Thread: Visit a big hit

A BIG HIT

By Christina Chapman
Staff writer

JOLIET — Despite a town hall crowd of 1,300, no one publicly asked U.S. Sen. Barack Obama if he would run for president.

Immigration was one of the topics at the town hall meeting at the University of St. Francis. And the question came from a fifth-grader at Farragut School.

"What do you think about immigration in the U.S.?" 10-year-old Ulises Huitron asked Obama, which was followed by an uproar of applause from the crowd.

"This has obviously been a question that has been on a lot of people's minds," he said. "We've been seeing a lot of advertising about it. It is being used as a political football."

The Illinois Democrat said Americans should remember that most of them are here because someone in their family came here from another country.

"We have to remind ourselves that we came here for the reason people are still trying to come here," he said. "That's for a better life for their children.
"

Obama said the United States has to control its borders. That means security has to be improved, he said, and there need to be employer sanctions and verifications.

Obama said he is introducing a simple way for employers to check if a person is legally able to work here through an employee identification card.

Then there's the question of what to do with the 12 million people who are already here illegally.

The senator said the answer is not to send them home.

"There is a lack of practical realism about that," he said.

These illegal immigrants are homeowners with children who are citizens, Obama said. He suggested granting them citizenship through an 11-year process that would include fines, criminal background checks and learning English. But those here illegally would have to stand in line for citizenship behind those who have legally immigrated to the United States and are in the process of becoming citizens.



An open forum


The meeting was an open forum where Obama chose people randomly from the audience to ask questions. Concerns he addressed included weakening labor unions, political campaigns, Iran and the nation's debt.
A question about labor unions focused on what Obama thought of them and whether they were decreasing in strength.

"Labor unions helped build the middle class in this country," Obama said.

In the last two decades, he said, the unions have grown weak because while corporate profits have increased labor wages have not.

Part of the problem, Obama said, is that companies are moving their manufacturing work outside of the country. To prevent this, tax money needs to be supportive of companies staying in the United States, not the ones moving overseas.

But it is not up to the government to strengthen the unions, Obama said. Union representatives need to make a real effort to work with companies' management to keep profits coming in order to provide increasing wages and salaries.

"Labor unions have to get more sophisticated and think of how to work with management to get the best product for the best price," he said.

Another politician in Will County today, included state Treasurer and Republican governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka, who was in Shorewood for a private fundraiser, a Topinka spokesman said.


- Contact Christina Chapman at (815) 729-6172 or cchapman@scn1.com.

09/23/06

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http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/hera ... S10923.htm

He suggested granting them citizenship through an 11-year process that would include fines, criminal background checks and learning English.

I suggest start packing up his office. He needs to be out working for a living.