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CSU professors exchange words over immigration issues
By SARA REED
SaraReed@coloradoan.com



Two Colorado State University professors exchanged harsh words during and after Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at CSU.

CSU anthropology professor Norberto Valdez delivered the keynote address during a community celebration at the Lory Student Center. He criticized, but did not mention by name, the chairman of the economics department, Steven Shulman, and his research regarding illegal immigration and its relationship to low wages for African-American and Latino workers.

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He also challenged Shulman’s contention that United Farm Worker leader Cesar Chavez opposed the use of undocumented immigrants in the labor force.

“In order to avoid questions about the real causes of low wages which are associated with capitalism, a system he defends, and to attack immigrants, which he obviously despises, he distorts the contributions of Cesar Chavez in the farm labor movement, saying that he opposed undocumented workers entering the U.S. and that African-Americans and Latinos should do the same,” Valdez said during his address.

Shulman, who wasn’t present for the speech, reviewed Valdez’s remarks and called him a “coward” for not referring to the economics chair by name in his speech.

In an e-mailed statement to the Coloradoan, Shulman said Valdez was misrepresenting Chavez’s stand on illegal immigration and accused him of trying to rewrite history. Shulman cited two articles that mention Chavez’s opposition to illegal immigration in the 1960s and 1970s.

Shulman said Valdez’s comments regarding his research were “false” and “reprehensible.”

“He cannot deny the research that has consistently shown that mass immigration drives down the wages and employment of African-Americans, so he insults the scholars who do the research,” Shulman wrote.

Valdez’s remarks should not have been made during the King celebration, Shulman said.

“Martin Luther King stood for truth and reasoned debate,” he said. “He believed in the promise of America. He fought for the citizenship rights for African-Americans. All of this is completely contrary to Valdez.”

Valdez said the point of mentioning Shulman’s positions was not to discuss his research but to illustrate what happens when heroes become icons — people know so little of them that they do not recognize misrepresentation.

Chavez did not die in the 1970s, Valdez said, and he continued to fight for farm workers until the 1990s.

“My point is that he (Chavez) grew during these times by working right alongside undocumented workers and citizens alike,” Valdez said in an interview. “Through these experiences, he changed his views on the issues of ‘illegal immigration’ over time when he empathized with their common humanity.”