Thread: OH: Both sides frustrated over broken immigration system

Both sides frustrated over broken immigration system
State legislators try to deal with the 12 million illegal immigrants as reform effort stalls in Congress

By Jessica Wehrman and William Hershey
Staff Writers
Sunday, August 03, 2008

BUTLER COUNTY — — When German Catholics settled in Cincinnati and in the rich farmland around the Miami Valley in the late 1800s, the area became an epicenter for immigration in Ohio.

Today, as the federal government wrestles with a backlogged immigration system, it's an epicenter of a different sort.

Thanks to Sheriff Richard K. Jones, Butler County stands as a symbol of what illegal immigration is to the state of Ohio. He rails against immigrants who clog up his county's jails and courts. He visited the U.S.-Mexico border. He charged the federal government for the cost of housing illegal immigrants in his jail, though he has yet to see a dime.

But if Jones is a symbol, so is Miami University professor Shelly Jarrett Bromberg. She and other members of the Butler County Community Alliance spent July 27 with about 30 immigrant families passing on information about how they should be prepared for possible deportation. The group advised families to get passports for their children — should one parent be deported, it would be difficult to get a child a passport without both parents signing off on it.

She and other volunteers also walked parents through the intricacies of how to sell cars and houses through the power of attorney, advising parents that they would need an affidavit signed by the missing parent if the other parent left the country with their child.

With reform legislation stalled in Congress, and the presumptive presidential nominees seemingly talking about everything but immigration, frustration is boiling over on both sides of the immigration debate. Everybody seems to agree on one thing: The system is broken.

Jones, who presses for sanctions against both those here illegally and those who employ them, has vowed to take out "full-page" newspaper ads to get people to see his side. He is so upset over the immigration stance of fellow Republican John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, he said he won't even appear on the same stage with him.

Jones said he's not even sure he'll vote for McCain. "I may try to hold my nose," he said. "I'll be at a polling place holding my nose trying to figure out who I'm going to vote for ... but that could change."

Federal reforms stall

Both McCain and Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, have traditionally favored a comprehensive approach to immigration that takes into account the estimated 12 million residents of this country who are here illegally. McCain has tried to assuage voters' concern that he is in favor of amnesty. He now talks more about a tougher border enforcement strategy, saying the voters made it clear they want tougher enforcement of immigration laws.

Congress tried to tackle immigration reform last year, but the effort crumbled in the Senate, largely because of disagreement over what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already here.

Meanwhile, state legislatures have begun to step in. The National Conference of State Legislatures released a report late last month showing that state legislators in 2007 introduced a record 1,562 bills dealing with immigration. Of them, 240 became law. This year, 1,267 bills relating to immigrants and immigration have been introduced so far, with at least 175 becoming law in 39 states.

In Ohio, at least, there's evidence voters want a "get-tough" approach to illegal immigrants.

A November 2007 poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found that 84 percent of Ohio voters opposed issuing driver's licenses to undocumented workers. Sixty-one percent opposed providing a free public education to children of those who live in the United States illegally, although the Supreme Court has ruled to the contrary.

But for many in Ohio, the issue is a mixed bag. Fifty-five percent said undocumented workers should be allowed to work to apply for legal status, the poll found, while 38 percent said they should be deported. This from a state that holds fewer foreign-born citizens than most. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated in 2005 that only 3.5 percent of the state's population was foreign-born. That figure didn't separate legal and illegal residents.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the polling institute, said part of the strong sentiment is likely spurred by Ohio's economic problems.

"There is a view held by some that illegal immigration lowers the wage scales for legal workers and U.S. citizens," he said.

'Driving while brown'

After the Senate effort on immigration reform collapsed, undocumented workers here had a new fear, according to Bromberg: Workplace raids increased. Last August, 160 suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, assisted by Jones' deputies, raided Koch Foods in Fairfield.

After 20 of the detainees were charged with state crimes that included identity fraud and forgery, Jones promised, "There will be more raids."

Bromberg said immigrants increasingly fear being pulled over and jailed by police for minor traffic violations — a process that ends in deportation for some.

