Thread: Immigrant advocates target law in Colorado

http://www.rockymountainnews.com

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.

kimm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2361

Americans have rights too!

It was promised that in the 1986 amnesty that our borders would be closed. What about our rights? We have been waiting for 20 years.
Tax payers have been paying for people that should not even be in this country. Where are those rights?
If our children go to a college out of state they pay out of state tuition.
Illegal aliens pay in-state. They are NOT from another state, but another country. Do we owe these people something? Where are our childrens rights? Hospitals are closing because they keep the emergency room flooded. I have been disabled, but I'm continually hounded for a hospital bill I incurred two years ago. Need a surgery that I had no way of getting but when I go to the clinic every so often it is certainly flooded with illegal aliens. How do I know they are illegal? WE ALL KNOW...for the most part, if ICE came storming through the door...I don't think they would calmly sit there. I haven't been able to work and had NO income so what tree should I pull it from? But I'm called every month even though now...I send them a check every month. There collection agency calls to make sure I sent the hospital the check. I am paying what I can afford per month. I send them $25 per month, but was told that wasn't enough. Yet...illegals just walk in and walk out not even worring about the bill and the cost they have incurred on the American tax payer! Again, where are our rights? How many women have crossed our borders intentionally to have their baby here and receive welfare and medical? People in this country need help...but sometimes I feel they get more help than the people who have the right to actually get help. A few years ago a couple of friends and I tried to start up a commercial cleaning business. We received very good recomendations on our jobs (sub-contracted) and were asked more than once to do a one time job. These jobs were usually to save the account for the company...as the present cleaners were not satisfying the customer. So we had to go in and get it in shape. We could not afford to stay in business because they sub contracted to ...either people that hired illegals or illegals themselves...I'm not sure which. But I do know that most of the ones I ran into could not speak english. We could not compete and the jobs they did were poorly done. They, illegals are driving down wages...period. This is one of those jobs that Americans won't do! Where are our rights??
Stop pandering to those that have illegally crossed our borders. WE want our country back and everyone to play by the rules. Our president, his administration, business large and small. Send the illegals home and if we need to help them, help them in Mexico or wherever they came from. Don't cave in because this government hasn't done its job for 20 years concerning the illegals! Whatever problems we have we can work them out if the playing field is fair. This government cheats the American people and doesn't deal us a fair hand. WE WANT OUR RIGHTS!
If anyone deserves rights...it time we have our rights restored to us!