2 Riverside County cities vote to support Arizona's anti-illegal immigration law

The city councils of Hemet and Lake Elsinore, both in Riverside County, approved proclamations Tuesday in support of Arizona’s controversial anti-illegal immigration law.

The Yorba Linda City Council in Orange County approved a similar resolution earlier this month, countering actions taken by leaders in cities such as Los Angeles, who voted to boycott doing business with Arizona companies in protest of the law.

The law tells police officers to check the immigration status of people they have stopped for another reason and reasonably suspect are in the U.S. illegally.

The Hemet City Council unanimously approved the measure, proposed by Mayor Eric McBride. Dozens of residents testified throughout the evening, with supporters praising the council for taking a stand against illegal immigration and for the rule of law, and opponents accusing the council of fostering racial profiling and discrimination. Residents on both sides criticized the White House and Congress for failing to address the issue.

“It may not be perfect, I’m sure it’s not,” Councilman Robert Youssef said of the Arizona law. “But it’s a step in the right direction.”

In Lake Elsinore, a 28-mile drive west of Hemet on Highway 74, a similar scene played out before that city’s council, which approved a resolution in favor of the Arizona law 4 to 1.

“It doesn’t have to do with your nationality or where you come from. It has to do if you’re here legally or not,” said Mayor Melissa A. Melendez.

Melendez, who said she has relatives of Mexican and Peruvian descent, also criticized illegal immigrants for disregarding the nation’s laws and flaunting their allegiance to Mexico.

“Don’t come into my country wearing a Mexican flag. It’s insulting,” she said.

-- Phil Willon in Riverside County

Comments

[Paralegal Los Angeles]

Good move.

[yxk0012]

Finally, some common sense... unfortunately, not in L.A. County. Oh well, we can wait till November. What's the latest poll data - 82% in favor of the anti-immigrant law? Guess that's 82% against Senora Molina.

[Bettybb]

Well done.

Americans are fed up with people who do not think our laws apply to them.

[OhNo!]

Thanks for taking the lead and doing what's right. I still don't understand why this invasion is being allowed to continue unopposed by the Federal government, but what the Federal government is doing is in violation of it's Constitutional mandates and a despicable violation of U.S. Citizen trust. Apparently, The President of the United States can do anything he wants without fear of reprisal. After we resolve the illegal alien issue, we need to address the illegal politicians issue. Good work city councils of Hemet and Lake Elsinore. Hopefully more will follow your courageous lead.

Defending your home isn't racism and the Mexican invaders know it. They choose to accuse U.S. Citizens of racism anyway because it furthers their agenda of invading our homes. These people are criminal enemy invaders. We need to ferret out the root levels of support for this anarchy and bring it's major conspirators to justice, regardless of their social status. Acts destructive of the public welfare used to be called crimes. Now their called business strategies. I don't think so. Not by a long shot.

"We call things racism just to get attention. We reduce complicated problems to racism, not because it is racism, but because it works."

--- Alfredo Gutierrez, political consultant, as quoted by Richard de Uriarte, The Phoenix Gazette, March 14, 1992 (quoted in The ProEnglish Advocate, 1st quarter, 2002).

[I.F.]

Can we trade Mayor Melendez for slick Tony?

[jebus]

(flaunting their allegiance to Mexico)..Its what got me 2 the point that i say...deport all illegals...and if you don't like it you must be a racist or a feeder

[The Monkey]

Send all Illegals back to Mexico. If they want to become citizens of the USA make them learn to speak English and pay their income tax

[Steve Kurtz]

This is totaly racist and uncalled for!

[Ted]

Thank goodness some nearby cities are supporting Arizona. There may be hope for Southern California yet! ...Aaah, I couldn't say that with a straight face. Let's face it; stick a fork in us, SoCal is done for, but still, it's a wonderful gesture on the parts of Hemet and Lake Elsinore. There's still patches of sanity around here.

[Vickie]

I copied this "letter" from comments on an article about the President of Mexico joining in Obama's subversion of American laws:

Dear Mr. President Obama:

I’m planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me.
We’re planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and we’ll need your help to make a few arrangements.
We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws.
I’m sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that I’m on my way over?

Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:

1. Free medical care for my entire family.

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.

3. Please print all Mexican government forms in English.

4. I want my grandkids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers.

5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history.

6. I want my grandkids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school.

7. Please plan to feed my grandkids at school for both breakfast and lunch.

8. I will need a local Mexican driver’s license so I can get easy access to government services.

9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico but I don’t plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won’t make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.

