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Illegal immigration forum held


By DANIEL GILBERT
dgilbert@potomacnews.com
Friday, February 24, 2006

A forum in the nation’s capital Thursday about how municipalities should handle illegal immigration fell short of achieving cooperative discussion.

The event began with panelists Gustavo Velasquez, director of the Office of Latino Affairs for the District of Columbia, and Eugenio Arene, director of the Council for Latino Agencies, addressing the positive effects of immigration.

Before the other four panelists could make statements, moderator Ira Mellman of WTOP radio altered the pattern of the forum.

Mellman introduced the rest of the panel and asked them, “Do we really have a problem?”

“Yes,” responded Stephen Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies.

“The problem is that people are living outside the rule of law,” he said. They drive down wages for native low-skilled workers and receive more in public benefits than they pay in taxes, he said.

“As for the economic benefits of illegal immigration, it ain’t there,” Camarota said.

Arene disagreed, pointing out that the wealthiest states in the nation – New York, California and Florida – also have the greatest number of foreign-born residents.

Audience members - including several leaders of the Minutemen in Herndon and Maryland, as well as community groups against illegal immigration - booed Arene when he said he supported the Kennedy-McCain bill on immigration reform that allows for a guest-worker program.

In another moment, audience members laughed when Velasquez said there was little correlation between immigration and gang proliferation. One woman shouted, “Who are you kidding!”

Mellman - who took questions from the audience before all panelists had spoken - ruffled some audience members by cutting short their comments. When George Taplin, leader of the Herndon Minutemen, attempted to refute points made by Arene, Mellman cut him off.

The next audience member to be cut off was Maria Kim, a Korean immigrant who wanted to explain why she had come to the forum.

Kim did not give up the microphone but told of an incident in which a Hispanic day laborer she had hired attacked her while in her car. Her anger was directed at the police, who, she said, did not even file a police report.

At 10 a.m. - the hour the panel was scheduled to end - Mellman announced the discussion would continue for another 15 minutes.

Velasquez and Arene, the two panelists most sympathetic to illegal immigrants, left. Velasquez said he had a meeting to attend. Arene simply praised the efforts of the Washington Times, which sponsored the event, to build a dialogue.

“I didn’t feel it was a dialogue,” Velasquez said later, “It was more people expressing personal opinions about the issue.” Velasquez, who said he told organizers that he would have to leave early, was dismayed at the “lack of constructive ideas.”

Arene called the event “a good first step,” but thought the level of dialogue was “not that good.” Arene was particularly concerned with the audience sentiment, which he perceived as overwhelmingly anti-immigrant. Nevertheless, he said he would participate in “another 10 forums like this one.”

Camarota said the level of dialogue was “better than it often is.”