Thread: Immigration law topic of citizens' assembly in Austin, TX

http://www.dailytexanonline.com

7/28/06
Immigration law topic of citizens' assembly


By Matt Powell
More than 150 Austin-area citizens met Thursday night at the Cristo Rey Center in downtown Austin to learn about current and proposed immigration legislation.

The forum, which was hosted by the Immigrant Rights Coalition, was intended to inform Austin-area immigrants about legal residency issues, the guest-worker program and the increased military presence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The coalition is a group of six civil-rights

and worker-rights groups that have ban-ded together to help educate immigrants and to support immigrant worker rights.

"The real concern is understanding what is really going on," said Cristina Tzintzun of the Worker's Defense Project. "We want everyone to understand what is happening, how to prepare and what to expect in the future."

Among the coalition's 12 goals are legal residency for all undocumented immigrants, the demilitarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, and an end to the U.S. guest-worker program.

The Worker's Defense Project is a workers' rights group that is a member of the coalition. "Many people would assume that as a workers' group we would be for a guest-worker program, but these programs historically hurt workers," Tzintzun said. "They are treated as second-class citizens, as a second-class group."

Josefina Castillo with the American Friends Service Committee said guest-worker programs "emphasize immigrants as workers, not people."

The forum provided necessary information to protect immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, and to let them know what fair and just immigration reform really meant, Tzintzun said.

"The marches in the spring were a national movement, but the forum is designed to educate Austin-area immigrants," she said. She also said that hate mail was common during the marches in the spring, but now the group was receiving only support.

The legislation needs to be ongoing and forward-looking, and not just address the current population of undocumented immigrants, Tzintzun said.

"The problem is that there will always be future immigrants," she said. "Any legislation needs to address them as well."

"The real concern is understanding what is really going on," said Cristina Tzintzun of the Worker's Defense Project. "We want everyone to understand what is happening, how to prepare and what to expect in the future."

That is easy PACK YOUR BAGS!!!!

Among the coalition's 12 goals are legal residency for all undocumented immigrants, the demilitarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, and an end to the U.S. guest-worker program.

They want it all don't they!!!! Well they can't have it

You can want it all but you are not going to get it. Illegal aliens are a detiment to this country and we must stop this invasion now.