Thread: US Rep. Shaw in tight race, holds Lake Worth immigration hea

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/ ... 298278.htm

Posted on Thu, Aug. 17, 2006

US Rep. Shaw in tight race, holds Lake Worth immigration hearing

LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
Hispanic Affairs Writer

LAKE WORTH, Fla. - South Florida officials Thursday blamed businesses who seek cheap labor and hire illegal immigrants of leaving cities with the extra costs associated with this growing, and often poor population.

Officials spoke at an hour-and a half Congressional hearing chaired by U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale. It was one of about two dozen to take place around the country this month as Congress continues working on immigration reform.

"I want you to understand, it isn't so much the immigrants that are the problem, it's the business that use them as cheap labor," said Lake Worth Mayor Mark Drautz. "Business has been taking advantage of those people for a long time."

Drautz said businesses leave cities and counties to foot the bill for health care, schools and crime.

Shaw's seat in South Florida's 22nd Congressional District is one of the nation's few contested Congressional races, with Democrats targeting him for defeat. If re-elected, he is hoping to become head of the Ways and Means committee. Immigration could be a swing issue in the race.

The House-sponsored hearings have sought to draw support from conservative for its immigration bill, which seeks to criminalize the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country and beef up security along the border.

But Hispanics make up about 16 percent of the South Florida coastal district according to 2005 Census data, and more comprehensive data from 2000 shows one out of five of voting-age residents is Hispanic. Democrats are hoping that House's strict immigration bill will galvanize Hispanic voters to head to the polls in November.

Speaker after speaker urged the U.S. government to take an approach to immigration that would go beyond simply tightening the border.

"We have been doing our best to assist these individuals in getting access to the community," said Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, stressing that his officers had worked hard to gain the confidence of the area's illegal immigrants, which he said are often victims of crime because of their fear of going to the police.

Alan Levine, who heads the public North Broward County Hospital District, also said that a lack of insurance from employers contributed to the region's low rate of reimbursement for services. He also cautioned that having health care providers check immigration status could keep people with communicable diseases from getting treatment, which could create a public health problem. Levine urged Congress to pressure other nations to take greater responsibility for providing medical treatment for their uninsured citizens in this country.

Pro-immigrant activists protested outside. Some had asked to be able to speak but were turned away due to time and space considerations although the meeting ended half an hour early and the Lake Worth City Hall room was not full.

U.S. Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., who also attended the meeting and struggled throughout to stay awake, said he found the hearing informative.

"This is a very interesting set of nuances that we got here today," English said, adding that attitudes about immigration appear different in Florida than in other parts of the nation. Florida has one of the nation's largest illegal immigrant population but is also home to many wealthier and politically active immigrants from Cuba and other Latin American countries.

A bipartisan bill passed earlier this year in Senate offers a chance at citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants, and Democrats have accused the Republicans of avoiding an election year vote on the immigration bills by taking the show on the road rather than hammering out a compromise with Senate leaders.

Shaw said the hearings were important because they allowed him and his colleagues to hear perspectives from leaders like Drautz and Bradshaw.

"I think we do need to work out an orderly process for temporary workers, but there's a lot of questions that haven't been addressed," he said. "I don't think anybody has really thought through how the guest worker program is going to work."

The hearing comes as the immigration issues heats up around the country at the local level. Frustrated by inaction in Washington, many cities and states have passed their own measures to restrict or punish illegal immigrants and those who do business with them. On Thursday the city of Palm Bay in Brevard County was set to vote on new ordinances to crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants.

It's all hitting the fan here. The illegals are "pressuring" these candidates in the worst way. They are almost forcing them to turn their backs on the laws of our country and on the legal citizens of our country.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... -news-palm

To sound of protests, panel convenes in Lake Worth to tackle effects of immigration


By Maria Herrera
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

August 18, 2006


Lake Worth· U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw came here to meet with local officials Thursday to hear about the effects of immigration on social services. He heard more than that.

Chants and shouts denouncing Shaw's vote on recent immigration reform carried inside the City Commission chambers, at times almost drowning out speakers.

And though the impact is visible in the city's downtown at mid-afternoon -- Hispanic workers fixed roads, young mothers carrying shopping bags walked near City Hall with children at tow, day laborers waited on corners for work -- local officials spoke graciously of a community that lives mostly in the shadows.

"They are a legitimate workforce," Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. "They provide labor that people here don't want to do."

Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, organized the forum to follow up on a full Ways and Means Committee hearing held in Washington last month. He will take the findings back to Washington.

U.S. Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., joined Shaw and asked panelists how possible proposals would affect local communities.

Panelists were Lake Worth Mayor Mark Drautz; Jupiter Town Manager Andy Lukasik; Palm Beach County School Superintendent Art Johnson; Bradshaw; Paul Barnes, Social Security commissioner for the Atlanta region; and Alan Levine, North Broward Hospital District director.

"Each of the participants has had to deal with the impact of immigration on a daily basis," Shaw said.

Hundreds of day laborers gathering on downtown corners increases the chances of accidents and burdening public-safety forces, Drautz said. Many immigrants carry no identification, and when victimized, they don't report it to police.

Drautz, however, blamed the safety problem on employers and businesses that exploit workers.

"It's greed," he said. "They have been taking advantage of these people for a long time."

