Literally,
no. But I can already hear the outraged wacky nonsense being spewed by the conservative
ideologues who get particularly bent out of shape by anything related to
immigration policy that doesn’t focus exclusively on increased deportations.
FOR
THE ILLINOIS General Assembly is considering a bill this spring session called
the Illinois Trust Act. Based on acts that already have been passed in a few
other states, particularly California, it would prevent the state’s law
enforcement agencies (primarily the Illinois State Police) from assisting
federal immigration officials in arresting anyone unless a criminal warrant is
produced.
Also,
it includes provisions restricting immigration officials from going into
schools or hospitals in search of people who may have overstayed their visa (or
never had one to begin with).
Considering
that some school districts, including the Chicago Public Schools, already are
telling their officials to keep immigration agents off their campuses, this law
would merely give the legitimacy of the state to the actions they’re already
taking.
If
anything, it means Illinois is taking sides in the political battle over
immigration reform – and we’re certainly not on the side of a certain
orange-tinted man with wild hair who likes to get his ideologue followers all
riled up by ranting about all those “foreigners” who are to blame for
everything wrong with their own lives.
PERSONALLY,
I THINK this bill would change little if it were to become law.
It
reinforces the basic concept of sanctuary cities that says federal immigration
agents should do their own investigatory work and shouldn’t expect any
instances of immigration law violators to be dumped into their laps by local
cops.
It
doesn’t restrict the ability of immigration to go out and find people violating
the law. Even though the ideologue critics will want to lambast it as somehow
providing a place where people can hide.
 |
| They'd have to do their own work |
Actually,
all it is meant is to provide a place where people can feel safe from the
harassment of those who’d want to use the local cops to pick on people whom
they want to believe “don’t belong” here.
EVEN
THOUGH I often wonder if we all had to go through the rigors that foreign
residents do to adapt to this country, how many of us would be worthy of that
U.S. citizenship they obtained through the accident of birth.
At
a time when Trump and his attorney general are trying to single out Chicago and
other sanctuary cities, a measure such as this would add legitimacy to the
actions of the communities that have decided to make themselves symbolic places
of safety.
I also don’t doubt there will be some local politicking played, as one of the
bill’s sponsors is Daniel Biss, the state senator from Evanston who is among
the people with Democratic dreams of running for governor come next year’s
elections.
If
this bill does become law, I have no doubt that Biss will become the proud
author who will take single-handed credit for its passage.
THE
REAL QUESTION could be will anyone try to use it against him? Because using it
gets one into political bed with the same “basket of deplorables” that will
want to view this act as particularly venal because it legitimizes everything
they rant against.
 |
| BISS: How much praise will he cover himself in? |
Considering
that Gov. Bruce Rauner is going out of his way to distance himself from Trump
and many of the social issue causes they often spew (Rauner hates organized
labor, but isn’t hostile on many other points), I can’t see him wanting to
touch this issue with a 30-foot pole.
Thirty
feet also being the height of that wall Trump claims he wants to have erected
along the U.S./Mexico border.
The
one that not only will Mexico refuse to pay for, but that a Mexican
entrepreneur will probably use as motivation for his own invention – a
31-foot-high ladder suitable for scaling.
-30-
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