Immigrants urge Kalamazoo City Commission to ease restrictions on undocumented aliens

by Kathy Jessup | Kalamazoo Gazette
Tuesday March 18, 2008, 8:36 AM

By Kathy Jessup
kjessup@kalamazoogazette.com 
388-8590

KALAMAZOO -- More than 50 people, many of them Hispanic, lined the walls of the Kalamazoo City Commission chambers Monday as a coalition of social action groups urged the city to support more rights for undocumented aliens.

Advocates claimed denying driver's licenses to people in the United States without immigration papers prompts them to drive illegally and risk deportation if stopped by police.

Speakers also said the Kalamazoo County Clerk's office is denying marriage licenses to people who lack official immigration documentation. That undercuts the strength of families, according to Monsignor Michael Hazard, pastor of Kalamazoo's St. Joseph's Catholic Church, who said a couple with a young child has been unable to marry here.

The man and woman are both "undocumented" and were unable to obtain a marriage license because they could not produce Social Security cards, Hazard said.

"From my point of view, this couple found themselves unable to get a marriage license and carry out the responsibilities of a father and a mother, only because they met in a country where they are considered aliens," Hazard told commissioners.

"That's state law," Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow said in response to immigrants claims. "If they don't have one (social security card) that's not an excuse."

State law changed Jan. 3, 2007, requiring some form of identification, which states why someone doesn't have a social security number, Snow said.

The push before the City Commissions comes at a time when immigration is a hotly debated issue at the state and national levels. Advocates on the other side of the immigration debate say undocumented residents should not be entitled to official recognitions like drivers' licenses because they entered the U.S. illegally. Illegal immigration creates national security risks and is unfair to people who have entered the U.S. through legal channels, they claim.

Representatives from the Michigan Organizing Project and the Kalamazoo Homeless Action Network cited "four challenges" facing undocumented immigrants and asked Kalamazoo commissioners to throw their support behind change. Besides opposing the denial of Michigan drivers' and marriage licenses, advocates are challenging what they call "raids on immigrant homes" by customs and homeland security officials. Those result in the separation of families and "hard-working people are being taken out of our communities," they claimed.

The coalition also opposes new homeland security rules requiring employers to verify the immigration status of their workers. "Thousands of hard-working people are going to lose their jobs because of new regulations that (homeland security) is about to issue," the coalition alleges.

The city commission received a copy of the coalition's proposed immigrant-treatment statement Monday, but set no date for deciding if it will officially endorse the measure.

Two commissioners -- Don Cooney and Stephanie Moore -- said Monday they will sign their own statements supporting the coalition's position.

"The problem is the lack of federal adoption of an immigration policy that is more than just an iron fist," Cooney said. "Our first responsibility is advocacy with the federal government."

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