If workers were paid more, Drautz argued, they wouldn't need social services. On top of the city's population of 35,000, an estimated 35,000 undocumented immigrants live in Lake Worth, he said. If they had some formal status and formally paid taxes, it would increase the city's tax base and ease some of the burden.

Bradshaw has tried doing that. Through outreach programs, he explained, his office has been trying to furnish undocumented workers with legitimate ID cards so they can have access to banking. Undocumented workers carrying loads of cash frequently are victims of robberies.

"They are referred to as walking ATMs," Jupiter Town Manager Andy Lukasik said.

In Jupiter, the problems are similar. A new neighborhood resource center for day laborers is expected to address some of the safety issues Lake Worth faces, Lukasik said.

The 50 people who attended the forum were not allowed to speak. Shaw's staff, however, took written questions, and he pledged to read them and respond.

About 15 members of several immigrant-rights groups demonstrated outside the meeting, chanting and drumming in protest of Shaw, who voted for a House bill that would have criminalized an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

"Most of them are scared to go find social services," said Christine Jones, who organized the demonstrators. "It's inhumane to deny social services to anyone."

Schools and health care were major points of discussions.

"Even though I intend to testify here today," Johnson said, "my responsibility is to educate the children in front of me, whoever they are."

Levine said the North Broward Hospital District is ethically obliged to treat undocumented immigrants, but cited the high cost of that care.

"The problem of immigration, it relates to when people come into our front door and we can't afford to continue to care for them."

Shaw and English later talked about the challenges of reconciling the House immigration reform bill and the Senate bill, which includes a controversial "guest-worker program" that maps a path toward citizenship.

"I don't see [that] we're going to do more than border protection," Shaw said. And legalizing millions of undocumented workers could create bigger problems, he said.

"Maybe they would take jobs that Americans do want. They're taking low-paying jobs because they're in the shadows, not because they're not capable."

Maria Herrera can be reached at meherrera@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6544.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne ... 300342.htm

Posted on Fri, Aug. 18, 2006


IMMIGRATION
Views vary at Shaw hearing
In a town with a visible undocumented worker population, leaders and candidates debated the best way to regulate immigration.
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD
ebolstad@MiamiHerald.com

LAKE WORTH - For Retha Lowe, there's little distinction between the House and Senate immigration bills, or between guest worker and amnesty programs.

As the vice mayor of Lake Worth, a town with a very visible undocumented worker population and its accompanying problems, Lowe wants practical solutions and she is impatient with Washington politics.

''We're the ones who need to find some answers to how to help people,'' said Lowe, as she waited for an immigration forum to begin Thursday afternoon. ``We're looking for more practical things that can help us right now.''

Thursday, she listened as some of her fellow Palm Beach County political leaders talked about their efforts to tackle problems caused when a community develops a shadow population of illegal immigrants.

The event was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, a Republican who faces a tough reelection bid against well-funded Democrat, state Sen. Ron Klein of Boca Raton. It was held at Lake Worth City Hall, not far from the two streets where day laborers congregate each morning for work in construction and agriculture.

It was also billed as an opportunity for Shaw and one of his colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., to hear from people who were addressing immigration issues locally: the sheriff, the school superintendent, a hospital executive, and local leaders.

DIFFERENT APPROACH

What they heard offered an eye-opening perspective that differed from what he's heard from his constituents to the north, English said.

Rather than treat undocumented workers as people who should be deported, many Palm Beach leaders have tried to absorb the population and find creative ways to support the people who have made the area their home.

For example, the sheriff's office worked with a local bank to help keep migrant workers who are paid in cash from being crime targets. The bank set up bank accounts that don't require Social Security numbers -- or any other documentation proving the account-holder is in this country legally.

''Taking away all those people, well, who's going to do that job?'' said Lake Worth Mayor Marc Drautz. ``The businesses that are using the migrants for cheap labor, they're perpetuating the problem. There are two sides. The cities are being hurt, and the business are making money and walking away.''

Still, many leaders urged Shaw and English to be tough on border protection issues and to consider the financial impact of illegal immigration, especially on healthcare costs.

The forum was open to the public, but only panelists were allowed to speak in the cramped City Commission chambers. Outside, about two dozen people with farmworker and immigrant advocacy groups held a small protest critical of Shaw, who supports the House bill that has no provisions for a guest worker program.

`SHAM HEARING'?

Advocates for the many migrant farm workers who have made Lake Worth their home described the event as a political stunt. ''It's one of many sham hearings designed to scapegoat immigrants for the purpose of political gain,'' said the Rev. Margarita Romo of Farmworker Self Help, and a member of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

Klein's campaign echoed her words.

''We're hearing about it now because it's a wedge issue,'' said Klein's campaign spokesman, Brian Smoot.

The candidates have similar, but not identical, views on immigration. Klein does not support amnesty or a guest worker program, for example. But he is more supportive of a government crackdown on business owners who employ immigrant workers ineligible for employment in the United States, Smoot said.

Shaw said he does not see immigration as a campaign issue, but as a problem to be tackled. It will be as difficult as the welfare reform he championed a decade ago, he said.

''It's work we have to do and it's our responsibility to do it,'' Shaw said.

one out of five of voting-age residents is Hispanic.

AND 4 out 5 aren't!! So, any logical person would surely put their emphasis where it counts!

It's not surprising that they can't even solve simple math equations anymore.