Honorable Mayor Newton and Members of the Council. Good evening.

My name is Raj Gupta. I have lived with my family in the City of Rockville for over 40 years. Our city is a
wonderful place to live in.

I wish to express my support for the Fostering Community Trust Ordinance for a simple reason. When we
diminish anyone we diminish everyone.

I understand and share the concerns many have about the growing gang violence and crime in our community.
Some of it commited by and against residents who are not legal immigrants. No crime is excusable. It matters
not what the legal status of a perpetrator is. And no crime against anyone in this city is excusable. Again, it
matters not what the legal status of a victim is.

As a former federal civil rights law enforcement official, I learned firsthand the perverse effect on citizens and
legal residents when equal protection of the law is denied to the undocumented workers. As someone in charge
of policy development at the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the late 1970's, I learned
how EEOC's misguided rules had this perverse effect on workers who were citizens and legal residents of the
eastern shore. A frequent complaint was that employers were incentivized to hire the undocumented because the
employers could pay them less and mistreat them without fear of civil rights enforcement. Denying protection
of EEO laws to undocumented workers did not serve the interests of citizens and legal residents in getting work
opportunities. I am pleased to state that the Commission wisely chose to shed the language in the rules, not
supported by language in federal EEO laws, which had deprived equal protections against employment
discrimination based on an employee's legal status. Thus, taking away an unintended incentive for employers to
hire undocumented workers.

I have read emotional arguments suggesting a connection between the manner in which some highly publicized
crimes by and against undocumented residents have been handled by prosecutors and the subject addressed by
the proposed Trust Ordinance. Far from impeding law enforcement, the Ordinance will ensure that neither
witnesses nor victims hesitate to cooperate with local law enforcement for fear of city police turning them over
to federal immigration authorities. Let immigration authorities do their job. Local police and federal
immigration agents have different goals and interests to protect. Nothing in this Ordinance changes what local
enforcement should or should not do in the prosecution of crimes in this community.

It is unconscionable that anyone should be deprived of protection against violence merely because he or she is
not a legal immigrant. A policy that forces local law enforcement to do the job of immigration agents also
deprives everyone in the community of the assurance that they will be safe, regardless of their legal status, to
come forward and cooperate in the prosecution of crimes against everyone.

Since the brouhaha over the Presidential Executive Orders began, my terrified friends have called me asking:
"Do we need to get some kind of ID cards for ourselves and our children in case anyone gets stopped by police
for any reason, to prove we are citizens? What kind of IDs do we need? Where do we get them?" My answer to
them is: "No." We do not live in a country where we are required to carry identity cards. The passage of this
Ordinance will provide comfort to all residents of this great city that nobody need to live in fear of local law
enforcement.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of the proposed Ordinance.