Rick Hansen Vote Alert!

On March 13th, our state legislator, Rep. Rick Hansen, helped defeat a motion that would have allowed an up-or-down vote on HF 3010, a bill prohibiting sanctuary cities from harboring illegal aliens. Cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul have sanctuary policies that prevent police officers from inquiring about immigration status or enforcing immigration laws. These policies are allowing illegal aliens to openly enjoy the benefits of citizenship without the fear of deportation.

Legislators who support sanctuary cities are trying to stall HF 3010, hoping to simply allow the bill to die in committee. The recent vote was an attempt to pull HF 3010 from committee to the House floor for an up-or-down vote. But Rep. Rick Hansen helped to defeat this motion.

Sanctuary policies cause a host of financial, legal and criminal problems that negatively affect the quality of life for legitimate Minnesota citizens. The recent bus crash in Cottonwood is a tragic reminder of this fact and should have been a wake-up call to our state legislators to get tough on illegal immigration. But some legislators like Rep. Rick Hansen don't seem to be getting the message.


Also, on a recent bill (HF 3201) Marty Seifert introduced an amendment that would have prohibited local government aid (LGA) payments to sanctuary cities. Minneapolis and St. Paul have sanctuary ordinances, and MPLS is set to receive $82 million and St. Paul about $57 million in state LGA payments in 2008. If the amendment had become law, failure to repeal those ordinances would have meant $139 million would have been disbursed to other LGA cities in Minnesota. Rep. Rick Hansen voted against this amendment!

Hansen also voted to defeat another amendment to HF3201 that would cut LGA funding in half to sanctuary cities which was also presented by Rep. Marty Siefert.

Hansen also voted against motions to bring these two bills out of committee and onto the House floor on the same day (last Thursday) that he voted against bringing the sanctuary city bill out:

HF 2652 (making English our official language) - authored by Rep. Steve Drazkowski

HF 775 (Constitutional amendment; Right to keep, bear, and use arms defined as a fundamental right) - Authored by Rep.Mark Olson

Contact Rep. Hansen here,
(651) 296-6828
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/mailto.asp?district=39A