Florida Councilwoman's Illegal Alien Remark Comes on Heels of Senator's Attempts at AZ-type Immigration

Tampa - Oldsmar City Council member Janice Miller found herself apologizing yesterday for a remark she is accused of making about illegal aliens. Oldsmar is a neighboring city of Tampa, Florida.

At a council meeting Tuesday night, Miller proposed that the city refrain from doing business with construction companies that employ illegals.

If she stopped there, she would have been okay. But she further remarked that she remembered one roofing job where the illegal workers left trash everywhere.

Naturally there were reporters in the meeting. The St. Petersburg Times' report went virile. By Wednesday, she had been called out by a representative for Allied Roofing, who claims they do not use any illegals, for racially profiling the workers by just their physical appearance.

This could put a damper on Florida State Senator Mike Bennett's in-process draft of an Arizona-type immigration bill. Bennett (R), of Manatee County, is working on a bill that would allow police officers to require proof of citizenship or another legal reason for being in the state, under the following conditions:
-Only if the officer has already detained the person for another reason.
-And if they then find that reasonable suspicion of non-citizenship exists. "Reasonable suspicion" will exclude the suspect's physical attributes.

Governor Crist says we're all "Floridians" - including illegals:

Back in February, U.S. Senate Candidate Marco Rubio and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (also a Senate candidate) had a heated disagreement over illegal immigrants being counted in the census. Rubio, the son of a Cuban immigrant who worked hard to achieve U.S. naturalization, stated illegal immigrants should not be counted.

Gov. Crist then made a statement that delighted the political crowd pushing for amnesty: He said Rubio's viewpoint was absurd - and that all "Floridians" should be counted in the census.

The takeaway - i.e., Gov. Crist feels that illegals should be considered Floridians? Maybe so. With the influx of people from Cuba and other islands, Florida needs more federal dollars. But we should care whether they're here for criminal intent, or actually to work hard and go through naturalization (in the latter case, welcome to Florida).

Counting illegals in the census reminds me of some churches I've attended. They inflate their attendance roles by adding every single person that walks through the door even once, in order to look good for their denomination's associational reports.

Sources:

-"Florida state senator drafting Arizona-style bill on immigration," Sara Kennedy, Bradenton Herald, 7/9/10.
-"Roofing company president: Oldsmar official's immigration comments off-base," Rodney Thrash, St. Pete Times, 7/9/10.
-"Crist blasts Rubio on counting illegal immigrants," Steve Bousquet, Tampabay.com, 2/3/10.