Thread: The Immigration Enigma

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/st ... 6167.shtml

Sunday, March 12, 2006
The Immigration Enigma
Public debate on issue reflects fear, anger on both sides
By ALMA BOWEN
The Times

Arguments about our growing immigration problems are growing tense, with angry comments coming from both sides. The main questions are: How many new immigrants can a location absorb without major problems? How many immigrants have broken the law by coming into this country illegally?

Different cultures and lack of communication add to the apprehension on both sides.

Bills attempting to control immigration have been introduced in the Georgia General Assembly and Congress; some are hard-hitting, others humane.

Many people understand and agree emphatically with simple suggestions such as tightening the borders, but ideas promoting immigration and guest-worker programs are complicated and hard to understand.

David Kennedy, a Gainesville attorney who specializes in immigration law, said, "Arguments against immigration are very simple, but wrong. Arguments for immigration are very complicated, but right."

At a town hall meeting Monday night at Gainesville State College, a large crowd appeared evenly divided on the issue.

Five panelists at the meeting answered questions from the audience. When two panelists began tensely arguing with each other instead of responding to the audience, panelist Martha Zoller, a popular morning talk show host for WDUN-AM 550 radio, walked out.

As she left, she said the other panelist had brought racial matters into the discussion, and "I was told that this meeting wasn't going to be like this."

The panelist who faced the most questions from the audience was state Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock. He is the author of Senate Bill 529, the "Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act."

The Georgia General Assembly debate has attracted national media attention, and the New York Times reported Rogers' bill as an effort to stop "perceived vast plundering" of taxpayer-financed benefits.

SB 529, passed by the Senate last week and headed for the House, includes measures to restrict public services to illegal immigrant adults and prevent employers from getting tax deductions on illegal immigrants' salaries of more than $600 a year.

"Every employer and employee should follow the same rules," Rogers said. "No business should be rewarded in the marketplace for breaking the law."

Tisha Tallman, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said Rogers' entire bill was unconstitutional because immigration control is a federal responsibility.

Tallman compared Rogers' bill to legislation passed in another state more than a decade ago. Proposition 187 was passed by 59 percent of the California electorate on Nov. 8, 1994, and put under a judge's restraining order three days later. It died in court four years later after the voters put a governor in office who opposed the proposition.

"We killed Proposition 187 (in California), and we'll kill this bill," Tallman said.

She said MALDEF supports the bipartisan proposal in Congress that would toughen the border control and provide a "guest worker" program.

Opponents say the bill, co-authored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., gives amnesty to illegal immigrants.

The Rogers bill also tackles fraud issues Mexican immigrants have with notarios who pose as attorneys in Georgia. He mentioned one Mexican who paid $3,500 for a border crossing that was supposed to include legal papers.

In Mexico, "notario publicos" are almost like lawyers. Kennedy said he sees a lot of immigrants who have problems because they asked a notary public to help them become legal residents.

"Notarios are allowed to legally translate documents, but they are not allowed to give legal advice," Kennedy said. "Wrong actions of notarios can land immigrants in deportation proceedings."

Latino response

Elida Lopez, a Johnson High graduate and special project assistant for the North Georgia AIDS Alliance, was asked to give her opinion about the proposed legislation.

"All of this began because of the 9/11 terrorists, and these bills are terrorizing good people," she said. "I am afraid, and I am an American citizen."

She believes that Georgia's legal Latino immigrants are enough in number to make a difference in government. If they would vote, the bills now being considered would not be introduced, she said.

She describes herself as a member of an immigrant family. Years ago, her father came to this country "on a special Visa because the United States was seeking low-cost workers."

He and the other workers went back home to Mexico every two years, and she laughed as she said the wives they had left behind, including her mother, had another baby every two years.

Her mother finally got to enter the country, and the last of her eight brothers and sisters was born in the United States. The family lived in Illinois and California, then came to Gainesville 12 years ago after hearing about the area's job opportunities.

Today, Lopez's job requires her to make regular trips to local poultry plants to check workers for AIDS. She is married to a Mexican man, and they have a 3-year-old son. She smiled with pride as she said her son was "100 percent Latino."

Lopez said the Rogers' bill to penalize employers of illegal immigrants would only hurt the employers because the workers will find jobs elsewhere.

A state bill proposed by Rep. James Mills, R-Chestnut Mountain that would add a 5 percent surcharge on all money wired out of this county was called "ham fisted" in the New York Times article. Mills proposes that the surcharge fees go into a fund for Latino medical care.

Lopez said that making it harder for immigrants to wire money back home would mean that relatives who depend on the money will have to come here, too, and find jobs in order to live.

"If I had three or four children that I had to feed and clothe on $3 or $4 a day, I'd risk anything and go anywhere if I thought I could get a better job," she said.

Georgia's laws deny the HOPE Scholarship and in-state tuition to illegal Latino youths which makes higher education cost much more. About this situation, Lopez said, "Lack of education only drives up the poverty rate, the illiteracy rate and the need for public services."

She also talked about a bill introduced in Congress by Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville. Deal's bill would stop giving automatic U.S. citizenship to the babies who are born here to noncitizen immigrants.

"If that bill were made retroactive, no one in this country would be an American citizen," Lopez said.

"I understand the need to have a budget and have limits if you operate a good country, but if you can't offer anything good, then don't offer harm," she said. "I pray that my child can grow up in a beautiful country that truly respects its pledge of allegiance, 'One nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'"

Lopez believes efforts to control immigration should be made in Mexico rather than the United States, so that people would not have to "leave their families and risk their lives" crossing the border to find a job.

"I look at the Mexican government as the beat-up wife of the United States," she said. "The U.S. wants cheap labor, and its wife says OK."

She also mentioned the many U.S. companies that have plants in Mexico.

"Why don't the American companies pay their workers more in Mexico if they don't want them to invade America?"

Contact: abowen@gainesvilletimes.com, (770) 718-3403.


Originally published Sunday, March 12, 2006

Tallman compared Rogers' bill to legislation passed in another state more than a decade ago. Proposition 187 was passed by 59 percent of the California electorate on Nov. 8, 1994, and put under a judge's restraining order three days later. It died in court four years later after the voters put a governor in office who opposed the proposition.

"We killed Proposition 187 (in California), and we'll kill this bill," Tallman said.

So, these illegal alien supporters think they control the legislation of American law. Regardless of what the voters think, as long as they threaten, bitch, moan and scream racism, they think they can nullify the will of the voters.

She describes herself as a member of an immigrant family. Years ago, her father came to this country "on a special Visa because the United States was seeking low-cost workers."

He and the other workers went back home to Mexico every two years, and she laughed as she said the wives they had left behind, including her mother, had another baby every two years.

Her mother finally got to enter the country, and the last of her eight brothers and sisters was born in the United States.

Great, just what we need, more Mexicans bringing their massive numbers of kids and then having more anchor babies that they can't afford to pay for, and we taxpayers have to support.

"If I had three or four children that I had to feed and clothe on $3 or $4 a day, I'd risk anything and go anywhere if I thought I could get a better job," she said.

If you had to live on $3 or $4 a day, MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T BE HAVING THREE OR FOUR CHILDREN, let alone the 10-16 they normally have!!

"Why don't the American companies pay their workers more in Mexico if they don't want them to invade America?"

What do you know, these illegal alien supporters finally admit it, WE ARE BEING INVADED BY MEXICO!