Tell City Council: Albuquerque Is Not Arizona

Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry -- a Republican -- introduced a new immigration policy last week that will result in increased deportation and harassment of minorities in our city. Councilors Rey Garduño and Ken Sanchez are introducing two measures at this evening's City Council meeting in response to Mayor Berry's action, as well as the bigoted laws that were recently passed in Arizona:

Calling For The City of Albuquerque To Refrain From Conducting Business With The State of Arizona As Long As Arizona Senate Bill 1070 Remains In Effect (Garduño, Sanchez)

Requiring Procedures In Violation of Adopted City Policy To Cease and Reiterating That No Municipal Resources Be Used To Identify Persons Solely Based On Their Immigration Status (Garduño, Sanchez)

Attend tonight's meeting or contact your City Councilor and ask them to support the Garduño/Sanchez resolutions. The City Council meeting starts at 5:00 PM at One Civic Plaza, downtown, and public comments can be made at 5:30 PM. Everyone must sign up beforehand and will receive 2 minutes each. If you can't attend call or email your Councilor!

Also, please sign this petition, and pass it on to others.

Rachel LaZar, Executive director of El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos, a local immigrants’ rights advocacy organization, had this to say about Mayor Berry's policy in a statement released last week:

"We are glad that the Berry administration recognized that local law enforcement should not be enforcing federal immigration laws -- which would foment racial profiling against all Hispanics, and would be detrimental to public safety. We know that Albuquerque residents would not have tolerated that.

"At the same time, we are extremely disappointed in the Berry administration for prioritizing political expediency over the public safety of our community. Within weeks of the the most anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic law that our nation has seen in recent history, the Mayor’s announcement will undermine community policing and fuel the immigrant communities' already existing perception of seeing local police as immigration agents.

"Unfortunately, the Mayor’s office turned down numerous invites to meet directly with victims’ advocacy groups and immigrant victims of crime themselves before making his anouncement to discuss unintended consequences and, at a minimum, to allow us to inform the community and mitigate the fear that will be propogated by this announcment.”

“You can’t put a stop to something that didn't exist in the first place. It is disingenuous for the Berry administration to announce that Albuquerque is no longer a sanctuary city -- when it was never a sanctuary city. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) has had a permanent presence at the Metropolitan Detention Center for years -- most recently through the implementation of a federal program called Secure Communities -- a program that proceeded Mayor Berry's administration.

"Although Secure Communities purports to go after “dangerous criminals,” it is just as likely to result in someone arrested for an unpaid speeding ticket getting deported; it denies individuals the ability to defend themselves against criminal charges (a cornerstone of the US judical system) and it can also serve as an incentive to make arrests based on race or ethnicity, or to make pretextual arrests of persons just so they can run the person through immigration databases once they are jailed.”