Do you know that Minneapolis is a so-called "sanctuary city"? Sanctuary cities are cities where local law enforcement is barred from so much as asking the people they come into contact with about their immigration status. As a consequence, these cities are able to evade their legal responsibilities to share such information with federal authorities. This is increasingly important as 40 percent of the current illegal population entered the U.S. legally and simply overstayed their visas. This means that even if we had the best border security in the world, we would still have an illegal immigration problem. Federal law needs to be changed to require these so-called sanctuary cities to allow their law enforcement to inquire about immigration status when questioning someone who has committed a crime.

Great point about drunk drivers -- one that has recently been illustrated in our community. In July of 2006, a drunk driver hit a Savage police officer on Highway 13 as the officer was talking with a motorist he had just pulled over. He was caught, his BAC was .10, and he has yet to go to trial. In November 2007, that same driver hit and killed Nichole Andersen in Scott County. According to police, he was .07 at the time and his omnibus hearing is next week. The accused man's attorney has slowed down the legal process based on the "source button issue" defense. That type of defense challenges the BAC results based on the fact that the manufacturer of the machine will not divulge the code that comes up with the alcohol reading.

I just wonder who the righties would blame for all of this country's ills if all the illegal immigrants were rounded up and shipped out. Because as we all know, no U.S. citizen has ever caused a traffic accident.

The debate about illegal immigration is one that reasonable people should be able to have. The discussion certainly involves a lot of issues. I don't have a problem engaging in a debate about what the best solution might be - if there is one. What I have a problem with is people trying to exploit a tragic situation like this bus accident in an attempt to further their narrow point of view.

I also have a problem with people who seem so comfortable sitting back - now that they're in this country - saying we should build a wall and keep everyone else out. What would you do if you and your family were struggling to survive amid horrible conditions in another country? It sounds easy to say, "Follow the rules, wait your turn" etc. But the LEGAL immigration system in this country is broken. It takes years to get in legally. I'm not condoning illegally entering this country or any other, but I can at least appreciate and understand that when people are faced with desperate circumstances, they might resort to desperate actions to help themselves or their family to a better life.

This is a nation of immigrants. To paint all of these people as "criminals" is un-American in my opinion.

From a story in startribune.com today,

"The driver has been identified as Olga Marina Franco and she's from Guatemala, according to Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago.

Franco has been charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide stemming from the Feb. 19 crash near Cottonwood. Witnesses say she blew through a stop sign, jumped over some railroad tracks and hit the rear of the bus, which tipped over and collided with a pickup truck.

The woman initially said her name was Alianiss Nunez Morales, but ICE officials said she was using a fake name and was here illegally."

Robert T. wrote:
"Actually, it's a pretty poor point.
We do spend an large amount of time and energy on DUI enforcement. "

Guess what? It's not working. Need proof? Check the police reports in Savage, Prior Lake and other communities in the Twin Cities. Every week, there are people - quite a few people - driving around with blood alcohol contents two and three times the legal limit (one of them just hit a Prior Lake squad car last month). For many of them, it's not the first such offense. And not having a driver's license doesn't seem to stop any of them, whether they're immigrants or not.

Will Morgan Supports Illegal Immigration -

Today in the house in addition to voting against property tax relief, Will Morgan also voted against preventing "sanctuary cities".

Interesting as I was having dinner they were interviewing police officers in border states who were begging their cities to allow them to call ICE.
But in MN they get no such support.
Apparently Will thinks it is more important to keep these folks on the road.

Thanks Will.

I really can't believe this case is being blamed on a person's lack of citizenship. Blame it on the person's lack of a driver's license, driving ability, drinking/drugs/whatever. But what exactly does being a citizen of the United States or not being a citizen of the United States have to do with this woman causing this accident? It doesn't matter which side of the immigration fence you're on. The simple fact is, people who are citizens of this country drive without licenses, drive drunk, etc., too. And there are far more of them.

Exactly, it's a simple matter of cause and effect. If she were not in the country, those kids would still be alive.

The fact that she is an illegal alien makes the deaths that much more cruel because it would not have happened if she had been deported when she was cited for no license two years earlier. Now you have finger pointing going on between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials with both sides blaming the other for the lack of deporting of discovered illegal aliens. They had better start working together going forward.

If there's a will there's a way ... it's human nature. If someone wants to drive without a license they will -- no matter if they don't have a license because they've been ticketed multiple times for drunk driving, had too many speeding tickets or because they are an illegal immigrant. I agree, there's something seriously wrong with the system if cops in Minneapolis and St. Paul cannot ask a driver their legal status because they are in some imaginary "santuary." Unfortunately, we all let the children on that school bus in Cottonwood down.

I didn't see the sign when I first came to savagepacer.com that said "please do not discuss immigration on this web site". Lori, are there other topics you would prefer we not discuss on this web site? Stick to the safe stuff, is that what you are saying? It's okay for Schardin and Nesvig to write their liberal rants against President Bush but if us citizens want to discuss other important political topics, that's off limits?!?

Thank you for the clarification, but I don't need a deep, calming breath. The context of what you wrote suggested to me that you were talking about "us", not just "you". Now I know differently.

As Robert T. points out, your argument seems to suggest we do nothing about anything because someone else would step in and commit the sin. Pretty faulty logic especially in this case where it's quite a stretch to suggest that someone else would have rammed that bus on that day and killed those kids.

I see one of Senator Norm Coleman's planks in his re-election platform is to eliminate so-called sanctuary cities. Hurray for Senator Coleman! There should be no city or town that is able to prevent their police officers from helping to detain and deport illegal aliens. There are plenty of people waiting in line to come in to the country legally. Those who do so illegally should be punished under the law. Also, people and companies who employ illegal aliens should be punished under the law. If the demand for the cheap labor dried up, there would be less incentive to come here illegally.