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UW students march for sheriff’s ouster

UW students march for sheriff’s ouster

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by Kevin Bargnes
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 01:38

Several University of Wisconsin student groups marched from Library Mall to the City County Building Monday to protest Dane County Sheriff’s policy of turning in illegal immigrants to the federal government Monday.

Sheriff Dave Mahoney has developed a policy of reporting all undocumented arrested to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though no legislation requires him to do so.

The student chapter of Progressive Dane, Campus Antiwar Network and the Multicultural Student Coalition organized the protest along with the Immigrant Workers Union.

“So we have a supposed liberal (Mahoney) going above and beyond his authority to make the lives of our county’s most vulnerable citizens even harder,” Progressive Dane member Adam Porton said.

After making several speeches on Library Mall, the group of approximately 50 marched up State Street, blocking traffic and buses and using noisemakers.

The groups entered the City-County Building to tell the Dane County Board of Supervisors they support an amendment to move funding from Mahoney’s budget to a workers’ outreach program.

After some debate, the amendment failed by a vote of 30 to 6. Scott McDonnell, District 1, said while he agreed with the protesters, this was not the best way to tackle the issue.

“I think the vehicle for addressing this issue is for us to look back at our own policies and clarify them,” McDonnell said.

The amendment would have cut funding for five new positions in the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.

Supervisor Al Matano, District 11, spoke out in favor of the amendment.

“Even if people’s immigration status is not 100 percent, it doesn’t mean they don’t have rights,” Matano said.

Protesters booed the result and left the room chanting, “We’ll be back.”

PD member Samir Jaber said Mahoney is “legislating by the badge” by reporting illegal immigrants to ICE.

“It causes a lot of immigrants to stop reporting things to the city for fear of being deported,” PD member Samir Jaber said. “We feel we have a moral obligation to stand by our immigrant community”

McDonnell echoed some of Jaber’s worries, saying Mahoney’s policy causes crimes to go underreported and mirrors some of the deportation-focused policy of President George W. Bush’s administration.

Several of the involved students also said they believed Mahoney’s actions were racist. CAN organizer Rob Lewis said calling somebody illegal is simply “an excuse to discriminate against them.”

“What’s going on is racist and inexcusable,” Lewis said. “They’re trying to intimidate a group of people in this community and take away their rights.”

As they marched up State Street, the students carried signs reading “Not One More Penny to the Sheriff” and “Deport Mahoney” while chanting “No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police.”

Calls to Mahoney’s office seeking comment Monday afternoon were not returned as of press time.

—Becky Vevea contributed to this report.


Feedback
Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 2:12am):

No Justice, No Peace, No Racist-Ass Police!

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 6:42am):

Illegal is illegal, dumbasses.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 7:52am):

“So we have a supposed liberal (Mahoney) going above and beyond his authority to make the lives of our county’s most vulnerable citizens even harder”

Um...I thought the whole point was that they're NOT citizens.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 9:35am):

"A resident of any particular place to which the subject feels to belong." is also used as a definition for citizens. Honestly, the US doesn't have the best history of granting the rights of the state to its citizens: black people, women, non-property owning white men, the irish, the polish, the germans, the jews, native americans, central and eastern europeans, asians. In fact one might say this is a particular ugly pattern in terms of US/resident relations.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 10:20am):

"they're NOT citizens"

They are not even LEGAL residents!

The "fear of being deported" should be a clear and present aspect of every day that they are a criminal trespasser in the USA.

NO ONE has the right to break the law.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 11:10am):

6:42 people once said, a slave is property, it's the law, dumbass

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 12:23pm):

If they are here illegally they don't deserve rights. While I empathize with them on the fact that they are probably here because of poor living conditions in the native country they are not going through the proper routes to get here. If someone wants to establish residency here from a foreign country they need to do it the legal way. If they want to come here illegally and hide from the government then they should be afraid of deportation. Is Mahoney overstepping his bounds a little bit? Sure. But to call him racist for enforcing federal law isn't right, either.
As for moving money from Mahoney's budget to a fund for workers outreach I don't agree, especially in the case of illegal immigrants. Giving money to groups that help immigrants find jobs is just going to make it worse because more illegal immigrants will have an easier time finding a job in the Madison area. If any money is taken from Mahoney's budget for immigrants it should be going into a fund to help them become LEGAL citizens.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 12:42pm):

11:10--

This is not about slaves. These illegals have all the rights that their home country has to offer and are not property. There is nothing at all wrong with enforcing a commonsense law that sends people home.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 12:48pm):

Go Student Progressive Dane! Getting things done locally is where it's at.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 12:50pm):

These protesters are a small, delusional, but loud minority. Illegal immigrants are NOT citizens of this country by definition, and statements like these “So we have a supposed liberal (Mahoney) going above and beyond his authority to make the lives of our county’s most vulnerable citizens even harder,” show just how off-base these people are. In a town this liberal, if you can only get 50 people to protest something, you should probably give up.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 1:51pm):

Secure the Borders.
Uniformly Enforce the Immigration Laws.
Deport the Illegal Aliens.

Si, Se Puede!

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 3:19pm):

12:23: If the option was between waiting three to five year s to get into the county, whose economic influence has ruined my county's farming industry so bad that I have to leave so I can feed my family, or going into California and being able to send back money for my family in 72 hours, I am sneaking in. We you are put in the situation, maybe you will understand.

12:50-BH definitely underestimated those numbers, more between 100 and 125, with snow and freezing temps. Just wait until it gets warmer and is later in the week like this little gem.

http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/05/02/hundreds_protest_mad.php

The most important element of this situation is that neither party is particular sound on this issue, but have agreed that sending 12 million people back is impossible and would spark untold anger here and abroad. I would hate to see President-Elect Obama strolling through the lower west side of Chicago if that happened, would not be pretty.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 4:12pm):

Bring the troops home from Germany, Korea and Japan.

Set them to guarding our own border.

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 5:11pm):

so fire someone for doing what he is supposed to be doing....brilliant

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 7:12pm):

Hey morons, it's an INVASION. On of the USA government's only real legitimate duty is to protect our borders, they should do it.

Repeal the income tax amendment and make the feds live off import duties - they'd be protecting the borders then!

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 11:45pm):

Good thing Obama got elected, now he can let them all stay, and when we get in the work force our hard earned money will be spent to support illegal immigrants! YAY SOCIALISM!

Anonymous (November 18, 2008 @ 11:55pm):

go Mahoney! if you think America's laws on immigration are strict look at Mexico they're trying to keep the Central Americans out

Anonymous (November 19, 2008 @ 12:28am):

sheriff mahoney the majority of dane county supports you. keep turning those illegals in!

Anonymous (November 23, 2008 @ 6:31pm):

He follows what the law is. You are to report people that cannot be identified by name, social security number, finger prints or other means. If someone is taken into the jail and nobody knows who they are, they get reported to ICE for further identification. The sheriff's dept can't be just releasing people out on the street that they can't positively identify.

It's not racist in the least. It's just common sense. People are just looking for a reason to stir up the pot and find a reason to protest.

How would people like it if the jail released people out on the street to find out they were wanted for previous crimes or get released and commit a crime? People would be up in arms about how the sheriff's dept wasn't doing their jobs.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't

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