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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Thursday, July 30, 2015

Painesville officials reject claims that city is sanctuary for undocumented immigrants

Cleveland.Com (Ohio)
By Ryllie Danylko
July 29, 2015

Painesville city officials are aggressively denying claims that the city is a sanctuary for illegal immigrants days after investigators say an undocumented immigrant who was living in Painesville committed a murder.

A statement was released after city officials were flooded with calls criticizing a policy that protects illegal immigrants -- a policy that Painesville City Manager Anthony Carson says never existed.

A sanctuary city is a city that protects undocumented immigrants from deportation by following certain procedures to shelter them, either by law or by action, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Sanctuary cities often refuse to comply with federal deportation policies.

A statement posted Wednesday on the city's website references a resolution passed in 2008 acknowledging the city's intent to cooperate with and enforce U.S. immigration laws. Similar notices were posted the Facebook pages for the city and its police department.

The posts went up two days after investigators say 35-year-old Juan Emmanuel Rozo, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, shot and killed Margaret Kostelnik in her Concord Township home. Razo is also accused in an attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl and the second shooting of another woman the same day.

Carson said these incidents created a "heightened awareness" of the city's stance on illegal immigration. The city manager said Painesville never considered itself a sanctuary, and that most people who think otherwise got their information online.

City employees have spent the past two days reaching out to websites that name Painesville as a sanctuary city and asking them to fix the error.

A website that calls itself a "Sanctuary City Information Resource" still had Painesville on its list as of Wednesday afternoon, but added a note saying the city refuted that status.

Officials reached out to two other sites that incorrectly named Painesville as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.


An advocate at grassroots organization for the Hispanic community in Northeast Ohio on Wednesday said Razo has been waiting for a green card for 12 years. Razo's father filed for U.S. citizenship for his son more than a decade ago, according to a spokeswoman at HOLA Ohio.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com

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