Thread: Immigration Reform Key Topic at Hispanic Issues Conference

http://www.fox12news.com/Global/story.asp?S=5442970


Immigration Reform Key Topic at Hispanic Issues Conference

Sep 21, 2006 07:37 PM PDT

Rebecca Swart
NAMPA --

He's an internationally-known human rights activist, and the founder of "Border Angels," a group that gives food, water and blankets to Mexican migrant workers as they cross the border.

This past spring, Enrique Morones led dozens of demonstrations for immigration reform across the country, but he made a stop in Nampa Thursday to give the key-note address at the 22nd annual Hispanic Issues Training Conference. Morones spoke about seeing dozens of bodies in the desert, men and women who risked their lives for a better way of life in America.

"The people who are coming here that don't have papers, they really have no other option," Morones said about what will undoubtedly be a hot-button issue at the polls. "They come here to work and they contribute more to the economy than they take."

In all, 20 speakers will take the podium during the two-day conference at the Nampa Civic Center. They'll cover issues specifically facing the Latino community in Idaho. Topics range from English-only legislation, to gangs, to meth, to graduation rates.

"Our drop-out rate is way too high. It's been that way for way too many years. We need to keep our children in schools and find ways to save them when they drop out," said IMAGE de Idaho president Natalie Camacho Mendoza.

Organizers hope the conference serves as a networking tool and a chance for Idaho's Hispanic population to understand their rights and the resources available to them. But at least one critic calls the meeting an "organizational brain-washing"...empowering illegal immigrants to break the law.

"It is to further divide the nationality of the United States of America by setting aside a particular segment of the population to demand rights many of them don't have," Canyon County commissioner Robert Vasquez said.

"we want to have a good discussion. We don't want name-calling, we don't want de-humanizing immigrants. We want to listen to what is pending so that our community can understand how it's impacting our everyday life," Mendoza said.

But Vasquez insists the issue has nothing to do with human rights.

"It has to do with enforcing the law of the land," Mendoza said.

"They come here to work and they contribute more to the economy than they take."

That's funny, the facts say otherwise amigo. And you should be tried as a criminal for aiding illegals.