Thread: TN: Cleveland meeting to discuss illegal aliens

Cleveland meeting to discuss illegal aliens
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 -

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By Randall Higgins and Perla Trevizo
Staff Writers

CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Illegal aliens are becoming more numerous and a threat to public safety, according to a woman who has organized a town hall meeting here Thursday.

"They have invaded my country. They do not come to assimilate. They do not care to become American citizens," Noella Oberlin said.

"When they are called immigrants, it is a slap in the face to me. I am a legal immigrant and a U.S. veteran," said Ms. Oberlin, a New Zealand native. "People are scared they will be called racist or anti-immigrant. I'm an immigrant. That's how silly it is."

But José Minay, assistant professor of Spanish at Lee University, said immigrants receive misplaced blame.

"They blame immigrants for everything, but they don't recognize all the positive contributions they make," he said in Spanish. "I see there is a very anti-Hispanic feeling in the community, and forums such as this worsen the situation."

Ms. Oberlin said she called the town hall meeting to give an open microphone to citizens. She said she and others have been ignored by most local officials when they bring up the topic.

While Cleveland and Bradley County are not officially declared as such, "we are calling it a sanctuary city," she said. That refers to a local government with a formal or informal policy of not notifying federal authorities of the presence of illegals.

Meeting organizers pointed to a local slaying last year by what police said were members of the MS-13 Latino gang. In a more recent case, organizers said, an illegal resident drove through a fence around a man's yard.

Ms. Oberlin said she is concerned that tougher immigration laws in Georgia are pushing more illegal aliens into Bradley County. And she is concerned about the triple murder in Newark, N.J., recently for which an illegal alien was arrested.

Local pastor Andres Miranda said immigrants are not all criminals.

"There are criminals within the Hispanic community just as there are criminals within any other community," Mr. Miranda, pastor of the Church of God, said in Spanish.

He said a false image has been created of Hispanic immigrants.

"The media has contributed significantly to the image that all Hispanic immigrants are criminals, but I think it's important they (the Bradley community) learn about our culture and know they can trust us," he said.

Sheriff Tim Gobble said illegals and the county budget have been the major topics at two recent town hall meetings he sponsored.

Mr. Gobble told residents he asked the county to fund two new detectives to investigate gangs and to become certified with a federal government program known as 287g. That program allows officers to check to a federal database to find out whether people under arrest are illegals, and to transport illegal aliens to a federal facility for deportation hearings.

Mr. Gobble said he's "very hopeful" he'll get more money at some point.

Meanwhile, he said, "I feel like at this point we are doing as much as we can. The primary responsibility rests with the federal government."

County Commissioner Jeff Yarber said he worries that more illegals may be crossing from Whitfield County, Ga., into Bradley County as Georgia laws become tougher.

And DiAnna Stanich, also a local activist on illegal aliens, wrote a public letter to Mr. Gobble earlier this month and volunteered to be part of the 287g program.

She said officials look the other way when illegal aliens are involved in crimes.

"We are sending a very profound message that crime pays to these illegal aliens," she said.

Mr. Minay and Mr. Miranda said more Hispanics should attend these meetings, especially those who are more prepared and are in the country legally, to show that not all immigrants are criminals.

"We should all try to attend this type of events so people can get to know us and so we can start constructing a communication bridge," Mr. Miranda said. "It's important that we all learn how to live together."


http://www.timesfreepress.com/absoluten ... &zoneid=77

Meeting Targets Illegal Aliens
Seth Seymour
August 30, 2007 - 9:34PM
A meeting targeting illegal aliens is held Thursday in Bradley County, Tennessee.

Some say it's a major problem that's only getting worse. But others say Thursday's meeting is just bigotry.

According to some people at the meeting, the number of illegal aliens moving to the Cleveland area is increasing, creating what they call a threat to public safety.

However, others say the meeting is an example of the anti-Hispanic feeling in Bradley County.

"There's about 25 million illegal aliens in the United States," said Noella Oberlin, a legal immigrant from New Zealand years ago. "They shouldn't be here. They don't belong here."

So Oberlin organized the meeting to address what she calls unwanted people in Bradley County.

"They're pouring in here because we are a border county, and they're pouring in here from Georgia because of tougher laws," she said. "We have become a sanctuary city, a sanctuary county, and a sanctuary state."

Oberlin says some of these illegal aliens only bring problems, including serious crime. She says they have no desire to become legalized citizens.

"If they wanted to be an American, if they wanted to assimilate and take on our culture and be Americans, they would have applied and immigrated the correct way," she said.

But some say this meeting is not doing any good -- only reinforcing negative stereotypes.

"It tends to give a bad image of the Hispanic community as a whole," said Jose Minay, who teaches Spanish at Lee University. "It makes it look like all of us are criminals and undesirables."

Minay has lived in Cleveland for decades now. He says most Hispanics in the Cleveland area are legalized U.S. citizens.

He maintains the crime associated with illegals is only a small fraction of crime in the country.

"This is not exclusive to Hispanics," he said. "This crime belongs to everybody. The bad things that exist in our society is not just an Hispanic problem."

Meeting organizers want Bradley County to become certified with a federal program known as 287-G.

That would allow officers to check whether people under arrest are illegal aliens.

Sheriff Tim Gobble has said he's working to get funding for the program.

http://www.newschannel9.com/articles/me ... ounty.html

The meeting was long and gave good information and rallied some to become active in fighting illegal immigration. The open borders crowd was there, with their "we are the world" mantra and talk of how Bradley County is such a friendly town.

Bradley County is a "Sanctuary county" soft on illegal immigration and known in the Southeast as the place to go for fraudulent documents, drivers licenses, and other means to live and work in America.

The judicial system is like night and day when compared with Chattanooga under Judge Moon. He calls illegal alien criminals "undersirables" and expresses his dispproval of their presence.

Psalm 91

Oberlin: ‘Illegal aliens’ are not immigrants


By David Davis Managing Editor

Published August 31, 2007 10:02 AM EDT

Noella Oberlin said she has lost her identity as an immigrant. The Cleveland resident, who came to the United States from New Zealand, said Thursday evening characterizing people who enter the country without documents as illegal immigrants is incorrect.

“It is a slap in the face to real immigrants. They have stolen my identity as an immigrant. They have stolen my legal status as an immigrant. They have taken on legal status they did not earn and is not theirs,â€