Civil rights panel holds quarrelsome hearing on illegal immigration laws

Civil rights panel holds quarrelsome hearing on illegal immigration laws
By Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 17, 2012

Birmingham—A sharply divided U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a contentious public hearing here Friday, soliciting opinions on whether immigration crackdowns adopted in Alabama, Georgia and other states are increasing racial discrimination and hate crimes.
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Butch Dill, AP In this photo provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center, police escort protestors from the room after disrupting Kris Kobach, Secretary of State from Kansas, as he addressed the Commission at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Immigration Briefing in Birmingham, Ala. on Friday, August 17, 2012. Alabama state Rep. Chris England told members that police may use "markers" based on peoples' appearance to make traffic stops under the laws, despite prohibitions against profiling. Commissioners will issue a report later this year on their findings. The eight-member panel is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

The commission members -- appointed by the White House and Congress to advise them on civil rights policy — argued with each other about what questions and testimony they should allow. They engaged in testy exchanges with witnesses over the pros and cons of the laws. And chanting, sign-waving demonstrators noisily disrupted the proceedings. Many others demonstrated outside.

Twenty state legislators, advocates for reduced immigration, civil rights activists and others were scheduled to testify at the panel's one-and-only hearing on the issue. The panel plans to compile the testimony and submit a report to Congress and the president.

The commission decided to hold its hearing in Alabama because the Yellowhammer State has passed what many observers view as the country's most stringent immigration enforcement law.

Among other things, Alabama's law would require public school officials to determine the immigration status of their students.

A federal appeals court in Atlanta has put that law on hold amid a legal challenge brought by the Obama administration. That court is reviewing other provisions in Georgia and Alabama's laws, including a Georgia statute that empowers police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects.

Supporters of these measures told the commission they are helping enforce the nation's immigration laws, protecting homeland security and preserving jobs for U.S. citizens.
"What have been disregarded in this entire debate are the rights of the American citizens -- the Alabamians -- who have been displaced and lost some of their opportunities," said Alabama state Sen. Scott Beason, a Republican.

Critics argued the state laws are discouraging immigrants from reporting crimes or asking for disaster aid and prompting them to pull their children out of Alabama's public schools. They also dismissed language in the statutes that prohibit racial profiling by police.

"These are the most carefully crafted words to state that, 'We don't mean what we are about to do,'" said Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta.

Friday's disruptions started when Kris Kobach, who helped write Alabama's law, began to testify. Five women rose from their seats and turned their backs to the commission and Kobach, Kansas' secretary of state. The demonstrators wore red signs on their backs that spelled "Stop Hate."

Commission chairman Marty Castro called for order as one of the women began to loudly criticize Kobach and complain her civil rights had been violated. The women eventually left. But one by one, more demonstrators rose from their seats, criticizing Kobach and declaring they were undocumented and unafraid. They peacefully left when a uniformed police officer showed up.

Later, commissioner Todd Gaziano, a congressional appointee, objected when Castro, a President Barack Obama appointee, asked Kobach whether he agreed with some controversial views on illegal immigrants expressed by the author Arizona's immigration law, former Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce. Gaziano complained Castro was straying from the focus of the hearing.

But the hearing became controversial even before it began. In a conference call Thursday, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other civil and immigrant rights groups criticized the commission for inviting a representative of the Federation for Immigration Reform, a Washington-based organization that advocates tougher immigration enforcement. In written testimony submitted to the panel, the SPLC called FAIR a "nativist hate group."

