"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 3/27/'06
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 3/27/'06
3/27/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
Immigrants, and those who help them, worry about strict proposals (Columbus Ledger Enquirer)
- Latinos join immigration legislation protest (Red and Black)
Chambliss: Farms need immigrants (AJC)
- Warrior against illegals lives, breathes the issue (AJC)
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http://www.redandblack.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/27/44276b87869da
Latinos join immigration legislation protest
By DeSHAUN HARRIS
Published , March 27, 2006, 06:00:01 AM EDT
Following the state House of Representatives' 123-51 vote in favor of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act Thursday, Latino high school students protested at the Capitol in Atlanta.
A statewide boycott of stores, jobs and schools called a "Day of Dignity" took place Friday. Tens of thousands of workers did not show up to their jobs in protest of the bill, the Associated Press reported.
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State Senate Bill 529 will monitor employers who hire illegal immigrants more closely and place a 5 percent surcharge on money wired out of the country if put into effect.
The bill now waits modification and approval by the state senate.
Martin Ruiz, a junior from Marietta and Students for Latino Empowerment member, did not skip class Friday but he did refrain from shopping.
"We wanted to show everyone what a day without (Latinos) would be like. Who would do the work Americans don't want to do?"
Ruiz, who emigrated from Mexico 10 years ago, said illegal immigrants contribute to the economy, pay taxes and do not receive the same benefits as legal citizens.
While he is a legal immigrant, Ruiz said he also opposes the bill because he has relatives in the United States illegally. In his opinion, people enter the country this way because leaving poor conditions in their homeland is a greater concern than establishing legal residency.
Jeff Emanuel, public relations director for UGA College Republicans, said his group has no problem with immigrants who come to the United States to better their standard of living as long as they do so legally. He feels recent protests are examples of "fear mongering" because many people opposed to SB 529 have not read the actual bill.
"The bill does not take away the right to medical attention, prenatal care or anything like that. It also doesn't take away in-state tuition (for illegal immigrants)— it leaves that up to the Board of Regents," Emanuel said.
As he sees it, the bill is not an anti-immigration bill but rather a way to prevent employers from negatively influencing the job market by hiring illegal immigrants at below minimum wage without tax documentation.
A similar immigration bill passed in the U.S. House (HR 4437) in December that would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally.
As a reaction to federal legislation, more than 10,000 people marched during Thursday's "A Day Without Latinos" in Milwaukee, as estimated by police.
"Our marches are symbolic; they represent unity and strength in our communities," said Claudia Caycho, a freshman from Norcross and Hispanic activist.
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http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/14197325.htm
Posted on Mon, Mar. 27, 2006
Immigrants, and those who help them, worry about strict proposals
By JOHN GUTIERREZ-MIER
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH, Texas — Every week, Mary Beth Albaneze-Garcia hears stories of hope and hardship.
Those stories, she says, draw legal and illegal immigrants to the United States.
Albaneze-Garcia, who offers free legal advice to immigrants in Fort Worth and Dallas, estimates that about 60 percent of her clients are staying in the U.S. illegally.
"As an advocate for immigrants, there is a lot of uncertainty out there," she said.
Now, Albaneze-Garcia and others who provide aid to undocumented residents are worried about legislation, recently passed by the U.S. House, that would crack down on illegal immigration.
The House proposal would have fences built along most of the U.S.-Mexico border, impose new penalties on companies who hire illegal immigrants and make it a felony to be in the country illegally.
The legislation prompted hundreds of thousands of people to demonstrate over the weekend in cities across the country. The Senate is expected to begin debating its version of the bill on Tuesday.
Clergy and nonprofit workers are focused on a provision that would make it a crime to help illegal immigrants with needs such as food, water and clothing. Some said they will consider breaking the law to help the needy.
Immigrants in Fort Worth also have spoken against the bill, saying that if it passes as it stands, it will be harder to find work or receive aid.
The Rev. Georgia Allen, pastor at Polytechnic United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, said the church is obligated to help those who need assistance.
"It's a core Christian value," said Allen, whose church houses a free immigration clinic. "My gut feeling is that the provision is not smart and non-Christian."
North Texas legislators who voted for the bill include Reps. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and Michael Burgess, R-Flower Mound. Neither could be reached for comment.
The Catholic Bishops of Texas recently urged Texas' two senators, Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, to reject the House proposals.
A Hutchison aide said last week there was little chance the Senate would support the provision affecting clergy and other caregivers.
On Sunday, two other Senate leaders said they don't want to turn good Samaritans into criminals.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Thomas Tancredo, R-Colo., interviewed on ABC's This Week, said they would work to make sure that a final immigration bill would not inadvertently punish those offering humanitarian help.
