Thread: LULAC comes alive to face new challenges

http://www.kansascitykansan.com/article ... /news2.txt

LULAC comes alive to face new challenges


By CARMEN CARDINAL
Kansan Staff Writer

The League of United Latin American Citizens is alive and well in Kansas City, Kan.

About 40 leaders of the Hispanic community gathered at Jalisco's Restaurant to renew the local chapter of the national organization in light of new challenges that have sprung to concern the Hispanic community. The organization had faltered some due to lack of interest from the Hispanic community.

Founders of the organization gathered with new and younger leaders to pass the torch of responsibility to face these new challenges. The founders hoped to spark and rally new troops.

Ascension Hernandez has been active with LULAC for 38 years. He urged young people to rise and fight injustice, just like those who did before them. Founding members who attended the dinner at Jalisco's Restaurant at 5000 State Ave., included Lillian Acosta, Lucinda Jones, Tino and Kathy Camacho, Tony and Ruth Quirarte.

Camacho, president of the KCK chapter of LULAC, said Hispanics are one of the targets after the 9/11 tragedies. He said anti-immigration sentiments have arisen locally and nationally.

Camacho said Hispanics should call their congressmen and urge them to vote against HR4437, the Border and Immigration Enforcement Act of 2005, which would view undocumented immigrants and employers who hire them as criminals.

Ian Bautista, executive director of El Centro, was vocal about Congressman Dennis Moore's support for James Sensenbrener's (R-WI) HR4437.

"I campaigned for Moore," Bautista said. "We need to send a message to Dennis Moore and Emanuel Cleaver to vote against the Sensenbrenner bill."

Bautista said the legislation would make most of the people dining in Jalisco's Restaurant that evening into felons because they are aiding and abetting criminal immigrants. Any agency that helped immigrants would be subject to being accused as felons according to Bautista.

Bautista urged LULAC members to attend activities in Topeka in March, lobbying for immigrant rights in the state.

He said Hispanics should call their leaders in Topeka and ask them not to support a measure that would overturn the In-State Tuition bill that was passed two years ago and signed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius into law. The measure allows students to pay in-state tuition if they attended three years in Kansas high schools and graduated, even if their parents are undocumented.

"It will only be defeated if we all speak up and let them know it is unacceptable to repeal the Kansas Dream Act," Bautista said.

Bautista also urged LULAC members to support the Sen. John McCain/Sen. Edward Kennedy U.S. Senate immigration bill for fair and equitable treatment of immigrants.

Crystal Crowder, Legal Aid of Western Missouri, said, according to the U.S. Census, there are 43.8 million Hispanics, almost 14 percent of the total population.

"By July 1050, there will be 102.6 million or one fourth total population," Crowder said.

Hispanic students have a 50 percent ratio of graduating from high school, Crowder said. Most Latinos who do go on to colleges attend community colleges and not Ivy League schools.

Crowder said in the future, Latinos will not be visible in the legal or political professions or in public decision-making fields, because of their poor graduation numbers.

FBI Supervisor Special Agent Timothy A. Gallagher and Bridget Patton spoke to the group, saying it was important to develop relationships with those in the community.

"That's the idea with the Kansas City Civil Rights Commission," said Gallagher, who is an active participant in the organization. He said often victims of civil rights abuses will seek out someone like Camacho who then acts as a bridge to the FBI.

Patton said she is in charge of several projects including a citizen's academy, an eight-week program working with citizen groups to build bridges. She is also involved with a youth leadership academy. She talks to youth groups about careers with the FBI.

Youths who have been victims of recent racial discrimination attended the Jalisco dinner.

Lele Salinas said she and her son were paraded through a mall by security guards who accused them of stealing. After they returned to the store, those items that her son had allegedly taken were discovered to be still in the store. She did not receive an apology but she got a lawyer instead because she believed her son was a victim of racial profiling.

Zach Rubio made national headlines when he was suspended from the Turner School District. He told the Jalisco group that he felt very alone until groups like LULAC came forth with community support. Rubio is currently involved in a lawsuit against the Turner School district.

John Rios, chairman of the board of directors at the Kansas City Kansas Community College, said bilingual education was not encouraged when he was in school.

"I don't speak Spanish but I have made up for my shortcomings," he said. "I am an advocate for bilingual education everywhere, even in English as Second Language classes because they have to learn their first language before they can learn a second," Rios said.

Yeah they did, because they got there under the table Money from Vicente Fox a couple of weeks ago. When they meet with him.


http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-16622-lulac.html

Bautista also urged LULAC members to support the Sen. John McCain/Sen. Edward Kennedy U.S. Senate immigration bill for fair and equitable treatment of immigrants.

Proof that the Manchurian candidate and Chappaquidick Ted are not not Americans.