From Tim Craig, The Washington Post:
The D.C. Council waded into the fight over illegal immigration today, as all 13 members sponsored a bill forbidding the police chief from sharing arrest data with federal immigration officials and also announced their unanimous support for a resolution calling on the city to stop doing business with Arizona.
Responding to Arizona’s new immigration law, the resolution requests that the city government and the employee pension fund ‘divest’ from all Arizona state and municipal bonds and ban city workers from traveling to that state on official business.
The resolution, which will be voted on at a later date, does not appear to prevent the city from doing business with Arizona-based companies, as some Hispanic activists had proposed.
It’s unclear how much business the District does with the state of Arizona. But Council member Michael Brown (I-At large) said similar resolutions will be introduced or have already been introduced in Boston, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Chicago.
“The last time citizens were required to carry papers was in the slave era in the South,” said Brown, referring to provisions in the bill that give police more latitude to stop and detain immigrants they suspect are in the country illegally.
Continue to the full article at The Washington Post website.