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Latinos fail to field defense against bills
Community split on response

By TERESA BORDEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/18/06
Midway through this year's legislative session, Georgia Latino leaders are still struggling to come up with a unified response to initiatives aimed at illegal immigrants, bills they see as damaging to all Latinos.

Some have sponsored town hall meetings on immigration and favor working behind the scenes to soften the bills, while others have held rallies at the Capitol. Some want to seek the help of the black and Jewish communities and the businesses that depend on immigrant buying power.

But the fact that Latinos haven't come together means they've lost an opportunity, says Teodoro Maus, the former Mexican consul who has made his home in Sandy Springs.

"It's too late," Maus said. "This should have been done a year ago."

Legislators could begin committee hearings on SB 529, the "Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act," next week. The bill, one of many aimed at illegal immigrants, has the backing of Republican leaders. It would deny state benefits and services to adults illegally in the country, penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants, and require public officials to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities. Another bill would charge a tax to those who use money wiring services but can't show proof of legal U.S. residency.

Talk of denying services to illegal immigrants began last year, when Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) filed a bill aimed at restricting illegal immigrant access to driver's licenses, medical care, schools and state contract jobs.Some Latino leaders complained, but they did not pull together to craft a response.

Joel Alvarado, a former policy analyst with MALDEF who now works with the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy at Clark Atlanta University, said some Latinos in Georgia worry about appearing to support illegal immigration. In addition, they are divided by class, country of origin and power-sharing issues, problems that tend to afflict newly established immigrant communities.

"Sometimes we'd be at each other's throats instead of working with each other," he said. "That's true of any type of minority community."

The infighting has exposed rifts and strained friendships.

Jerry Gonzales, president of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, believes Latinos' best chance of gaining support is through educating the public. To that end, he has been arranging forums at which pro-immigrant activists and those who want stricter limits on immigration state their case.

"Our main goal is to make sure we put good information out there," Gonzales said. But he acknowledged that in many of the forums, audience support for the Latino agenda stands at 50 percent.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, too, is sponsoring its own forums and publishing position papers on the legislation.

Maus, who has worked closely with Gonzales, believes a stronger response from Latinos is needed.

"I'm very bothered with people who are still in the process of analyzing and deliberating," Maus said. "We are in a moment where we have to start to create actions to defend ourselves."

Homero León, a member of the grass-roots Coordinating Council of Latino Community Leaders, recently railed against members of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and businesses that cater to Latinos but have expressed support for Rogers.

"Do they want us or not?" said León, referring to such businesses. "They don't want to support us, but they are getting rich because of all the money Hispanics spend in their stores."

Maus believes about the best Latinos in the state can hope for is to remove a few teeth from the immigration bills.

"What we have here is a lack of leadership," he said.

Alvarado and Maus are forging ties with African-Americans and Jews, who they say are ready to come to their aid.

Judy Marx, associate director of the Atlanta chapter of the American Jewish Committee, said the group is ready to lend its expertise in organizing, and hopes in the process to gain an ally.

"We see them as gaining in power and influence," she said. "We are such a tiny minority that we need to find partners anywhere we can."

Edward Dubose, president of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, said African-Americans can identify with Latinos and are ready to support them in difficult times.

"Our issues are their issues and their issues are our issues," Dubose said. "We are all racially profiled; we all deal with issues of health care challenges; both communities deal with economic poverty. I can't help but think that an organization as representative as ours has no choice but to embrace the Latino community."

But Maus acknowledged that Latinos here have not known how to communicate what, exactly, they need from these other constituencies.

"People are totally determined to work on our behalf," he said. "They've asked us what we want from them, but we haven't been able to tell them."

Adelina Nicholls, president of the Coordinating Council, said the pending bill might not make much of a difference in enforcing immigration laws, which she says is a federal prerogative. But, she said, the atmosphere of hate it is creating for all Latinos, even those who are legal residents or U.S. citizens, will do real harm.

"It creates xenophobia," she said. "People feel that, at any moment, they can be forced out of their community simply because of the color of their skin or because they speak English with an accent."