Debate over Arizona-style law for Florida stirs passions on both sides
By John Lantigua, The Palm Beach Post

11:02 p.m. EST, January 7, 2011
PALM CITY — —
A debate Friday night over the possibility of an Arizona-style immigration enforcement law for Florida was angry and emotional at moments, and in other instances it delved into the details of a complex issue.

The town hall meeting summoned by state Rep. Bill Snyder, R-Stuart, who has proposed such a law, attracted a standing-room-only, overflow crowd of about 300 people to the Cummings Library in Palm City. For two hours, speakers pro and con presented their positions. Both arguments were met with loud applause, whoops and hollers.

Snyder could tell emotions were running high before the meeting began.

"It is rare in Florida that we have an issue that engenders so much passion," he told audience members, begging them to remain civil with each other.

Snyder got his wish, although some of the statements on both sides were heated and provocative.

Jack Oliver, 60, of Martin County, representing Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, a group that favors Snyder's bill, began the night by accusing immigrant advocates of demeaning many members of the American public.

"Those who want safe borders and laws enforced are called racist," Oliver said. "That would make 75 percent of Americans racist. Political correctness, the race card, is now the intimidation tool used by the pro-illegal-alien activist."

"It is our mission to encourage state and local governments to protect their cities by enacting and enforcing law regarding illegal aliens," Oliver said.

Snyder's bill would do just that, allowing state, county and law enforcement agents to inquire about the legal status of people they stop and to turn them over to federal authorities if they are in the U.S. illegally. It also would punish employers who hire undocumented workers.

Betzy Rega, 48, of Jupiter, originally from Guatemala but a U.S. citizen who has lived in this country 44 years, answered.

"I was married to an Anglo ex-police officer and I heard many stories about rogue cops and the things they know how to get away with, just under the radar," she told the crowd. "Racism is alive and well in this country and we don't need laws condoning it."

She said Snyder's law "will make it legal to harass, profile and disrespect innocent citizens for one purpose and one purpose only: to appease the racists in this country.

"To make it illegal to help another human being by transporting or giving him or her a job will make us as a nation look like Nazi Germany," Rega said.

"It is clear that brown skin is not equal under your laws," she said to Snyder.

But some other speakers concentrated on details.

People mentioned that Arizona had suffered decreases in tourism after passing its law in April: a loss of $140 million alone in convention business, according to opponents of Snyder's bill. They said Florida can't afford that.

But a supporter of the measure, Bill Summers, roused other supporters, saying he had recently come from Arizona.

"Let me tell you Arizona is flourishing," Summers said. "Motels and hotels are full."

"These illegal immigrants in this country are breaking the law," he added to loud applause.

David Weber, a blueberry grower who drove from Winter Haven, warned Snyder that his bill could seriously hurt Florida agriculture, which depends on undocumented workers for most of its labor.

"Your bill in its present form will punish farmers for the federal government's failure" to implement the needed foreign-worker programs, Weber told Snyder. He encouraged Snyder and others to support the AgJobs bill, a measure that would legalize agricultural workers.

John Bozzetto, 31, of Palm Beach Gardens, traced the anger with immigrants among some Americans to the lack of jobs and what he said was confusion over the cause of that.

"Here's a hint," Bozzetto said. "It isn't illegal immigration."

Bozzetto then gave figures on the demise of the U.S. manufacturing sector, which he said had decreased by more than half in the past two decades as firms moved operations overseas.

Various speakers, some pro and some con, mentioned the arrival of their own families from Europe in decades past.

Some of the supporters of Snyder's bill voiced complaints that were strictly local. They complained about crowded immigrant housing and the deterioration of local neighborhoods due to the influx of illegal immigrants.

Stephanie Loomis, 56, and Carol Caso, 54, of the Golden Gate neighborhood in Stuart, spoke before the meeting about local problems.

"We have a lot of illegal immigrants and we also have problems with trash in the streets, drugs, drunkenness, prostitution, loitering and gangs," Loomis said. "We have crime all around us."

She supports Snyder's bill, but also called for the Martin County Commission to pass a nuisance abatement law that would deal with those local issues.

The federal government was criticized all night. Many people said they didn't believe state or local resources should be used to pay for immigration-related enforcement that they feel is the duty of the U.S. government.

People in favor of Snyder's bill said the federal government had failed by not securing the nation's borders. People against the bill said Congress had failed by not passing comprehensive immigration legislation that would lead to legality for many illegal immigrants.

Near the end of the session, attorney Maria Soledad Zequeira, of Martin County, had a suggestion.

"Go back to the feds and force them to do their job," she said. "That is one thing everyone agrees on."

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