Thread: NC: New group wants to share immigrants' stories

February 11, 2010 4:58 PM
Barry Smith / Freedom Raleigh Bureau

RALEIGH — A new North Carolina immigration organization has formed. While it focuses on a hot issue of the day, it differs from most other immigration groups in that it isn’t an advocacy organization.

"We’re trying to motivate understanding," said Randy Jones, who is president of Uniting NC’s board of directors. "We’re not advocating any particular position. We’re not trying to solve anything."

Jones is not the Randy Jones who serves as spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department.

Uniting NC is still rather small. It’s trying to hire a part-time director.

Yet it has already undertaken a billboard advertising campaign, with signs going up in the Asheville, Charlotte, Rocky Mount, Smithfield and Washington, N.C., areas. It has also sponsored some public service announcements on radio stations in the Research Triangle area and has some video messages from immigrants posted on its Web site, unitingnc.org.

Last year, it conducted a community meeting at an Elon church attended by 50 to 60 people, Jones said. The meeting took place on the same Saturday as a forum at nearby Elon University on immigration and the 287(g) law-enforcement program, Jones said.

"We’re talking about people, human beings and the kinds of stories they have," Jones said. "You can talk about people as being documented and undocumented and not think about who they are and why they’re here."

Tony Asion, executive director of El Pueblo, a Raleigh-based advocacy organization for Latinos, said his organization and Uniting NC have different missions.

"The biggest difference between them and us is we are a Latino organization, trying to promote the importance of immigration reform, whereas Uniting NC is more of trying to get people to appreciate and accept immigration period, whether they be Hispanic or not," Asion said. "They don’t get involved in the politics of it, whereas I guess we do."

Ron Woodard, director of NC Listen, which promotes stricter immigration policies and enforcement, said that he believed Uniting NC was using emotion as a means of diverting attention from the number of immigrants entering the country.

"They talk about the warm and fuzziness of immigration," Woodard said. "I think they’re trying to put a flavor on it that the numbers don’t matter."

Woodard said everything about immigration has to do with numbers.

"Illegal immigration wouldn’t be that bad if you only had a thousand people coming into the country this year," Woodard said.

Jones said that Uniting NC is hoping to reach out to more groups that have a more restrictive point of view on the immigration issue.

"We’re open to and certainly wouldn’t want to exclude people from across the spectrum on the immigration issue," Jones said.

In addition, he said Uniting NC will be reaching out to people in the law enforcement community since immigration law enforcement is becoming an issue.

He said the goal is to promote understanding.

"People are people," Jones said. "They have stories. If you take a moment to listen to the stories, hopefully it leads to more understanding."

fedupsoutherner wrote:
Who's PAYING for this?? Probably not "underprivileged" illegal aliens!!
Billboards are EXPENSIVE!!! One billboard on interstate will run $4,000-up every month!!

866-DHS-2-ICE toll-free all-states phone number for reporting illegal aliens to INS.
2/12/2010 3:35 AM EST on thetimesnews.com
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sagacious1 wrote:
The three major components of immigration control — deterrence, apprehension and removal—need to be strengthened by Congress and the Executive Branch if effective control is ever to be reestablished. Controlling illegal immigration requires a balanced approach with a full range of enforcement improvements that go far beyond the border. These include many procedural reforms, beefed up investigation capacity, asylum reform, documents improvements, major improvements in detention and deportation procedures, limitations on judicial review, improved intelligence capacity, greatly improved state/federal cooperation.
2/11/2010 5:18 PM EST on thetimesnews.com
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hectorcarreon wrote:
Maybe they can organize a love fest with natives who have been victims of illegal immigrants' misdeeds and impositions on society at large.
2/11/2010 5:04 PM EST on thetimesnews.com
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http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/raleig ... share.html

Who is telling the stories of the Americans? Is anyone telling the stories of Americans and Immigration so illegal aliens understand why we have immigration laws to begin with and the reasons why illegal aliens must go home and not come back?

New York Times? Washington Post? LA Times? Time? CBS? NBC? ABC? CNN? Fox?

Judy,

Totally agree-who speaks for the Americans and our lives that have been destroyed?


"We’re not advocating any particular position. We’re not trying to solve anything."

THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY.


this article is total crap, completely one sided. They have NO interest in hearing how IAs have affect the lives of innocent Americans.

Originally Posted by jonhaloi

Judy,

Totally agree-who speaks for the Americans and our lives that have been destroyed?


"We’re not advocating any particular position. We’re not trying to solve anything."

THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY.


this article is total crap, completely one sided. They have NO interest in hearing how IAs have affect the lives of innocent Americans.

Exactly. Our "free press" has so betrayed US. The free press was protected in our Constitution in order to inform, alert, warn and educate the citizens of our country to protect and perserve both our citizens and our nation. Instead, they have used the power and protections we gave them to stab US in the back while lying, discouraging and deceiving US.

Wake Up "free press". When we're a boiling pot of impoverished serfs who is going to buy your newspapers or pay for cable? When all our businesses are bankrupt who is going to buy your advertising?

Moronic Traitors.

They had a group here in GA that tried the love approach. They even went so far as to go down to the Capitol and present roses to lawmakers. Of course, they had to call the media first to be filmed. It didn't work. We are overrun with illegals, our neighborhoods are destroyed, our hospitals bankrupt, our schools are last or close in the nation, we are the hub for drugs and gangs, and our unemployment and bank failures lead the nation.

They are desperate. And so are taxpayers and citizens.

Originally Posted by GaPatriot

They had a group here in GA that tried the love approach. They even went so far as to go down to the Capitol and present roses to lawmakers. Of course, they had to call the media first to be filmed. It didn't work. We are overrun with illegals, our neighborhoods are destroyed, our hospitals bankrupt, our schools are last or close in the nation, we are the hub for drugs and gangs, and our unemployment and bank failures lead the nation.

They are desperate. And so are taxpayers and citizens.

"It didn't work."



The only time you can fool an American is when we're not paying attention. Well, we're paying attention now.

LETS GO AMERICA! END THIS NONSENSE THIS YEAR!