11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put U. S. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.

12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start.

13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy.

14. I want to receive free food stamps.

15. Naturally, I’ll expect free rent subsidies.

16. I’ll need Income tax credits so although I don’t pay Mexican Taxes, I’ll receive money from the government.

17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Gov’t pays $4,500 to help me buy a new car.

18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I’ll get a monthly income in retirement.

I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all his people who walk over to the U.S. from Mexico … I am sure that President Calderon won’t mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.

Thank you so much for your kind help. You’re the man!!!

[Vickie]

Good for you! Your President isn't behind you or the laws of his nation, but the majority of Americans applaud you.

[JC]

No suprise here. Both cities are well known for their racist lean.

[Don Marshall]

I guess Hemet and Lake Elsinore are sick of the Illegals also!!!

[DonJMac]

Riverside we love you,stay strong, The majority of people are with you.You deserve to be free of illegals of all cultures, Thanks again, you have great common sense and you love your citizens, God is with you.

[Prudence]

Bravo to the voice of common sense backing Arizona and rejecting illegal immigration. Illegal is illegal; only the US government doesn't seem to understand the meaning!

[Duude]

Congrats to Lake Elsinore and Hemet for putting reason ahead of emotion.

[barryoloser]

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!

[Phil]

Thank you Hemet and Lake Elsinor for seeing that this is not about racism. It is about dollars and cents. We can't afford the illegals and it doesn't make sense to allow them to stay.
You're correct that for them to break the law, to come here, and then flaunt their allegence to Mexico is very insulting to the people who have been subsedizing the welfare programs they're taking advantage of.
Phil

[peter]

Did U know that both IE/riverside county cities have been extremely ravaged by the bad recession. Lake Elsinore has descended into an impoverished black hole region of IE, overrun with gangs and illegals. Lots of illegals brought property in IE and then went into foreclosure, leaving IE littered with a sea of foreclosed gutted properties.

Illegals have ravaged the IE just as badly as they have ravaged Los Angeles. San Berdoo county may be more blighted than any region in CA: expect more cities in IE to approve similar proclamations.

[VAHarleygirl]

Melendez, who said she has relatives of Mexican and Peruvian descent, also criticized illegal immigrants for disregarding the nation’s laws and flaunting their allegiance to Mexico.

“Don’t come into my country wearing a Mexican flag. It’s insulting,” she said.
------------

And this is part of the reason AZ passed this law. It's not just that folks are breaking the law, but they are flaunting that they are doing so.
Hence why I'm personally against auto-citizenship. Deporting them all won't work, but don't give instant rewards for breaking the law. It doesn't work for other instances of law-breaking, why should it in an area that can easily bring in someone harmful to national security?

[Jeff Smith]

Mayor Melissa A. Melendez is AWESOME! Take note people....this is how a mayor is supposed to handle their job......In the interest of the people he/she serves!! Not in his/her own personal beliefs! Thank you (both cities) for taking a stand and being courageous during a time of irrational decision making. I wish there were more like you!

[Dogmeat]

It is odd that there has been this big spike in right wing idiocy coming out of Arizona though. Texas has a higher background level of crazy and right now Arizona is like a supernova taking the attention. I wonder how long it will last.

Actually it isn't that strange. Arizona has been moving gradually towards the middle over the last twenty years. The population has doubled in that time and a big part of that spike wasn't old retirees who tended to be conservative, but a lot of younger families moving from blue states, etc. In 2008 McCain only received 53.4% of the vote here in Arizona, his sixth lowest vote total among the states he won. Now think about that, his home state was one of his least supportive states. Had McCain been from Texas, Florida, etc., he likely would have lost Arizona.

This state has a long history of very conservative, often racist politics and the supporters of those policies aren't happy that they are consistently losing ground to moderates and liberals (simply termed as liberals in their tirades). Because of how the state legislature is set up conservatives still have a major majority in both houses but, when Napolitano was governor, she vetoed a lot of their stupidity. In fact she set the record for vetoes in the history of the state. You take her away, bring in Brewer who is a wing-nut's wing-nut, and you see incredibly stupid legislation that was shut down by a reasonable governor make it out of the state house. At the same time you see an increase in non-conservative population as well as an increase in non-white population and the far white err, right is freaking out.

[Linka]

I didn't realize "illegal" was now a race. It's funny, but the only ones I ever see making it about race are the ones crying racism.

[Mr Conehead]

Good. Illegal is a CRIME, not a RACE !!

[hector]

were with you Arizona the rest of the states should follow.