographics of people; people who are often the first victims of the real criminals or terrorists used to create the stereotype in the first place.

If there are gaps that need to be tweaked to assure that dangerous felons do NOT slip through the cracks of Sanctuary Cities, then FILL THOSE CRACKS – but don’t lump any minor traffic offense or misdemeanor into grounds for ICE seizure, imprisonment and deportation.  And don’t attempt to economically blackmail an entire city into a compliance with a policy that is a little too reminiscent of the 1930s-1940s German targeting of its Jewish population.

I might remind Mr. Goodlatte that all Americans, save the sparse remaining Native American population, are descendants of historically-documented immigrations to this continent.  And some of those Western European immigrants engaged in the systematic murder, not of three people, but the bulk of an entire native population — under governmental authority and with law enforcement and military assistance.

Is that a part of our history that we want to flirt with revisiting to ANY degree against new racial or ethnic targets?

Apparently Donald Trump and Robert Goodlatte – the same Robert Goodlatte who opened the 2017 Congressional season with an attempt to remove any independent ethical oversight of his and his colleagues’ behavior – think it is.

And that there appears to be a solid 35% base of citizens of this nation willing to buy into such a revisiting based on yet another BIG lie, concerns me this Fourth of July 2017.

(This is the opinion of the writer)