State to cities: Do as we say

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 17, 2007 7:10 PM PDT ∞

Do as we say, not as we do.

That's been the slogan of politicians since the Greeks invented politics way back when, but rarely as blatant as when the state Legislature passed and the governor signed a bill last week prohibiting California cities from passing their own rental laws that deal with immigration status (tinyurl.com/ypxjdn).

While the politicos in Sacramento wrapped their retributory legislation in fancy rhetoric about preventing discrimination and protecting businesses from undue burdens, the real message was this: Don't you cities dare thumb your nose at our thumbing of our nose at Washington.

What brought this insane piece of legislation into existence was the state's horror -- horror, I say! -- at Escondido's rescinded law that sought to prevent landlords from renting apartments or houses to people who are in the country illegally.

While I thought Escondido's law was unnecessarily divisive -- and wrote so in this very space -- I have a harder time seeing how it was possibly unconstitutional.

If you have no legal right to be here, surely you have no legal right to housing.

Are we as a society hypocritical about illegal immigration, passing laws to restrict immigration while still welcoming far more to come in with a wink and a nod?

Absolutely.

Does everyone, even those who violate our laws in crossing our borders, have a right to be treated humanely and with dignity?

Without equivocation.

None of that, though, is in conflict with saying that if you're here illegally, we're sorry but you can't have a job, can't rent an apartment, can't drive a car. And that if we catch you, we're going to have to ask you to leave.

Which the federal government has been trying to do of late -- only California's state leaders, seeing potential votes in pandering to pro-immigration sentiment, have decided to defy the federal government. And they don't want their own cities defying them on this.

On another front, while far fewer than half of Riverside and San Diego County residents can afford to own their own homes, the Wall Street Journal reported last week (tinyurl.com/2vdk78) that banks are bullish on home loans to illegal immigrants -- using a taxpayer ID instead of a Social Security number. (The Journal's article was also published in the Times' Business section on Oct. 10.)

Which just seems patently unfair -- by having people who don't even have a right to be in the country qualifying for and getting mortgages, we're artificially raising the price of home ownership and pricing American citizens (such as your loyal correspondent) and legal immigrants out of that opportunity.

Politicians being who they are, one presumes that the state's response to banks and real estate agents selling homes to people who don't even have a right to be in this country will be to pass a law.

A law that says cities can't pass laws that require banks or real estate agents to check the citizenship or immigration status of people buying homes.

Sigh.

-- Contact columnist Jim Trageser at (760) 631-6628 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.

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