Yet another first for the City of Escondido, California.
In 2010, the city was the first in California (along with Costa Mesa) to pass a resolution to “Stand With Arizona” – in an overwhelming slap-down to La Raza activists who wanted to denounce and boycott Arizona for its passage of S.B. 1070. SWA’s founder John Hill was on hand for the raucous vote.
Escondido was also the first city in America to forge a special partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2010, under which ICE agents help Escondido police officers determine whether suspects of crimes are in the country illegally or are wanted for deportation. The program has resulted in several thousand illegal aliens to be deported – much to the rage of open-borders activists.
Escondido was also the first city to conduct special vehicle “checkpoints” to discover unlicensed illegal aliens – which the state legislature is trying to ban – and the first in San Diego County to enact E-Verify in 2011.
And now Escondido does it again, becoming the first city to volunteer for a Federal “immigration audit” - allowing federal immigration officials to audit its hiring records to make sure all city employees are eligible to work in the United States.
The program is called IMAGE, which stands for ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employer, Escondido will have ICE check whether veteran employees turned in fake documents or stole someone else’s identity when they were hired by the citys, and it goes well beyond E-Verify, which deals only with new hires. The new agreement allows ICE to scrutinize the employment documents of everyone on the city’s payroll, including elected officials.
Mayor Sam Abed, who has said he was born in Lebanon but became a U.S. citizen in 1990, also praised the program, saying the city needed to do everything possible to help local residents struggling to find work.
“Lots of people just lost their unemployment benefits,” said Abed, adding that Escondido has a higher jobless rate than neighboring cities. “We want every business in the private sector to do this.”
But not everyone is happy about Escondido joining the IMAGE program. The ACLU said it “encourages employers to discriminate against foreign-looking job applicants, especially Latinos who are citizens or legal immigrants.”
And of course, Olga Diaz was not pleased. Diaz, the only Latino on the council, the only council member to vote against joining the E-Verify, and the member who led the failed attempt to boycott Arizona in 2010, said she was disappointed her colleagues were continuing to pursue policies to “divide the community”. Diaz claims that the policies are all racist, because whites are afraid of becoming a minority…
“Since it’s the first time that the whites have been exceeded by another group, they feel threatened and the elected officials have devoted themselves to promoting fear. The inability to reason with the councilors was one of the reasons I entered politics,” said Diaz.
However, Diaz is at a loss to explain why, despite her touting how Hispanics outnumber non-Hispanics in Escondido 49-41% , the city has twice as many Republicans as Democrats. Either the local Latinos are bucking a national trend, or there are a heck of a lot of them who are not eligible to vote – and gee, I wonder why that might be the case.
Way to go, Escondido! We salute you for continuing to laugh at the race-baiters, take on the well-funded open borders fanatics and fight for the rule of law.
PLEASE CONSIDER A DONATION of $20.12 (or any amount your prefer) to Stand With Arizona, to help us continue to fight against illegal alien amnesty and push for Arizona-style enforcement laws nationwide. |
“Diaz claims that the policies are all racist, because whites are afraid of becoming a minority…”
I think Diaz is racist because she favors policies that will make whites a minority.
I find it funny that all the illegals and anchor babies are now crying that its racist. When they are the ones that BROKE the law.
As a hispanic myself I understand some of the reasoning for imagination laws but I do not understand is when times were good ,and there were plenty jobs no one wanted to work the fields do dishes clean hotel rooms and toilets clean rich people houses. Now this job are good enough for u…. My family did the dirty jobs to feed us…
So you see why is it so important now many opening for dirty jobs were open…. You think that my family were taking jobs, they were taking high risk jobs. I was rape by the farmer we work for but my family could do nothing about it… I do think people should come in legallly that way they have the right to put people away who abuse them
Thank you I lived in AZ. For along time and I am proud of the state…
when I came to USA late 1960s I had to wait more than one year to get my visa.They made me to be checked for all kind of diseases,they made complete background check then they allowed me to get in USA .I came to this country,with college degree,I love the culture, I learned the language and raised great kids , all educated with great job.Is that enough for a person to stay in this country because they cross the border,break the law,and come here to do hard job?what kind of logic is this?
I completely applaude you! While one year can feel like a life time to get approval to come into the US, there’s good reasons why they have to check for diseases and do background checks, etc. ESPECIALLY now! You’re a great example of what having patients, and doing the steps the LEGAL way, can accomplish. I wish the best for you and your family.
This isn’t a white / non-white / minority / Latino ISSUE PEOPLE!!! It’s for ALL THOSE that are here I L L E G A L L Y and STEALING the identities of tax paying / social security card holding AMERICANS, so they can work! If you want to be here in AMERICA, then do it the legal way. It just happens that there are A LOT MORE illegals from MEXICO because that country is right next door. . . Most people do not have ANY ISSUES with “Mexicans” as long as they are here legally, paying taxes like the rest of us citizens (of all makes and colors), have a valid drivers license, AUTO INSURANCE!! and are good neighbors, not stealing, not vandallizing, not being violent etc. . . If you lived in Florida, this issue would be with Puerto Rico and Cuba because that’s their closest neighbor. The US is one of the only countries with VERY open arms, to those that want to live here. . .now just fill out the paperwork and follow the line like all the other law abiding people that ARE living and working here. It’s funny how we really don’t have the same issues with Asians and middle-easterners. . .and they live further away.
I live in Escondido and have seen the politics up close. I have to admit that Councilwoman Diaz has some very good insights to many of the city’s issue. She is articulate and most of the time logical. Unfortunate for her and the City, she aligns herself to the Latino extremists and with those who thumb their nose at U.S. Law. The remainder of the City Council really does try to work through the illegal immigration issues that face the city which brings down the quality of life for everyone. City infrastructure (sewer, water, police, fire protection, libraries, etc) are not designed to handle 2, 3 and 4 families or 12 people in one house. This puts a significant burden on the entire city. So the city tries to enact policies to discourage illegal immigration only to get criticized by local illegal immigrant activists, La Raza, and the ACLU. I am happy that Escondido has the check points, the E-Verify, and IMAGE. This is good for everyone who is here legally!