Toledo City Council divided on immigration

[stopracism]

Toledo City Council divided on immigration
Toledo Blade
July 7, 2010
http://toledoblade.com/article/20100707/NEWS16/7070344

While the federal government ventured Tuesday into the Arizona immigration debate and filed a lawsuit to stop the state's tough crackdown on illegal immigrants, Toledo City Council was divided on whether it should vote on a resolution calling for national immigration reform.

Council voted 6-6 on whether to relieve from committee the resolution, which was offered by Councilmen Adam Martinez and Joe McNamara. Seven votes were needed to get the legislation out of committee for a vote.

Mayor Mike Bell, who can break the tie, declined last night to do so. He said he would vote at the next regular meeting in two weeks.

Councilman D. Michael Collins, who opposed taking up the legislation because it does not deal with governing Toledo, had placed it in his law and criminal justice committee.

Mr. Martinez said the resolution is relevant because Ohio has a high number of migrant workers. It specifically mentions the Arizona law and calls upon the federal government to "pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would solve the problem of undocumented immigration at its roots instead of through piecemeal enforcement-only measures."

Voting with Mr. Collins to leave the resolution in his committee were councilmen George Sarantou, Tom Waniewski, Mike Ashford, Wilma Brown, and Rob Ludeman.

Before its regular meeting, council held a three-hour committee hearing on the immigration resolution and a separate ordinance that would codify policies regarding racial profiling.

Arizona's law requires police officers who have stopped someone on suspicion of committing a crime to check immigration status if the officers suspect the person is in the country illegally. The law also makes it a state crime for legal immigrants to not carry their documents.