Two California cities find themselves on opposite sides of the heated immigration debate. Earlier this year, Maywood became the first municipality in the state to declare itself a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, San Bernardino recently considered a tough measure that would ban the undocumented from renting property and punish those who hire them.
This segment profiles these two towns, both of which have drawn national attention and inspired other cities to take similar approaches.
- Maywood resolution opposing the Sensenbrenner-King bill (H.R. 4437) (pdf)
- San Bernardino Illegal Immigration Relief Act
(courtesy of Riverside Press-Enterprise) - “San Bernardino Measure Targeting Illegal Immigrants Faces Hurdle”, Los Angeles Times
- “San Bernardino seeking ‘relief’”, San Francisco Chronicle
- “Town Declares Itself a Sanctuary for Illegal Immigrants”, NPR
- National Alliance for Human Rights, lead organization spearheading opposition to the SBD initiative
- Save Our State, Joseph Turner’s organization in support of SBD initiative
- City Vents Anger at Illegal Immigrants, Los Angeles Times
- Hate Mail, Threats Probed in Maywood, Los Angeles Times
More on USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism:
- School of Journalism, USC Annenberg
- Immigration Outpost, USC’s News21 fellows
- News21
- Student Journalists’ Major-League Project, Center for Citizen Media: Blog
December 17th, 2006 at 8:11 am
To whom it may concern:
I am a Police Officer at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino. In conjunction with our Police Services Department, oftentimes San Bernardino Police Department (SBPD) is called to assist.
Early this year, one of my fellow officers found three hispanic males stealing property off of our grounds at Patton. The subjects had no knowledge of the English languange and carried no identification with them. It was beleived that they were undocumented. Additionally, these subjects were driving a vehicle with plates that did not match the VIN on their vehicle and were unable to locate in the system. There was no evidence of insurance on the vehicle either.
For unknown reasons, SBPD was dispatched to the call> SBPD released the three males, allowing them to drive away in the unidentifiable, uninsured vehicle.
I support this measure, however, does SBPD?