Address to the Woodland City Council, Monday, 7th June 2010

The following is the text of my address to the Woodland City Council. I apologise for not supplying citations and references. A three minute time limit was (strictly) enforced; I was cut off in the middle of the sentence which begins, "Proponents of the law claim..." As the Japanese-American internment came up during later discussion, I was able (via a parliamentary point of information) to underscore our racial profiling concerns.

Also, previous to beginning my statement, I distributed copies of Rick Stolz's "Principles of Immigration Reform" to the Council. These are the handouts mentioned in the last paragraph.

-----

Good Evening, City Council Members and Fellow Citizens.

My Name is Jason Covington; I am here tonight not only as a representative of OneAmerica but also as a concerned citizen of Vancouver, Clark County, Washington State and the United States of America.

The Woodland City Council will vote shortly on Resolution 588, which, according to tonight's agenda, is a statement of the city's “support of the enactment of the Arizona Immigration Law, and further, to encourage the Washington State Legislature to enact similar legislation.”.

Before this vote takes place, I would like the council to consider what they would be doing should Resolution 588 pass.

The Council would be endorsing, supporting, advocating and encouraging a law which expands the definition of “reasonable suspicion” to the shoes one wears or one's ability to answer a Law Enforcement Officer's question to his or her personal satisfaction;

a law which will eradicate years of trust-building in immigrant communities and other communities of colour and cause crime rates to increase;

a law which allows any person to sue a city, town or county for not enforcing immigration laws vigourously enough and which establishes stiff and significant penalties for the sued should the suit prove successful. Consider for a moment, the monumental cost to the sued entity for this; would you want to be responsible for this?

The Council would be endorsing, supporting, advocating and encouraging a law which will take parents from their children, children from their parents, husbands from wives, wives from husbands and cause the wholesale destruction of families, without even a phone call from the “detained;”

a law which perpetuates and sets as legal precedent the worst of xenophobic thought, behaviour and action;

a law which disregards or deems inadequate the legislative process upon which this country was founded in favour of the persecution of an easily identified scapegoat;

a law which punishes individuals for the shortcomings and failures of a broken immigration system rather than fix the system.

Of particular concern is the possibility of differential enforcement and application of the Arizona Law. It is folly to think a well-dressed Anglo who just ran a stoplight in his Lexus will be asked for proof of citizenship. Proponents of the law claim it has language and provisions which remove the possibility of Racial Profiling. However, I would respectfully remind the council of Executive Order 9066, issued by President Roosevelt, did not mention any race or ethnicity. Yet it caused the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-American citizens during World War II. No other race, colour, creed, ethnicity or community was affected.

I respectfully ask the Council if they would have passed a resolution in support of, and calling for legislation similar to, this Order.

I urge the council to vote down Resolution 588 and, in its stead, issue a resolution calling for Comprehensive Immigration Reform as outlined in your handouts.

Thank you.