Thread: Immigration Debates Echo Concerns in Washington

http://www.nytimes.com

March 26, 2006
Immigration Debates Echo Concerns in Washington
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Hundreds of people attended pro- or anti-immigration rallies in the New York area yesterday, the latest in a nationwide series of demonstrations held as Congress debates legislation that would substantially revamp the country's immigration laws.

The rallies, held in Manhattan and Queens, and in Bogota, N.J., were mostly modest affairs. The largest was in Queens, where organizers estimated that a few hundred people gathered at a meeting in Jackson Heights billed as a "dialogue with elected leaders."

In New Jersey, the group United Patriots of America drew about 45 people to discuss what one participant called the "immigration anarchy" within the United States. And in Manhattan, about 75 people outside a federal building protested current and proposed immigration rules.

"Most Americans have this idea that American immigration laws are very lax," said Aarti Shahani, a co-founder of Families for Freedom, the group that organized the Manhattan rally. "But they're really very tough, and are about to get worse."

Many in attendance, she said, were women and children whose fathers, brothers or sons had been convicted of felonies and faced deportation under existing immigration laws.

Anna Prainito, 26, kept her two young boys close as she explained how her husband, Francesco, 33, was convicted on assault charges in 2002. She said that immigration authorities were seeking to deport him once his prison term ended in October.

"For certain people, that might make sense," said Ms. Prainito. "But they need to look at the family. He has two kids and a citizen wife, he's a business owner, he's a taxpayer. He never had any other record."

Others expressed more worry about legislation recently approved by the House of Representatives. The bill, known as Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act, would make it a crime — rather than a civil violation — to be in the United States without proper documentation.

Detractors also say it would expand the definition of criminal "alien smuggling" so broadly as to so ensnare churches, schools, and social service organizations aware that an individual is in the country illegally.

"I'm sure that some of my kids are undocumented," said Rachel Cole, 27, who teaches the seventh grade in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. "But I want them to be learning math, not getting jailed as felons. I also don't want their parents to worry that I will be forced to inform on them."

All told, yesterday's protests — and similar demonstrations taking place late last week in Los Angeles, Phoenix and other cities where high levels of illegal immigration are a fact of life — mirrored the debates in Washington. If the two sides had anything in common, it was their dissatisfaction with the proposals, which many who favor stricter rules have deemed too lax and immigration advocates say are draconian.

John Liu, a member of the New York City Council and a strong proponent of easing immigration rules, urged the crowd in Manhattan to send "a strong message to Washington that we need to keep our families united."

A different perspective was on display at the New Jersey meeting, held at a Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting hall in Bogota, where attendees were on guard against any suggestion that their opposition to immigration carried a whiff of chauvinism.

"It doesn't make you racist to speak out for lower immigration," said Jim Geist of Hewitt, N.J., who like others there bemoaned what he said was the loss of American jobs to illegal workers and the negative economic impact bought on by illegal immigrants.

Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, said: "I think the future of our country is at stake, our way of life is at stake, and our security is at stake. I think this is a fight worth fighting."

The meeting also drew a counter-protest, staged by a group called Residents Against Racism and drawing about 30 people.

"'People want to provide for their families, give them food, and the best life possible," said Mauro Camporeale, 28, from Carlstadt, N.J.

John Holl contributed reporting for this article

"'People want to provide for their families, give them food, and the best life possible," said Mauro Camporeale, 28, from Carlstadt, N.J.

How right you are. Americans and THEIR families are first in line. As for me..I resent the SPACE illegals take up.

RR

How right you are. Americans and THEIR families are first in line. As for me..I resent the SPACE illegals take up.

And I resent the fact that I am exected to feed those kids they pop out like a warren of rabbits knowing full well they haven't the means to support them.