"Nobody is talking about prosecuting anyone for providing ... soup at soup kitchens or a place of rest for somebody who turns out to be an illegal alien," said Tancredo, leader of a coalition of conservative House Republicans calling for rigorous enforcement of existing immigration laws.
Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the House provision "is too broadly stated" and said he would press for changes "to be sure we're not criminalizing people who are providing humanitarian assistance."
If a bill passes in the Senate, differences with the House bill will have to be worked out.
Specter's bill makes illegal immigration a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail. The House bill makes it a felony. Illegal immigration is now a civil offense, punishable by deportation.
A compromise proposal features two provisions supported by President Bush. That plan calls for a temporary guest worker program and a method that would allow those now in the U.S. illegally, estimated by the Pew Hispanic Center at 11.5 million to 12 million, to apply for permanent residency.
If the House provisions become law, said Albaneze-Garcia, attorney-client privileges will protect her from prosecution. But she said she would worry about her volunteers.
"If this passes, I'd expect that few people would want to help," she said.
Imelda Esparza, a naturalized citizen from Mexico, said she'd continue to volunteer at the clinic even if it meant being arrested.
"If I'm arrested and jailed because I helped someone, I'm still not a criminal," she said.
In North Richland Hills, Randy Clinton, executive director of the Community Enrichment Center, which helps the needy, said the legislation poses several problems for caregivers.
"Who ever proposed this in a bill obviously has never worked with the needy," he said. "Quite honestly, [illegal immigrants] will go underground, but the need will still be there."
Immigrants, meanwhile, said they're concerned about other provisions, including a proposal aimed at stopping businesses from hiring them.
At the Fort Worth Day Labor Center just west of downtown, city employees said they don't ask whether those seeking work are U.S. citizens.
Alejandro Rojas of Mexico City said he has been living in Fort Worth illegally for three years. He said much of the work he does is labor that many Americans don't want to do.
"I know that with whatever law is passed, there's going to be more discrimination," said Rojas, 36, who said he left behind a wife and three children because there was no way to support them in Mexico.
Miguel Parcero, 30, of the Mexican state of Chiapas, also seeks work at the center. He has lived illegally in Fort Worth for six years.
"We aren't breaking any laws," he said. "There are still opportunities in the United States. There isn't much of a future in Mexico."
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http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/0327chambliss.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild127=EnYN8p3kBRi02bMHKwULMKYtAVKO1RWSJbyyRZOJVB5tS4TKUDl9!46514656&UrAuth=%60NbNUOaNZUbTTUWUXUWUZTYU^UWU_UbUZUcU_UcTYWVVZV&urcm=y
Chambliss: Farms need immigrants
Senator bucks colleagues on illegals legislation
By BOB KEMPER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/27/06
Washington — Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia is all for locking down the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants. And most of the state's congressional delegation is with him on that.
But as the Senate Judiciary Committee tries today to reach consensus on creating a guest worker program, Chambliss stands apart from many of his Georgia colleagues.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee comes from Moultrie, deep in the South Georgia farm belt. And while Georgia's other senator, Johnny Isakson, insists that the borders must be secure before any guest worker program is created, Chambliss is proposing to make it easier for U.S. farmers to legally bring in Mexican immigrants to work their fields.
Chambliss also wants to grant illegal immigrants already living in the United States temporary legal status, and a chance to become U.S. citizens, if they help bring in the harvest.
His struggle to convince even his closest associates that there are economic benefits to accommodating, rather than shutting out, illegal immigrants is prologue to a broader, election-year debate.
The discussion is expected to dominate the Senate this week if the Judiciary Committee succeeds in reaching an agreement on a guest worker proposal today, meeting a deadline imposed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for producing an immigration reform bill.
When President Bush forced Congress to confront the need for immigration reform and proposed a guest worker program last year, lawmakers' immediate response was to rebuff his proposal as too weak.
Instead, the House passed a measure that would build fences along sections of the 2,000-mile border and punish any individuals or service groups that aided illegal immigrants — taking the debate in what Chambliss views as a regrettable direction.
"It would be a mistake not to do overall immigration reform," Chambliss said in an interview last week. "If all you do is border security then our farmers' produce is going to be rotting in the fields."
Though Chambliss generally is a party loyalist, bucking others in his own party in the name of helping farmers is nothing new. Before running for Congress in 1994, Chambliss was a lawyer specializing in agricultural issues.
He served on the House Agriculture Committee for eight years and, after winning a Senate seat, was given control that chamber's Agriculture Committee last year.
