Thread: Immigrant advocates target law

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... %2C00.html

Immigrant advocates target law
By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News
August 30, 2006

A local immigrant advocacy group has documented about 20 cases of local residents who say they have been unfairly targeted by police, and in some cases deported, because of a new state immigration law that took effect in May.

An organizer for Rights for All People testified at a pro-immigrant hearing Tuesday night in Denver that her group is compiling the stories as part of a campaign to overturn the law, known as Senate Bill 90.

Pilar Carrillo cited several examples of members of her organization who were arrested by police this summer during traffic stops in Aurora. One woman, who allegedly was stopped because her car lights were off, was sent to jail and deported to Mexico on Tuesday, Carrillo said.

The new law has "brought horrible pain and unhappiness" and is "leaving many families broken," she said.

Carrillo was one of 11 people who addressed a panel of community leaders during a two-hour hearing at St. Joseph's Redemptorist Church in the Baker neighborhood. The event was organized to counter a U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing this afternoon in Aurora, led by U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.

The speakers urged compassion for illegal immigrants and said the highly charged political climate and rash of enforcement-oriented state immigration laws passed in recent months have caused tremendous fear and, in some cases, trouble, among local immigrants.

Gabriela Flora, an organizer with the American Friends Service Committee, charged that the Senate hearing was organized in part "to raise anti-immigrant fervor."

Local activists on both sides of the immigration issue are angry that they were not allowed to testify at the Senate hearing. Pro-immigrant activists plan to protest outside the Senate hearing.

Sean Conway, Allard's chief of staff, denied that the hearing is biased against immigrants. He noted that one of the nine people scheduled to testify at the Senate hearing favors a guest-worker program.

Conway attended the Tuesday hearing with another Allard staffer and collected written testimony from the speakers.

He emphasized that Allard asked for the Budget Committee hearing to collect precise data on the costs associated with immigration policies. He said Allard believes the immigration problem must be solved, in part, at the local level.

"These folks tonight . . . have part of the answer," Conway said.

Tuesday's hearing, called "Untold Stories: An Alternative Hearing on Immigration," was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Colorado Jobs with Justice, Rights for All People, Padres Unidos and the Service Employees International Union Local 105, among others.

Andy Grant, president and general manager of Grant Family Farms in Wellington, testified that migrant workers from Texas and Mexico have been hearing about the new immigration laws passed in Colorado and the immigration reform debate going on in Congress.

They are afraid to come to Colorado and that is hurting his farm, Grant said. He said he has just half the workers he needs to harvest his crops.

Grant praised immigrants for their hard work.

"They need to be honored . . . not demonized," he said.

Carrillo, of Rights for All People, said she also has seen fear among many illegal immigrants because of the current political climate.

She said her group hopes to persuade a state lawmaker to sponsor a bill that would overturn SB 90, which requires local law enforcement to report suspected illegal immigrants to immigration officials except during minor traffic stops and domestic violence cases. They also may attack the bill through a lawsuit, she said.

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

YOU came here illegaly and YOU put YOUR family at risk. We did nothing to you, but uphold our laws to protect OUR people.

YOU want a better life? Go back to Mexico and fight for it..........

You Mexicans come here and get my job then you want to kick me off my land and now you want Police of USA treat you like Americans. If i come to Mexico illegally i will be put in to prison for life well , i forgot to tell you that all your national police is corrupt may be i give 1000 dollar to be free.well end of story , do you have money to buy your freedom! If not stay in Mexico , If the super highway is build and if there was a North America Union you can come here and live! Dream !

Pilar Carrillo cited several examples of members of her organization who were arrested by police this summer during traffic stops in Aurora. One woman, who allegedly was stopped because her car lights were off, was sent to jail and deported to Mexico on Tuesday, Carrillo said.

The new law has "brought horrible pain and unhappiness" and is "leaving many families broken," she said.

Oh BOO FREAKING HOO LADY. Illegal aliens know it is illegal to come to the US without papers.
Carrillo, you think this has brought horrible pain and unhappiness?
Well let me ask you something lady, what do you think illegals have done to AMERICANS AND LEGAL CITIZENS for past several decades? Is it fair we have to pay for all the anchor babies? Is it fair we have to pay medical costs for illegals, when many American families can't even afford healthcare?

I get so damn sick of hearing the boo hoo stories from these people.

"The new law has "brought horrible pain and unhappiness" and is "leaving many families broken," she said. "

It's amazing now that the LaRazaesque instructions of playing the race card has backfired, they attempt to tug at American heart strings by playing the sympathy for my familia card. First and foremost they are guilty of leaving their own children behind in Mexico, and commiting the criminal act of illegal entry yet when it comes to the US upholding our laws and deporting them as a result of doing so, we are guilty of causing family grief and separation. I continue to read posts from the pro illegal boards (MATT, HB, etc) and the overall drone IQ and lack of logic and comprehension of reality times several million is scarey as hell.

While we are sympathetic TO A POINT as nation with regard to the plight of others we are not a nation of idiots. Somehow they fail to realize that common sense and logic goes hand in hand.

get so damn sick of hearing the boo hoo stories from these people.

Me too!

Originally Posted by sippy

Pilar Carrillo cited several examples of members of her organization who were arrested by police this summer during traffic stops in Aurora. One woman, who allegedly was stopped because her car lights were off, was sent to jail and deported to Mexico on Tuesday, Carrillo said.

The new law has "brought horrible pain and unhappiness" and is "leaving many families broken," she said.

Oh BOO FREAKING HOO LADY. Illegal aliens know it is illegal to come to the US without papers.
Carrillo, you think this has brought horrible pain and unhappiness?
Well let me ask you something lady, what do you think illegals have done to AMERICANS AND LEGAL CITIZENS for past several decades? Is it fair we have to pay for all the anchor babies? Is it fair we have to pay medical costs for illegals, when many American families can't even afford healthcare?

I get so damn sick of hearing the boo hoo stories from these people.

ITA. Bear in mind these people are 3rd grade educated at best who have no sense of responsibility or reality for that matter. Millions of them have the mentality of children and NOTHING is their fault or responsibility. They absolutely have been taught that their plight in Mexico is a result of the "Gringos" stealing their land and therefore the US is their country and they and their offsrping's wellbeing is the financial responsibility of all Americans.