NEWSOM IN THE NEWS

Our Mayor was much mentioned on cable news today for his pledge to maintain San Francisco as a Sanctuary City for illegal immigrants. The pronouncement is covered in this Chronicle story.

The Mayor is quoted:

"I will not allow any of my department heads or anyone associated with this city to cooperate in any way shape or form with these raids," Newsom declared. "We are a sanctuary city, make no mistake about it."

This is grandstanding. The discussions I heard on MSNBC and on Fox News were mostly disapproving, but they mentioned the full name, Gavin Newsom, many times. Some defenders brought up Newsom’s Gay Marriage gambit.

Listening only to the national news, one would gather that Gavin Newsom, whatever the direction of his policies, is bold and unafraid to break new ground in championing unpopular causes, a real comer.

Presumably there are some genuinely bad people pursued by La Migra, like, people who present a great risk of physical harm to the inhabitants of San Francisco, whom SFPD would, I hope, cooperate in capturing.

I’m sure the sanctuary to which Newsom refers extends only to the “good” illegal immigrants, whom we want and need for their cheap labor.

So, the real story isn’t about immigration, it’s about Gavin Newsom: “Newsom Gets His Name in the News.”

The national news doesn’t care that Newsom can’t make a stupid streetcar system run on time.

For an amusing take on “sanctuary” check out this story in the Brussels Journal blog.

It’s about illegal Muslim immigrants holed-up in Catholic churches. The picture and the lead-in were irresistible.

While Western Europe is turning Muslim, its Christian Churches are committing suicide. A Muslim would never allow his mosque to be turned into a dormitory for non-believers. This, however, is exactly what the Belgian Catholic Church is doing.

Too many people! Again, from the Brussels story:

Earlier this week a 31 year old illegal immigrant from Morocco, squatting in a church in Glain in the diocese of Liège, sewed his lips closed to protest the fact that (a) he has no money to travel to Morocco to attend his father’s funeral and (b) that if he does go to Morocco he will not be allowed to enter Belgium again.

Exasperation knows no borders.

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