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Legislative committee wrestles with immigration

A lawyer says the New Iowans committee is 'ill-informed' on the topic.

By TIM HIGGINS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

November 23, 2005

Des Moines lawyer Ta-Yu Yang grew so frustrated during Monday's special legislative meeting on immigration issues that he interrupted to tell lawmakers they were making a big mistake.

"You are so ill-informed about what's going on I'm afraid of what's going to happen," Yang said before the committee's co-chairman told him to remain quiet.

Yang left unhappy and then accused the committee of missing the nuances surrounding the issue of giving undocumented workers driver's licenses.

He said that the issue was too politicized and that a special nonpartisan group should be set up to solve it.

Immigrant issues are political hot buttons. The study committee charged with making recommendations to the Iowa Legislature on a whole range of issues facing new Iowans didn't come up with a final solution.

Instead, a compromise.

The New Iowans committee recommended that the Legislature ask the governor to set up a special committee, which would include the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, to make recommendations on how to address public safety problems created by a lack of an identification system for illegal immigrants.

Other ideas the committee recommended the Legislature tackle include increasing money for public schools to teach English to Spanish speakers during school and for before- and after-school programs and for adults.

"The Legislature must realize that helping kids learn English may be one of the best things we can do to create a high-wage economy for the Iowa worker of tomorrow," said state Sen. Jack Hatch, a Des Moines Democrat, in a prepared statement.

The committee also called for incentives to encourage police and other public safety and medical professionals to be bilingual.

The New Iowans committee was set up to study issues affecting immigrants, migrant workers and refugees to the state.

The committee held public hearings this summer in four communities across the Iowa that have seen an explosion in Spanish-speaking immigrants.

Sen. Maggie Tinsman, a Republican from Bettendorf, pushed the committee to recommend legislation that would allow local law enforcement officials to prosecute human traffickers.

While a federal law passed recently, she said federal officials have encouraged Iowa and other states to pass similar legislation to crack down on the problem of people from other countries being brought here for prostitution and slave labor.