By Scott Sexton | Journal Columnist

Published: April 16, 2009

Bryan Barber probably wouldn't have wanted to become a symbol in the contentious debate over illegal immigration.

Yet Barber, a well-known figure in his neighborhood off Clemmonsville Road, is becoming one anyway because of the circumstances surrounding his death.

About 3 p.m. April 5, Barber and his 9-year-old son, Will, were out enjoying an early spring afternoon on a Harley Davidson that he had borrowed from a friend.

As they rode through Burlington on Church Street, a 1995 Dodge pickup ran a red light and collided with another car. That collision, police said, caused a third car to clip the Harley and send Barber crashing into a utility pole.

He died at the scene. Will was flown to Duke University Hospital, where he was admitted and released three days later.

The driver of the pickup, Lidia Monica Lopez, was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, running a red light, and driving without a license. Two days later, a spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff's Office said that Lopez was an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had been cited last summer for not having a driver's license.

And now the Internet is buzzing with emotionally charged remarks about illegal immigration.

"As far as all that goes, (Bryan) didn't have time for all that," his father, Terry Barber, said of his only son. "He loved everybody. That stuff didn't matter to him."


Focused on family

The debate over illegal immigration is particularly heated in Alamance County.

The day before more than 1,500 people filed through Hayworth-Miller Funeral Home's Silas Creek Chapel to pay their final respects to Barber, more than 200 protesters on opposite sides of the immigration debate staged competing demonstrations near the Alamance County Jail in Graham.

About 100 people showed up to support Sheriff Terry Johnson, who was among the first local law-enforcement officials in the state to volunteer his deputies to help enforce immigration laws, according to newspaper accounts. Traditionally, local police departments have viewed immigration as a federal problem.

A block away, another 100 or so staged a counterdemonstration to protest what they view as draconian efforts to demonize people searching for better lives. A woman dressed as a handcuffed Statue of Liberty was a visual flashpoint.

A study released that same week by Elon University no doubt stoked emotions. The study found that Alamance deputies had stopped Hispanic drivers 1,344 times over four years. Johnson said they had done so 494 times.

Barber's death -- and Lopez's arrest -- entered the debate. Certainly Terry Barber has his opinions, but right now his focus is elsewhere.

"I'm not worried about that at this time," he said. "I'm just trying to take care of my son's business."


‘A good man'

These days, Barber's family and many, many friends are more concerned with mourning the loss of a big-hearted man who touched many lives in his neighborhood in south Winston-Salem.

Barber was well-known for a quick smile, his mechanical ability -- friends said he went out of his way to keep cars running for his elderly neighbors -- and his devotion to his son.

"He just had a way of keeping everything in balance," Denny Key said. "After my uncle died, he came around to check on my aunt and my mom, to make sure they were OK."

Key wasn't surprised that an online memorial book swelled to more than 20 pages, or that 1,500 people would come to the funeral home, but Barber's family was a little taken aback and deeply touched by the outpouring.

"I knew he was easygoing and knew a lot of people, but I didn't know it went that far," Terry Barber said, his voice trailing off. For now, he doesn't want his son to become a talking point in the debate over illegal immigration. He simply wants to grieve and let the legal process take its course.

"I want to see that the woman who caused this is taken care of, yes," he said. "Right now, let's just remember that my son was a good man."

â–* Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.

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