"They call it 'driving while brown,' " she said. "We're removing people for misdemeanor crimes while all sorts of homicides and other crimes are going on unchecked."

Immigration attorney Leah Webb of Cincinnati said she has consulted with clients pulled over because they had improper reflectors on the bicycles they were riding. They were riding bikes, she said, to obey the law: Ohio bars unauthorized residents from receiving driver's licenses.

Scott Hicks, an immigration attorney in Lebanon, said he's seen an increase in fear even among those here legally.

"They feel like they're being targeted," he said, saying many of his clients feel as if they're pulled over if they look Hispanic. "The overall atmosphere is one of fear and distrust of authority, specifically the sheriff's office."

For his part, Jones denies his department is profiling, and said he's prepared to punish any officer who stops someone just because they look Latin American.

"There is no profiling, " he said. If I find out anybody that's profiling, I fire them. They can't work for me. I wouldn't put up for that and would not tolerate it."

Jones says immigrants are being exploited by employers. "These people have no say. They're not unionized. They work them 16 hours a day and they can fire them when they want or tell them to leave," he said. "Lots of abuse goes on."

However, at least one frequent employer of foreign workers — farmers — say the government doesn't make it easy to obey the law. Farmers traditionally use the H2A agricultural visa program to hire migrant workers, but they say the process has become so cumbersome you almost need an immigration lawyer to navigate the bureaucracy.

"Under the current system, it's very hard to get the people you need and get them legally," said Peggy Clark, president of the Warren County Farm Bureau.

Statewide, a handful of farmers who once relied on a migrant work force have either stopped growing labor-intensive crops or gotten out of the business altogether.

"Nobody seems to be addressing this," Clark said. "It's kind of being swept under the rug."

A stabbing in Mason

Until the night of Aug. 26, 2006, the debate over illegal immigration never would have included Kevin Barnhill.

A 1997 graduate of Little Miami High School, Barnhill worked for the Cincinnati Reds and lived outside the tiny village of Maineville. At

2:30 a.m. Aug. 26, police found him lying on the ground outside a Mason bar after they were called to investigate reports of a man wielding a baseball bat in the parking lot. Barnhill later died of stab wounds that included at least one to his chest.

According to Bill Barnhill, Kevin's father, police dogs led authorities to a house less than a mile from where his son was killed.

Living at the house was a large group of illegal immigrants, including a 31-year-old man later convicted in Kevin's death. Police, Barnhill said, were unable to run him through a database to see if he had committed other crimes. They had little idea of who he was.

To Bill Barnhill, Kevin's death illustrates the failure of U.S. immigration policy.

"The bottom line to me is if these guys weren't in the country, my son would still be alive," he said.

To Barnhill, who has since founded Citizens for Legal Communities, the debate is profoundly and painfully personal.

To the Rev. Jayne Ruiz, it is as well.

Ruiz, a Troy resident who founded the Coalition on Solidarity with Immigrants-Miami Valley, is married to a Mexican immigrant who is a permanent resident of the United States. She said the people she meets in the immigrant community have come here for the same reason immigrants traditionally have: to make a better life.

The immigration debate, she said, is one that riddles the chapters of U.S. history books, albeit with different nationalities from generation to generation.

"When the economy is bad, the first thing we do is turn against the immigrants and blame them for all ills," she said. "This has happened throughout the history of the United States.

"We have such a short memory."
http://tinyurl.com/5t6f6t

"When the economy is bad, the first thing we do is turn against the immigrants and blame them for all ills," she said. "This has happened throughout the history of the United States.

Right, and had this crap not been forced down our throats even THEN, we would not be in this predicament today.

Thanks to Sheriff Richard K. Jones, Butler County stands as a symbol of what illegal immigration is to the state of Ohio. He rails against immigrants who clog up his county's jails and courts. He visited the U.S.-Mexico border. He charged the federal government for the cost of housing illegal immigrants in his jail, though he has yet to see a dime.

He should be sending those bills to mexico, guatamala, etc

"There is a view held by some that illegal immigration lowers the wage scales for legal workers and U.S. citizens," he said.

Because they DO.