Gubernatorial candidate, I mean Mayor, Setti Warren released the following statement in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ threat to strip some sanctuary cities of Justice Department grants:
“With all due respect to the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions doesn’t decide what happens in Newton. Instead of issuing threats from Washington, DC, the Trump Administration might want to take a look at our community-based process that brought proponents of sanctuary cities and supporters of Donald Trump together. The Welcoming City ordinance we passed in Newton brought together people of many perspectives with the ultimate goal of keeping our community safe.
“We will not be a community where police are part of any “deportation force” or where immigrants are fearful of being torn from their families for minor offenses. We will be a community where all feel welcome and safe, no matter their immigration status. There was overwhelming support from the Newton community to affirm these values through an ordinance and the Welcoming City ordinance will remain the law of the land here.”
Some common sense needed here:
If a criminal in Newton is convicted of assault, rape, murder I should hope Newton would work with ICE for such crimes. These crimes are indefensible
Bugek – none of those are “minor offenses”.
Thank you Mayor Warren. Undocumented immigrants are not a threat to Newton. AG Jeff Sessions would do well to focus on a greater threat to Americans, such as attacks on transgender women (8 killed so far this year) and gun violence in general “No other developed country in the world has anywhere near the rate of gun violence that America has. The US has nearly six times the gun homicide rate of Canada, more than seven times Sweden’s, and nearly 16 times Germany’s.
Jane,
I guess the debate comes down to:
“Are the following offenses minor enough that immigration status is irrelevant”
– DUI: some view this as a harmless crime. Some view it very seriously, totally innocent people can be killed very easily here.
– Burglary: victim-less crime? waking up to find someone in your house with your wife and kids?
– theft: very debateable
– identify theft: this is a very deliberate crime, surely we don’t want people like this in our society?
Question becomes whether or not national distractions contribute in serving the needs of the majority of the municipals’ citizenry.
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I blame Emily for that… I agree that there should be tighter gun controls at the federal level. However, the relevant statistic when considering public safety is homicide rate, not “gun homicide rate”. According to Wikipedia, which uses UNODC data, the homicide rate per 100,000 is 3.9 in the U.S. vs. 1.5 in Canada (2.6x), and vs. 0.9 in Sweden and Germany (4.33x). Nothing to be proud of for sure, but not as bleak as the numbers people keep throwing around.
“Undocumented immigrants are not a threat to Newton.”
I’m sure the peaceful welcoming people in Rockville, MD are reevaluating that statement…
Like bugek states above, “minor offenses” are very much up for debate and until clearly defined the law means nothing. And DUI is NOT a minor offense…
If the Government announced random round-ups, intention to deport any and all illegal immigrants as ‘official policy’ then yes I would certainly be against it, I suspect 99.9% of Newton residents would certainly be against it too.
.. but when we are talking soley about illegal immigrants committing actual crimes, I have a very low threshold.
Unfortunate crimes such as shoplifting, stealing a load of bread, faking an school address to attend Newton Schools, crossing side walk etc.. would seen irrelevant to immigrant status.
Most of the cases in the News have focused on DUI, ‘prior’ deportation orders. If Newton police will report illegals for crimes such as DUI and up.. is there really a problem?
People may have seen in the news that a Bristol County, MA Sheriff is testifying in DC today that MA elected officials should be jailed if they support sanctuary city policies – even though such policies completely align with state and federal law. Awful and exemplary of why in this time of heated, fact-free political rhetoric the law that passed in Newton is so important – thank you Setti for these positive comments.
Here’s the story:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/28/illegal-immigration-most-dangerous-issue-facing-bristol-sheriff-tells-congress/yY3lenrNrU6Yz2Z0yGumKJ/story.html
Hope someone runs against this MA home grown version of AZ Sheriff Joe Arpio
Wow, Setti has a backbone. Who would have known? Leadership necessitates standing up for people who may not be able to stand up for themselves. And this little snippet of leadership tells me that maybe, [just maybe], Setti Warren has what it takes to be Governor.
In my opinion Setti should be hitting Charlie Baker hard over his inexcusable failure to slow down the heroin epidemic in Massachusetts. Heroin is killing thousands of our fellow citizens a year, and Baker is clueless how to stop it. In fact, he’s made the problem even worse. Anyone running for Governor better have a damn good plan to end the heroin epidemic. If Setti puts a good plan on the table, I may actually support him.
I too am impressed by our mayor’s firm stance on enforcing our Welcoming City Ordinance and by his reply to Jeff Sessions. He deserves our thanks.
The time for discussion about this ordinance has passed – to steal a line said about the ACA – it is the law of the land (Newton) for the foreseeable future. I hope it soon extends to Mass.
I also agree with Shawn.
@MikeStriar: As will become a common theme in his Gubernatorial bid, Mayor Warren doesn’t have the credibility to hit Governor Baker hard when it comes to the opioid epidemic. Let’s look at some facts.
Before Setti Warren became Mayor, between 2003 and 2007, there were 11 opioid related deaths in Newton. Between 2008 and 2012, that number nearly doubled to 18. And between 2013 until now (assuming that the trend continues for the rest of this year), we are looking at a staggering 30 or so opioid related deaths in Newton. In other words, since Setti Warren has become Mayor, he has been demonstrably unsuccessful at combating this devastating issue in Newton. Need I also remind those reading this of how woefully delayed our city was in obtaining life-saving Narcan under his leadership?
Setti Warren is not a leader. He is a politician. And believe it or not, I don’t say that lightly as I sincerely wanted him to succeed as Mayor since his strengths are our success but his shortcomings are our defeat.
By failing to be an effective leader on issues that have literally killed family members of mine, I for one won’t pull my punches when it comes to Mayor Setti Warren. I can only hope that voters aren’t manipulated by the false narrative that he is likely to sell.
I think I’m missing an important aspect. If AG Sessions was talking about sanctuary cities and Newton’s not a sanctuary city, then what is Mayor Warren railing about? Oh, I see — right at the beginning of the post. It’s actually from Gubernatorial Candidate Warren. Just a little base-rallying going on.
I have no problem with Mayor Warren promoting Newton. But I’m not a big fan of politicians promoting themselves, which this clearly is. Reminds me of one of my old pet peeves — Governors’ names on the “welcome to XX” state sign.
Rockville, MD
Bugek,
Concerning Rockville, MD. I wonder what Newton School Policy is regarding mixing 18 year men with 14 year girls in the same school?
I’m assuming it could technically happen in Newton, and the chances just happen to be higher if a 17 year old knows 0 english and very lowly educated