Chambliss has opposed Bush and other party members by refusing to endorse the elimination of subsidy payments to farmers, who he said are at a disadvantage in competing against foreign agricultural concerns that are getting their own government subsidies.
As for his agricultural worker reform plan, the Republican-run Senate has already rejected it once. Isakson — whose voting record generally matches Chambliss' — was among the opponents who voted it down 77-21 after Chambliss offered it as a last-minute amendment to a supplemental budget bill last year.
"It's not a matter of being against something somebody wants to do," Isakson said.
"From the outset, my position has been — and will be — that border security is the first step in comprehensive immigration reform."
Isakson had planned to introduce a bill that bundled border security with guest worker and legal-immigration reforms, but after touring the U.S.-Mexico border last month, he introduced only the border security measure, saying other reforms won't work until the border is secure.
"He's like I am," Isakson said. "He's trying to be part of the debate, and in the end, I hope both of us are."
None of the measures now in play in the Senate provides direct help to farmers, who say the current process for legally hiring immigrant farmworkers is so cumbersome and expensive that it encourages farmers to risk hiring illegal workers.
"I'm for stopping illegal immigration," said Bill Brim, who chairs the immigration committee of Georgia's Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association and who has lobbied intensely in Washington for Chambliss' bill.
"But doing border enforcement first is the wrong way to go," said Brim, who hires about 550 legal migrant workers a year for his Tifton area farm. "If we don't get [agricultural worker reform], it's going to put a lot of us out of business."
Before he again offers his proposal this week, Chambliss faces the daunting task of reaching a compromise with Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), a member of the Senate agricultural appropriations subcommittee who introduced an agricultural worker bill that would make it much easier for illegal immigrants to gain legal status.
Craig's bill has attracted a lot of Democratic support, but many Republicans — including Chambliss — vehemently oppose the provision on illegal immigrants, which they view as amnesty for an estimated 12 million lawbreakers.
What's unclear is whether Chambliss will benefit from the major public relations campaign Bush launched last week, and will continue this week, for a guest worker program.
"This could be a fractious debate, and I hope it's not," Bush said in a news conference. "Immigration is a very difficult issue for a lot of members. It's an emotional issue.
"And it's one that, if not conducted properly, will send signals that I don't think will befit the nation's history and traditions."
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Warrior against illegals lives, breathes the issueCobb man quit job to become full-time activist
By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/27/06
Whether on the streets or in the halls of the Georgia Capitol, fighting illegal immigration is a way of life for D.A. King.
The 53-year-old Cobb County man quit his job selling medical insurance three years ago to become a self-educated activist against illegal immigration. Dismissed as a fringe figure by critics, King has forced his way into an influential role in this year's debate over a legislative crackdown on illegals.
King's style is straightforward, even confrontational. At a rally in 2004 at which illegal immigrants protested in favor of being issued driver's licenses, King — a 6-foot-2, 220-pound Marine Corps veteran — waded through the crowd holding up his own license, taunting demonstrators.
"You are criminals!" King shouted. "You cannot have my country!"
Critics say King uses angry rhetoric to stir up passions. One legislator asked King in a public meeting if he considered himself a supremacist.
But King's allies see him as a smart, articulate and tireless warrior for their cause.
"D.A. probably knows more about this issue than any person in the Southeast," said Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), sponsor of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, which is nearing final passage in the Legislature. "He's been a very helpful information source. And I've never had anything he's given me turn out not to be true."
King said he was drawn into the debate when a Mexican family moved across the street from his home in 1997. King said eventually, up to 20 people were living in the home and multiple cars and loud parties became commonplace. King called federal immigration authorities. He was shocked that federal officials ignored his complaints.
Sen. Sam Zamarripa (D-Atlanta), who has been criticized by King for supporting illegal immigrants, said he understands the frustration many Americans feel toward the issue.
"Ultimately, they're discussing economics, costs, taxes, policy related to immigration," Zamarripa said. "But that's not what D.A. King discusses. D.A. King has a language system that bumps up against hostility, anger, and that's a very dangerous way to approach a discussion that's loaded with sensitivities."
King has spent much of this year working in Capitol hallways and committee rooms advising Rogers on his proposal, Senate Bill 529. King also testified several times on the bill, which would deny many public benefits to illegal immigrants and require employers to verify that their workers are in the country legally if they want to claim them as a business tax deduction.
When King testified before the Senate Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Steen Miles (D-Decatur) asked if he considered himself a supremacist. King told Miles he simply wants the federal government to enforce its immigration laws.
"I don't know the gentleman," Miles said in an interview later. "But the information that I have read from his Web site ... tends to point in that direction."