In an interview before the hearing Friday morning, Dan Stein, president of FAIR, called the SPLC's criticism defamatory and said he planned to call on the commission to remove the SPLC's testimony from the record.
Civil rights panel holds quarrelsome hearing on illegal immigration laws *| ajc.com

From the AFL-CIO

Civil Rights Commission Provides Public Forum to Anti-Immigrant Hate Group

08/17/2012
Helen Gonzales

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is holding a field briefing in Birmingham, Ala., on the impact of state anti-immigrant laws, like Arizona’s infamous S.B. 1070 and Alabama’s H.B. 56. The commission describes itself “as an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding federal agency, [whose] mission is to inform the development of national civil rights policy and enhance enforcement of federal civil rights laws.” It came as quite a shock to see groups that are not only vehemently anti-immigrant but have been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center on the witness list, including Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).


According to the Southern Poverty Law Center:


FAIR leaders have ties to white supremacist groups and eugenicists and have made many racist statements. Its advertisements have been rejected because of racist content. FAIR’s founder, John Tanton, has expressed his wish that America remain a majority-white population: a goal to be achieved, presumably, by limiting the number of nonwhites who enter the country.

Another witness, Kris Kobach, who currently serves as the Kansas secretary of state, worked with FAIR’s legal arm, the Immigration Reform Law Institute, when he drafted Arizona’s notorious S.B. 1070. Also testifying are two witnesses whose organizations, the Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA, were also founded by Tanton.

The AFL-CIO has strongly objected to the inclusion of these groups in the hearing. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a letter to the commission,

Quote:

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the inclusion of these speakers will compromise the reputation of the commission as an independent and fair fact-finder and may discredit the conclusions of the briefing.

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Last year, a delegation of African American labor leaders visited Alabama on a fact-finding mission to obtain firsthand information about the impact of the state's immigration legislation, H.B. 56. The delegation’s findings concluded that the human consequences of H.B. 56 were devastating, abused the fundamental civil and human rights of immigrants and produced a climate of hate and fear that affected communities across the state. This situation continues and tens of thousands are suffering.

Civil Rights Commission Provides Public Forum to Anti-Immigrant Hate Group

Whenever they don't get their way, they turn it into a hate fest or a racist issue. All we want are our laws enforced. Plain and simple. Save the drama. Hell, I'm upset I can't rob a bank when I need money, but I don't go around robbing banks. LOL A little common sense is all we need here. You broke the law coming here. You don't belong here. That's that.

As for racial profiling, we all know that millions of Latinos have come here illegally. We don't have millions of Canadians crossing the border.

"Last year, a delegation of African American labor leaders visited Alabama on a fact-finding mission to obtain firsthand information about the impact of the state's immigration legislation, H.B. 56. The delegation’s findings concluded that the human consequences of H.B. 56 were devastating, abused the fundamental civil and human rights of immigrants and produced a climate of hate and fear that affected communities across the state. This situation continues and tens of thousands are suffering."

They're doing it again arn't they? They are calling illegals 'immigrants.
Tens of thousands are suffering alright, but not illegals. I'm sick of illegals crying about their rights when they are placed above American citizens and get catered to on every level. Nothing they say or do will change the fact that they are illegal and don't belong here and don't deserve the jobs and freebies they are raping us of.

Simple answers are sometimes the only understandable ones. When I was a kid watching western movies, how many times did I hear the marshal say,"You have until sunset to be outta my town and do not bother to come back."

Another simple solution I heard about in the early 1970's involving a house that I was living in, the story related to me from a neighbor. Two elderly ladies were living there, within a few miles of an Army base. Awakened by noise at the living room window, one of the ladies took a shotgun to the window, pulleed the trigger while pointing at the window. A soldier was dead, killed by an elderly woman protecting her home. The next morning the County Attorney and Sheriff were investigating the scene with the body still under the window. Co. Att'y says, "The feds will be into this due to the burglarr being a soldier. My problem is that the ladies did not wait til he entered the house to shoot." The Sheriffl bends over, he grabbed the body by the belt and tossed the soldier thru the window, and asked "Do we have any further problems?" Case closed!

Simple common sense solutions? Respect law and order and respect for those who respect and expect law and order!!

Legislators and courts are destroying our right to expect law and order. Who then are empowered? Simple answer, legislators and courts!