Thread: Illegal Immigration group delays big fund-raising concert

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Immigration group delays big fund-raising concert

Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 16, 2005 12:00 AM

The date for a concert at Glendale Arena to promote federal immigration reform has come and gone, and so has much of the $50,000 that was donated by working-class immigrants to help bankroll the fund-raiser.

The daylong concert was supposed to take place last Wednesday. For weeks it was promoted on Spanish-language radio.

But organizers said they were forced to postpone the event to avoid competing with fund-raising efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims.

"It's was hard to ask people for more money when so many had already given to Hurricane Katrina," said Elias Bermudez, president of Immigrants Without Borders. The grass-roots organization planned to hold the concert as part of its effort to increase public support for bills pending in Congress that could give undocumented immigrants a chance to legalize their status.

Alfredo Gutierrez, a former state lawmaker who also supports immigration reform, said he had no reason to suspect anything was amiss.

But in trying to organize an event of that magnitude, the organization may have overreached.

"I think they were very naïve about putting this together," Gutierrez said. "I think the Katrina issue was sort of convenient. It was just too big a deal for them."

Ron Woodbridge, senior vice president and general manager of Glendale Arena, confirmed that Bermudez had signed a contract for the concert and that Bermudez had decided to postponed the event until after Jan. 1 because of Hurricane Katrina.

Bermudez emerged this year as one of the most vocal advocates for undocumented immigrants, organizing economic boycotts to protest legislative bills designed to fight illegal immigration and to push for federal immigration reform.

A boycott that his group organized on Oct. 8 at the Childress Automall in Phoenix drew 2,500 supporters, according to Bermudez. The boycott was aimed at punishing the dealership's owner, Rusty Childress.

He was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 200, a ballot measure aimed at clamping down on illegal immigration. The law makes it a crime for public employees to fail to report undocumented immigrants who seek certain benefits, and it requires people to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Childress said the boycott may have backfired. In response, a number of people called or sent e-mails pledging to buy cars from his dealership, he said.

Originally, Bermudez envisioned that the Glendale Arena rally would draw 40,000 people, sending a message to Congress.

At the same time, he hoped it would raise between $500,000 and $1 million through donations, which he planned to use to finance a national television advertising campaign promoting federal immigration reform.

For weeks before Hurricane Katrina struck at the end of August, Bermudez touted the event on a daily radio program he hosts and at community meetings in churches throughout the Valley.

Bermudez said his organization managed to raise $50,000 before deciding to postpone the event until February or March. Many of the donations came from undocumented immigrants desperate to legalize their status.

But most of that money is gone. Of the $50,000 raised, less than $10,000 remains in the organization's bank account, Bermudez said.

He said $20,000 was returned to four individuals who had loaned the organization $5,000 each.

The organization spent $12,000, Bermudez said, on an advertising campaign to promote his radio program, Vamos a Platicar (Let's Talk), broadcast daily from 7:30 to 9 a.m. on KIDR-AM (740).

The rest went to other expenses, including the $1,000 the organization pays weekly to rent air time for the radio program, Bermudez said.

Bermudez defended the use of the money, saying it never was intended to go only toward bankrolling the concert.

Samuel Elizondo, 57, a Mexican immigrant who is an apartment manager in Phoenix, said he has donated several hundred dollars to the organization.

He said he was disappointed the concert did not materialize, but he continues to have faith in the organizers.

"We aren't dealing with people who are irresponsible, I'm convinced of that," Elizondo said.

Used cars which have been used in the Southern tier of the United States hold up much better than those used in the North where salt is use to defrost roads. If you live in a Northern state you can actually save money enough for a weekend business vacation in Phoenix by buying from a reliable Southern tier dealer like Childress.