King believes the federal government should secure its borders to make sure no one crosses into this country illegally. He believes federal authorities should conduct periodic raids of businesses that employ illegal immigrants. Those businesses should be punished, and the illegal immigrants should be deported in accordance with existing laws, he says.
Over time, King reasons, businesses will stop hiring illegal immigrants and the workers will realize there are no jobs in the United States.
King said he realizes there would be a dramatic impact on the economy if all illegal immigrants were deported immediately, so he advocates a slow deportation. He believes American companies would adjust and start paying competitive wages and hiring legal residents, even if it means increased costs.
Last year, King founded an anti-immigration group called the Dustin Inman Society, named for the 16-year-old son of a friend killed in a hit-and-run car crash involving an illegal immigrant.
"I commend him greatly," said Billy Inman of Woodstock, Dustin's father. "The problem overwhelmed him and really bothered him. He don't want to see no other kids done this way. Or nobody. 'Cause it's not right."
King writes regular columns posted on Web sites and published in the Marietta Daily Journal. King often writes about the fear of "Georgiafornia," a takeoff of the anti-illegal immigration name for California, "Mexifornia." After attending a rally in support of illegal immigrants, he wrote in one column, "My first act on a safe return home was to take a shower."
King is a regular contributor to VDARE.com. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, a civil rights organization that tracks hate groups, has dubbed VDARE.com a "hate Web site," and noted King's activities in a report on anti-immigrant activity in Georgia.
In response, King said the center "ran out of ... nutball Klanners to go after" but needed to keep donations flowing, so its founder "turned his head towards people who insist that our immigration laws be enforced and that our borders be secured." King noted the center has been criticized by other human rights advocates for questionable fund-raising tactics.
Zamarripa said he believes King is a shadowy "agent." A September report, put together by several organizations including the Zamarripa-chaired Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, details associations between King and groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Center for Immigration Studies and American Patrol.
"These organizations are not white supremacists with the sort of old-fashioned Ku Klux Klan model," Zamarripa said in an interview. "But these organizations walk a very fine line in getting close to organizations that, historically, I associate with intolerance and bigotry."
King contends that charges of intolerance against him are a desperate act to silence people who are vocal about illegal immigration.
"I say that illegal immigration is wrong, it's bad for my country and I try to stop it," he said. "Here comes the only weapon that they can use. They cannot use the law, they cannot use any facts, they can't back up their argument with anything other then their last line of defense, which is charges of some kind of un-Americanism."
King regularly organizes rallies and has shown up at day labor sites where illegal immigrants wait for work; he takes pictures and asks the men if they are in the country legally. He has complained to companies that allow Spanish as a customer service option.
King acknowledges his aggressive style.
"That is by design. I try very hard to plainly say we have a problem, it will get worse, and here's what it is," King said. "I have watched people sit around the elephant in the living room and talk about the wallpaper."
In 1977, King was convicted on federal gambling charges and sentenced to two years on probation and a fine, according to documents he provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. King said he had worked as a bookie in Alabama for more than two years and got caught in interstate betting on sports.
He said getting punished by the feds is not his motivation for urging the government to enforce immigration laws.
"I violated the law and I deserved to be punished and I was," King said. "But my whole life I had been taught that I am no better or no worse than anyone else. And I cannot accept the fact that there are well-connected wealthy, campaign-donating people who are profiting from federal crime and are not being punished."
King insists he's "just a guy" who would rather be cooking, savoring his wine collection and enjoying the company of his wife of nearly 24 years, Sue.
The price of activism has been high, King said. He said he's blown through his savings and his grandmother's inheritance and maxed out eight credit cards. King said he's not sure how he will make his mortgage payment in May.
Fighting illegal immigration was not part of his plan. He and his wife had planned to buy a home in Sarasota, Fla. Sue was supposed to stop working as a travel agent, and he was supposed to sell insurance part-time.
But the fight has, however, become what King believes is his duty.
"A lot of people are quite willing to sit and assume that somebody else is going to fix it. I never would've guessed that I was the somebody — in my wildest dreams."
DONALD ARTHUR "D.A." KING
• Age: 53
• Lives in: Cobb County, near Marietta
• Quit his job in 2003 to work full time as an activist against illegal immigration.
• Former independent insurance agent and U.S. Marine Corps corporal
• Founder, the Dustin Inman Society, the American Resistance (anti-illegal immigration groups)
• Birthplace: Rapid City, S.D.
• Reared in: Mont-gomery, northern Michigan and the suburbs of Detroit
• Family: Wife, Sue, married more than 23 years
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Erik Voss
erik@ICAtlanta.org
404-457-5901 Direct
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