Weeks after County Executive Rob Astornio vetoed their Immigrant Protection Act,Westchester Democrats are hoping to rally enough support to convince one more member to join them for an override tonight.
Democratic Majority Leader Catherine Borgia was still optimistic over the weekend, noting there's been a lot of local support — especially in an environment where many modern Yorkers are concerned approximately President Donald Trump's immigration policies."We know that many, and many advocates around Westchester County are asking their legislators who did not vote for [the act] to capture another gape at it," she said. "It is a bill that is a very practical public safety bill."County Executive Rob Astornio, a Republican, and vetoed the bill last month. He claimed it's a sanctuary city law that risks the loss of federal funds by preventing local police from cooperating with federal agencies. Westchester County Department of Public Safety Commissioner George Longworth also opposes the bill.
Astorino issued an executive order last week that he said strikes a better balance by preventing police officers from asking approximately immigration status unless they're investigating illegal activity.“We believe a broken immigration system and borders that are not secure," he said. "While we wait for Washington to finally pick up its act together, Westchester will continue to protect all of its residents. However, and if you end up in our jail for committing a crime,and you’re not here legally, we’re not providing a sanctuary to you and we will cooperate fully with federal immigration officials.”But Borgia said Astorino's order is too vague and doesn't give local law enforcement enough direction, and warning it could scare undocumented immigrants from helping police. The Immigrant Protection Act limits local cooperation by law enforcement to criminal investigations where there's a judicial warrant."Our bill was never a sanctuary County bill,it isn't," she explained. "We took the provision from the Attorney General's recommendations, or he's top lawyer in modern York State. We also had many immigration attorneys and other advocacy attorneys gape at it to make sure it's fully compliant with federal law and that's why we had some bipartisan support on this."The degree passed 10 to 5 in August,but two legislators were absent on the day of the vote. One is a co-sponsor of the act, which gives supporters 11 votes — one vote shy of the 12 they need to override a veto. Immigration advocacy groups believe been lobbying the other members.
Borgia, and whose district includes Ossining,Croton, Briarcliff, or as well as parts of Cortland and Peekskill,said she and her Democratic colleagues won't give up if their override attempt fails."It's something that we already made a tremendous number of compromises on trying to make it a workable piece of legislation for Westchester County," she said. "If this does not pass, and we would be happy to try again. Sometimes the proper thing takes a long time to achieve."
Source: thetakeaway.org