Showing posts with label Joseph Curtatone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joseph Curtatone. Show all posts

Monday, August 3, 2015

MASSACHUSETTS; Somerville mayor hits back at Bobby Jindal over sanctuary cities

Somerville mayor hits back at Bobby Jindal over sanctuary cities | Herald Bulldog | First On The Street | Boston Herald

Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone today slammed Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal's call to charge “sanctuary city” mayors as accomplices in crimes committed by illegal immigrants as a campaign ploy and an appeal to the “lowest common denominator.”
“Come and get me,” Curtatone charged in a Boston Herald Radio interview, shortly after Jindal took to the station airwaves to detail his proposal. “You say something absurd, you fear monger, you play to the crowd … we're smarter than that.
“I love listening to Jindal, because I swear if you didn't know who he is, you swear it was Gomer Pyle,” the Democrat added. “We shouldn't lower ourselves to the lowest common denominator, and that's the brain of … Bobby Jindal.”
Jindal, the Louisiana governor who has framed himself as an anti-establishment candidate in the crowded Republican field, also said local mayors and elected officials in sanctuary cities – or those that defy federal immigration authorities – should be held liable civilly by victims or their families for the crimes of illegal immigrants.
He pointed to the death of Kathryn Steinle, who was killed in San Francisco, allegedly by an illegal immigrant who was released from police custody despite a detention request from the feds. The crime has sparked the push behind “Kate's Law” and has been repeatedly referenced by Republican presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, when discussing immigration.
Jindal said mayors like Curtatone – who has signed an executive order pulling the city out of the federal Secure Communities program – should be “criminally liable as accessories,” adding that, “If you're going to flaunt (sic) federal law, there should be a consequence.”
But Curtatone rejected that thinking, pointing to what he called “misinformation” around the concept of sanctuary cities, which he said is an effort to build trust in communities, not give criminals a free pass.
He said in the case of Steinle's murder, Somerville would have turned the suspect over to federal immigration authorities.
“Unfortunately that terrible incident (in San Francisco) is being used to describe an entire population and its being used by people like Bobby Jindal who say the most absurd, offensive things against one segment of the population. As a society, we have more compassion than that,” Curtatone said.
He said Jindal's comments are simply a move to push him “beyond the 1 percent right now” in presidential polls. He sarcastically said “Sheriff Bobby Jindal” hasn't put him in handcuffs.
“More like, Deputy Barney Fife, has not arrested me yet,” Curtatone said.

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