Tensions grow amid immigration focus

Sunday, May 27, 2007 -

By Karina Gonzalez
Staff Writer

DALTON, Ga. -- The immigration reform bill evolving in Congress is raising local tensions and fueling fears among Hispanics already concerned about rumors of immigration raids and a new state law, one advocate said.

"Some are grateful that at least a proposal has been introduced, but others think it's too strict because they would have to return," said América Gruner, president for the Coalition of Latino Leaders, also known as CLILA, a group that helps new immigrants.

"But there is also a big concern whether (the bill in Congress) will pass before elections and also if it will pass before July 1, when the Georgia law goes into effect," she said.

The state law aims to steer public benefits away from illegal immigrants, and Ms. Gruner said local illegals are considering selling their homes and moving to another state.

Ms. Gruner said CLILA is asking residents to stay and wait to see what happens with the bill in Congress, which could provide many of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship or various work visas.

Meanwhile, Ms. Gruner said she battled rumors last week that immigration raids were sweeping through Dalton and targeting the city's undocumented residents. She said agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they were looking for a few specific illegal immigrants wanted for criminal convictions.

ICE representatives will host a forum next month with immigration lawyers from Atlanta, who have been working with residents in anticipation of the reform.

But Ben Burroughs of the Georgia Minuteman Civil Defense Corps said his group wants to see illegal immigrants forced out of the state. Mr. Burroughs said the organization is upset over a provision in the federal legislation that would provide probationary legal status to illegal immigrants in the country.

"We are totally against it. It rewards illegal behavior, which is amnesty," Mr. Burroughs said. "The thing that frustrates a lot of American people is they say no amnesty, and then they give amnesty. If you can't use the English language in a truthful manner, something's wrong. They are just rewarding illegal aliens."

Mr. Burroughs said his group is happy the bill includes a provision that would step up efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border by adding border patrol agents and fencing. The group also supports a provision that would require employers to use an electronic database to verify new employees' work eligibility.

He said his organization supports legal immigration but wants illegal immigration stopped.

"These people have crossed the border illegally. Most of them refuse to pay taxes even though they can with a tax ID number," he said. "Recent polls across the board show Americans don't support amnesty. Most Americans want illegal immigration stopped."

But Cleveland, Tenn., resident Lorenzo Gomez Martinez, who lives in the country illegally, said immigrants like himself contribute to the U.S. economy and are grateful for the opportunities here. Mr. Gomez Martinez said he files income taxes each year.

"Illegals who work here, it is said that they don't pay for taxes, but that's not the case," Mr. Gomez Martinez said, speaking in Spanish. "Immigrants pay into the tax system, and they will never see that money again. They purchase items and pay sales taxes; they rent homes and pay into property taxes and at their jobs."

Mr. Gomez Martinez said the money he contributes in taxes helps fund education for children here while his own children, who have never traveled to the United States, study in Mexico.

Guillermo Hernandez, who owns El Sabor Latino, a Mexican bakery in Cleveland, said the immigrants in Bradley County are talking about the rumored immigration raids in Dalton.

"Immigration needs to leave them alone until the government decides what to do," said Mr. Hernandez, who was born and raised in the United States and supports amnesty for those living here illegally. He said immigrants are important to the nation's work force.

"I have seen that Latinos in general contribute a lot and provide more of a labor pool. They come here to work," he said, speaking in Spanish. "North Americans need to think that if all of them are sent back, then who will perform those jobs."

D.A. King of the Dustin Inman Society, a Marrieta, Ga.-based group that seeks stricter enforcement of immigration laws and tighter border control, disagrees.

"Black-market labor not only lowers the wages of Americans and real legal immigrants, but eats away at the rule of law and common language upon which our nation was founded," he said. "The government has decided what to do, but we as a nation are having a very difficult time finding elected officials with the integrity to enforce the laws of America. It is too bad that so many want to make this an ethnic or racial issue."

E-mail Karina Gonzalez at kgonzalez@timesfreepress.com
http://www.timesfreepress.com/absoluten ... rticle.htm

Dalton,GA, Chattanooga, TN, Cleveland, Tennessee illegal aliens and their enablers are frequently featured in local and neighboring news articles. Home to a thriving and growiing illegal alien population, Cleveland,TN allows the illegal aliens to feel comfortable granting interviews, sometimes posing for photos and telling what they do or where they work. Does Chattanooga ICE not have access to the paper? What about the Chief of Police Wes Snyder. Oh yes, he says it is a federal issue.

Let's not forget the Mayor of Cleveland, Tennessee, Tom Rowland or the Mayor of Bradley County, Gary Davis. Sirs, the population is exploding due to ______ ? Fill in the blank. What legacy do you want to leave?