Thread: Immigration debate affects city's image

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Immigration debate affects city's image

By Chris Dumond

Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

HAMILTON — While Sheriff Richard K. Jones' push for local enforcement of immigration laws, state Rep. Courtney Combs' English-only bill and Commissioner Michael Fox's proposed pledges against hiring illegal immigrants enjoy some vocal political support in Butler County, not everyone has been thrilled with the national attention Hamilton has been getting lately.

Hispanic business owners have complained for months that the rhetoric is hurting business. Illegal immigrants have stopped going out, they say, and those here legally are fed up and aren't spending money as before.

Even in the heart of the city's Hispanic population on East Avenue, Los Piños manager Ramona Ramirez said she's struggling. It's an area of town that, with the exception of a couple of bars, was mostly devoid of any business. Now, the future of the half dozen or so Hispanic shops there is uncertain, owners said.

"Things have been up and down in the last three months, but things are slower now than ever before," Ramirez said.

Things are bad enough that Ramirez's family has considered closing the convenience store.

McDonald's owner and downtown Special Improvement District Chairman George Schmidt said the political rhetoric reflects poorly on Hamilton and hurts the city's economic development prospects. From within, it's creating a negative environment among the city's Hispanic residents, whether they're here legally or not, he said.

"When you have somebody out there touting that if you see illegal immigrants, you should call the police, how do you know who's legal and who's illegal just by looking at them? If I was Hispanic, with that kind of rhetoric going on, I wouldn't want to live or work here," Schmidt said. "It's just wrong."

Mayor Don Ryan said he doesn't begrudge the sheriff for pursuing the legal issue, but Ryan said the city's reputation has suffered through the sometimes overheated and emotional conflict.

"Has it hurt our image as a progressive city? Yes," Ryan said. "The city of Hamilton unfortunately bore a lot of the negative response, but it wasn't the city of Hamilton putting the pressure on. We were portrayed as the bad guys and we weren't."

It didn't take long for word of business owners' displeasure to reach other Hispanic communities in Ohio, in part spurred on by reports in the HOLA Journal published in Painesville, a Lake Erie town about 30 miles northeast of Cleveland.

Journal Editor Veronica Dahlberg, who also sits on the Painesville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, said people in northeastern Ohio started paying attention to Hamilton when they read about Combs' English-only bill and saw how it would impact their communities.

"Needless to say," Dahlberg said, "it hasn't been received very well by the Latino community here."

Although Painesville is smaller than Hamilton, Dahlberg estimates that one-third of the city's 17,500 people are Hispanic. Many are seasonally employed in the large commercial nurseries that cover the Lake County landscape, but as in Hamilton, small Hispanic-owned businesses have been cropping up.

"Hamilton has many more Latino-owned businesses, though," she said. "And that's an asset that should be better appreciated."

Catherine Haworth, executive director of the Lake County Economic Development Center, said politicians there have a different take on the issue compared to some in Butler County.

"There is a concern if they're here illegally," Haworth said. "But, should we send them back and have a huge labor (shortage) in one of our major industries?"

Spurred on by nursery owners, the economic developers there have reached out to the immigrant community with multiple loan programs to encourage growth among the Hispanic-owned businesses, she said.

When local businesses threatened to leave town, Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce President Kenny Craig said chamber officials immediately scheduled meetings with the business owners.

"We explained the benefits of chamber membership and we initiated conversations with businesses about incentives and the benefits of being located here in Hamilton," Craig said.

The chamber has even gone so far as to craft a written policy on the matter.

"The Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce is committed to being a leader in stimulating a positive business environment in Greater Hamilton and Butler County. We strongly support a diverse business environment while encouraging every business to obey the laws established by our government."

Combs said that issue of law can't be dismissed for what's supposedly good for business.

"Where is the rule of law if you look the other way on this one? Why not look the other way in other cases, too?" Combs said.

"I haven't had one person, and I've been all over the state talking about this, that has said, 'let's change the law.' Either it's the law or it's not."

While he supports legal immigration, he said he'll continue to support legislation that cracks down on illegals. The drawbacks of illegal immigration, including wage depression and a drain on social services, he said, outweigh any benefits to local businesses.


Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2025 or cdumond@coxohio.com.

"There is a concern if they're here illegally," Haworth said. "But, should we send them back and have a huge labor (shortage) in one of our major industries?"

It would only be a temporary shortage if this happened anyway. This would actually force employers to hire Americans and legal citizens to do these jobs, and start to pay them a descent livable wage. IMO, if our dreams come true and many illegals get deported and self deport, there are certain areas which undoubtidly may suffer a labor shortage, but this dip can only go back up again.
If employers started hiring Americans and paying them a livable wage, their workers are now paying into the tax base, and they would be spending more in the consumables, etc. and social programs would not be as stressed as they are currently.