Civil rights activists join fight against immigration bills
Civil rights activists join fight against immigration bills
By Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4:00 p.m. Saturday, April 9, 2011
Seeing some parallels to their own struggle, veterans of the civil rights movement from the 1960s have joined the fight against Arizona-style legislation targeting illegal immigration.
In Georgia, state lawmakers are poised to vote on two bills that would empower police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and punish people caught transporting and harboring illegal immigrants.
Such legislation, civil rights activists warn, could bring about the same kind of discrimination and racial profiling African-Americans struggled against decades ago. They have been delivering fiery speeches against House Bill 87 and Senate Bill 40 and marching alongside Hispanic activists in Georgia and in other states in recent months.
There is a sharp division among blacks on this issue, however, with some arguing illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from African-American U.S. citizens and burdening public schools and hospitals in black communities.
Both immigration bills could come up for votes in the final days of this year’s legislative session in Georgia next week.
Critics of these bills -- including farmers, landscape companies and restaurant owners -- have largely focused on the harm they say the legislation would inflict on the state’s economy, which relies heavily on migrant labor. But racial profiling and discrimination also have emerged as central themes in the debate, especially during recent marches and rallies in Atlanta.
Last month, civil rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an Atlanta Democrat, joined thousands of people protesting the legislation outside the state Capitol. Quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis expressed solidarity with Hispanic activists and said he was willing to go to jail with them in the fight against the state’s proposed immigration enforcement measures.
“We are all brothers and sisters. It doesn’t matter whether we are black, white, Latino, Asian-American, Native American. We are one people. We are one family,â€