Thread: Hispanic community was center of debate in 2008

Sunday, December 28, 2008
Local News

Hispanic community was center of debate in 2008

Cost of illegals was highlighted

By TED STRONG

Staff Writer

It has been a tumultuous year for Beaufort County’s immigrant Hispanic community.

Perhaps the biggest event was the appearance of protestors in town, pointing out how many legal residents, even American citizens, had last names that sounded Latin American.

The move was prompted by a proposal backed by Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson.

Citing concern about the cost of providing social services to illegal immigrants, Richardson wanted the county’s health department to calculate how many illegal immigrants it served.

His solution: count the number of people with Hispanic surnames.

Richardson has spoken against the costs of illegal immigrants at other times and in other ways, of course, but this one really stirred up a hornet’s nest.

The apparent implication of his plan — that most, if not all, people with Hispanic last names are in the country illegally — upset many.

Richardson’s proposal wasn’t put into action. Among the many other concerns: The U.S. Department of Justice might find it illegal.

Richardson later spoke about the cost of providing English as a second language courses in local schools. And he closely questioned Beaufort County Community College President David McLawhorn about any illegal immigrants enrolled at the community college.

McLawhorn told Richardson that illegal immigrants who identified themselves as such have taken basic skills courses, which are open to everyone. The most popular courses for illegal immigrants were English classes.

The debate mirrored state questions about whether illegal immigrants graduating from North Carolina high schools should be allowed to attend community colleges as in-state students. Both candidates for governor took a negative position on the issue, which has been delayed pending the results of a study.

Later in the year, Helen Marrow, a Harvard-educated researcher originally from Tarboro, gave a presentation on immigration issues at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Washington.

Among several points she raised: Many Canadians immigrate to the U.S. illegally, but aren’t at the center of a furor similar to the one over immigrants from Latin America. She also discussed different forces that influence the migration patterns of immigrants. And she identified opportunities for the community to better itself through the immigration phenomenon.
http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2008/12/ ... news01.txt

First if you plan to put taxpayer dollars to work, it should not go to a specific ethnic group, but be there for the entire public to use, whether they are Hispanic, Greek or Asian.
Secondly, it makes no difference what ethnicity you are, you should be able to provide documents providing you are a legal citizen of the US, either by birth or by legal immigration.

The apparent implication of his plan — that most, if not all, people with Hispanic last names are in the country illegally — upset many.

Apparent to whom? Those willing to play the discrimination card every chance they get? This kind of editorial license to slant opinion is unforgiveable in what is called a news story, unless it was meant as an editiorial.

I Goggled this guy, Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson, I like him!

Here's an older story.
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1084641.html

Beaufort County wants to stem migrant influx
Kristin Collins - Staff Writer
Published: Sun, May. 25, 2008 12:30AM


Beaufort County, known for sweeping views of the Pamlico and Pungo rivers, is working toward a new distinction.

Leaders say they want to make their rural Eastern North Carolina county the toughest place in the country for illegal immigrants.

The county commissioners are meeting with a lawyer to help identify public services that can be denied to illegal immigrants. And in cases where it is not legal to exclude people, they say they may eliminate programs entirely -- including federally funded prenatal care for poor women -- in an attempt to drive illegal immigrants from the county.

"They're coming to the United States illegally and bringing their pregnant wife and children," said Hood Richardson, the Beaufort commissioner who is leading the charge. "Those families are falling on our social welfare systems. We can't afford that."

Beaufort County, about 100 miles east of Raleigh, has already become a leader in the state in discouraging undocumented Hispanic immigrants. The seven-member Board of Commissioners has declared English its official language, removed Spanish signs and bilingual automated phone answering systems and has begun tracking the number of Spanish-speaking people who use social services.

In April, Richardson asked the health and social services departments to determine the number of illegal immigrant clients by counting Spanish surnames.

More than 60 people from across Eastern North Carolina, all legal residents with Spanish names, descended on the most recent commissioners' meeting to protest the move.

"It's just discrimination," said Cipriano Moreno, pastor of Alpha and Omega, a Hispanic Baptist church in the county seat, Washington. "They don't like Hispanics here. They think that all the Hispanics are here illegally, but they're not."

County Manager Paul Spruill said the county does not plan to begin counting Spanish names. But the commissioners say they will continue to target illegal immigrants in other ways.

"A lot of people are unaware of the cost; they don't know what this is doing to our hospitals and our schools," said Commissioner Stan Deatherage. "We're working as a grass-roots effort to draw attention to the problem."

How big a burden?

Deatherage says he hopes the county will inspire a national effort to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that guarantees children public education regardless of their immigration status. He says he wants to see illegal immigrants barred from schools nationwide.

Deatherage said this week that he thinks Beaufort County has one of the highest proportions of illegal immigrants in the state. Census figures, however, show that about 4 percent of Beaufort's residents are Hispanic, compared with nearly 7 percent statewide.

The census does not track illegal immigrants, but advocates estimate that about half of Hispanic immigrants are in the country illegally. If that estimate holds true, about 930 of Beaufort County's 46,000 residents were illegal immigrants in 2006.

Commissioner Robert Cayton is among a minority who has opposed the board's efforts.

"Illegal immigration is a problem in the United States, and it's one that the federal government needs to address," Cayton said.

He says the county has plenty of its own problems: lagging schools, a lack of economic development, the need for a better road system and persistent poverty.

Nearly 18 percent of Beaufort County's residents and about a quarter of its children live in poverty. Its economy is reliant on farming, manufacturing and tourism -- all industries that use immigrant labor.