State Assembly Candidate Harmeet K. Dhillon Responds to Latest “Sanctuary City” Revelations and Challenges Opponent Tom Ammiano to Honor His Oath of Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2008
Contact:  Dhillon ’08 Community Affairs Liaison Alisa Farenzena,
(415) 706-0407

Harmeet K. Dhillon, candidate for California Assembly, District 13, reacted to today’s news that the city has been using taxpayer dollars for $650,000 in grants toward providing underage criminal illegal aliens with free services ranging from immigration attorneys to housing aid and “arts and cultural affirmation activities.”

The news of the funding comes just days after dueling protests over the “Sanctuary City” policy on July 30, where opponents argued that the policy must end and supporters argued that the policy should not be scaled back to stop protecting juveniles who are felons. Supervisor Tom Ammiano, on the side of the latter group, was quoted as saying, “We as a city believe in rehabilitation when it comes to our youth,” after the mayor decided to scale back the policy. Ammiano added that young illegal immigrants convicted of felonies “deserve the same rights as all of our youth,” deriding Mayor Newsom’s belated decision to begin cooperating with federal authorities.

“Ammiano, as is often the case, is just plain wrong — drug-dealing and violent felons here illegally on their own do NOT have the same rights as tax-paying, law abiding citizens and legal residents of the city,” Dhillon said, expressing agreement with U.S. Attorney Joseph Russionello’s suggestion that the city’s deliberate shielding of illegal immigrants violates federal law. “Where is the respect of our elected leaders for the civil rights and human rights of the law-abiding residents of our city? Who is protecting us while elected officials pander to special interests?” asked Dhillon.

”The city’s leadership, including Supervisor Tom Ammiano, have consistently ignored their oaths of office in which they swore to uphold the paramount laws of the United States and the State of California. Our elected leaders should not be allowed to pick and choose which laws to obey and which to ignore. To countenance such selective enforcement will lead to anarchy and tragedies such as the Bologna family triple murder by a ‘shielded’ offender,” Dhillon said. “The proper way of dealing with laws you don’t like is to change the laws — not ignore them.”

As an immigrant from India, Dhillon supports a compassionate but sensible immigration enforcement policy that balances the needs of our economy for honest workers, the desires of families to be together and the need for strong enforcement of existing laws designed to protect the vast majority of the populace. Shielding of drug-dealing, unaccompanied juveniles — and even providing them with “cultural affirmation activities” as the city has done, have no place in this balance, she said.

“The illegal immigration crisis in our nation urgently cries out for a solution, but local and state officials and vigilantes are not tasked with the obligation of protecting our borders — the federal government is,” Dhillon said. “As San Franciscans, we have every right to demand that our elected leaders honor their sworn oaths to uphold the duly enacted laws of our nation. Will Mr. Ammiano swear that if elected to the State Assembly, he will uphold the state and federal laws as he must? Or will he continue to flout the law and promote disorder and anarchy at a statewide level, seeking to protect miscreants at the expense of the law-abiding? San Francisco deserves better.”

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