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Watertown hosts immigration discussion, protest
By: Anthony Oliveiri 07/14/2005
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The Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control invited Michael Cutler, former INS agent, to be the guest speaker at their immigration meeting at the American Legion in Oakville Tuesday, July 12.

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Mr. Cutler was welcomed to town by a large group of protesters alongside the Kmart parking lot on Straits Turnpike, adjacent to the building where Mr. Cutler was speaking.

Many of the protesters, young and old, waved flags from their homelands and chanted "The people united will never be defeated," as they marched along Bunker Hill Road.

Kit Salazar-Smith, Vice President of the Western Connecticut Central Labor Council and one of the organizers of the demonstration, said the Immigration Control group is shortsighted and is not grasping the concept of true American patriotism.

"Who among us is not a child of immigrants who helped build this country?" she asked. "America is still a great nation, but will it cease to be a great nation if we allow this element of subversives to spread their hateful words and divisiveness, disguised as patriotism.

"They don't care about America, if they did they'd be working on the real problems we face today, like the lack of decent paying jobs for everyone and decent health care and concern for the environment."

However, Mary Long, one of the co-founders of the immigration control group, sees the situation in an entirely different light.

She said the immigration controllers are not against immigration itself, but against illegal immigration. She believes illegal aliens are taking jobs away from legitimate American citizens, with under-the-table jobs that do not get taxed.

"I think it's a slap in the face to people who are here legally," she said. "Illegal immigrants feel they should be treated differently, and it's not right, Americans could be doing these jobs."

The guest speaker at Mrs. Long's meeting, Mr. Cutler, spent 30 years as an INS employee, and 26 of those years as a special agent.

Mr. Cutler echoed the sentiments of others at the meeting when he told the gathered crowd that the United States needs to secure its borders.

He also claimed that President Bush and other government officials do not want to secure the borders because they are making money from the immigrant workers that are coming over the border.

"People will tell you that I am anti-Mexican or anti-Latino," he said. "It just happens to be that over my time I arrested more illegal Israelis in New York than any other agent, does that make me anti-Semitic?

"I just happen to be Jewish."

According to Mr. Cutler, to open your doors to anyone is equivalent to leaving the front door of your house open all night, unaware of who might walk in.

He said he believes the lack of special agents and border control patrollers leads to this country's vulnerability to terrorist attacks and other threats.

He cites only 2,000 special agents and 11,000 border patrol officers to cover the nearly 6,000 combined miles of U.S. border with Canada and Mexico.

"It's the political machinery that does everything in its power to see that the laws do not get enforced," said Mr. Cutler. "Seventy percent of the arrested aliens are told to go where they want to go, once they are apprehended as being illegal, then go see immigration officials once they arrive at their destination."

According to Mr. Cutler, 15 percent do show up at an immigration office, and 85 percent do not.

"Frankly, I think the 15 percent who do go need their heads examined," he said. "Who wants to voluntarily go to someone that might tell them that they are illegal and have to leave?"

Mrs. Salazar-Smith said, the immigrant control group is masking the real issue that American jobs are being exported because large corporations feel that they can make money by paying overseas workers next-to-nothing for their labor.

"When employees of companies like Stanley Works or Pratt and Whitney or IBM lose their jobs, they aren't losing them to immigrants," she said. "The pretty words that the corporations are using, such as downsizing, outsourcing and so forth don't change the fact that Americans are losing good jobs not to immigrants, but to corporations investing outside the United States."

Nichki Carangelo of Waterbury was at the protest to support what Mrs. Salazar-Smith was saying, and to exercise her American freedoms.

"I think it's great that there is something here that everyone can get to," she said. "I think the point of this demonstration is that we need to keep our rights, and if we support causes like this, those rights won't be taken away."

Dennis Finnegan, a representative of the carpenter's union, was at the demonstration to show that not all workers feel that immigrants are infringing on their territory. Many of the carpenters welcome immigrants as co-workers and friends.

"This is America," he said. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It's in the preamble of the constitution. Some of us believe in the dignity of human beings."

Whether in favor of the immigration controllers, or protesting against them, both sides do not agree with how the government is handling the situation.

Mr. Cutler believes the borders should be tightened and the government's eyes must stop turning away from all the illegal aliens streaming into the country, for everyone's safety.

Mrs. Salazar-Smith believes that big corporations, and our government that supports them, should give the jobs to immigrants instead of outsourcing them, for the good of the workers and the economy.

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©Town Times 2005
Reader Opinions:
Erle Carey Jul, 14 2005
Anyone interested in the goings on of illegal immigration and immigration reform should search for Project USA,VDARE,and FAIR. I live in Bisbee Arizona and I've seen groups of twenty or more illegals being detained right on my street. They usually just check them out for injuries or dehydration and drive them back to the border and release them. Many vow that they will come across again. I am not against immigration but it has to be done legally and I am definitely against amnesty for illegals. It was done once and here we go again. It has to stop. Most of our Congressmen seem to turn their heads or bury them in sand when confronted by their constituents desire to do something about this problem. I hope the USA wakes up soon.